Wow, so many things happened this
week...not quite sure how I´m going to organize this into a cohesive
email, so bare with me :) Also, my English has definitely started to
deteriorate, so forgive me Mary ;)
Sad things that happened this week: Sunday
night, we heard an announcement that Elder Bush needed to go to the
information desk immediately (Elder Bush is our elder who is quiet,
funny, and super sweet). We all had to go back to our residence hall, so
we didn't get to find out what it was about, but we figured he had
gotten his VISA, so we were happy for him, but pretty bummed to be
losing one of our beloved elders. In the morning, we found out that
Elder Bush's dad died of a heart attack. It was a pretty emotional day
for all of us. We've all grown super close, and seeing him suffering was
way hard. The hardest part was probably not being able to hug him and
comfort him in our usual way. Instead, we fasted, made him lots of
cards, cheered him up, bought him candy, and tried to just be there for
him. It was a long day yesterday, but we all bonded even more as a
District. My companion, Sister Moss, was able to comfort him a lot
because her mom died of a stroke two months ago. Elder Bush is doing
really well, and we're all taking good care of him. He can feel his dad
with him, and he's got a lot of supportive people here. Please keep him
and his dear family in your prayers.
Crazy, yet
awesome, things that happened this week: Sister Moss and I went into
our second lesson with Jussara, planning to teach her about The Plan of
Salvation. When we followed up with her commitment to pray, however, she
told us that when she tried to pray, and evil spirit came into her
house and started knocking things over, and that she never wanted to
pray again. Sister Moss and I were shocked; we were not expecting this.
Regrettably, we laughed, which was a terrible way to respond, but a
natural response to the awkwardness of the situation. However, what
happened after that was amazing. We both had to completely rely on the
Spirit to guide this unexpected lesson (in Portuguese). We both
immediately had the same thoughts. We told her that Satan doesn't want
her to pray because he knows that when she prays, she will be able to
feel the love of God and the promptings of the Holy Ghost. We opened our
scriptures to the account of Joseph Smith's First Vision, and the evil
spirit that he felt when he first began to pray. She loved his story,
and we promised her that if she would continue to pray, God would
overpower any evil and answer her prayers. She recommitted to try
praying!! The Spirit was so strong :) Funny side note: at the end of the
lesson, we asked her to pray for us, and as she was praying, a bunch of
noisy elders started mooing down the hall...she asked, "Evil spirits??"
and we simply replied, "No, just stupid boys." Luckily, she believed us
:)
A couple funny things that happened this
week: Irma Read was showing us pictures of her wedding, which was about a
month ago (so cool!), and she was pointing out her many sisters in a
picture with a bunch of women. With each sister she pointed out, she
would say "Ela and Ela and Ela and Ela..." Ela means "her" in
Portuguese, but Sister Walton got confused and blurted out "They're ALL
named Ella??" We all laughed hysterically, and she finally got it :)
Another funny Portuguese moment happened when we were practicing the
verb "Dever," which means "Should." The teacher would ask us a question
and we were supposed to respond with an answer and explanation. The
teacher turned to me and asked "Should the Elders exercise?" I didn't
want to be rude, so of course I replied no, but I had to provide an
explanation as well, so I ended up saying something like, "Nao, nossos
Elderes nao devem exercisio, porque nossos Elderes sao perfeitos," which
interpreted means, "No, our Elders shouldn't work out because our
Elders are perfect." Everyone laughed and my face went the shade of a
ripe tomato and they have not let me forget about it :)
Awesomeness:
Our Elders were tossing around a roll of tape after gym, and as it
whizzed by my head, I reached up and caught it one handed. I turned
around stunned, and everyone freaked out (porque they know that I never
catch anything). It was an awesome moment.
In
other news: I got called as the music coordinator in my ward (shocker, I
know) so I'm in charge of bugging people every week to play the piano,
lead the music, or give a special musical number. It's pretty fun! This coming Sunday,
Sister Moss, Elder Payne, Elder Christiensen, and I are performing an a
capella version of "Nearer My God to Thee" with all four parts in
sacrament meeting and we're pretty excited about it!
To answer some of the questions I keep getting asked...
1)
No, not all the people in my district are going to the same mission.
I'm the only sister in the MTC right now going to my mission, but Elder
Bush is coming with me!! The other members of my district as going to
Santa Maria, Masseo (sp?), and Porto Alegre (sp?). We have a bunch of
people in our zone (branch) who are going to Mozambique or Cape Verde
(Africa) speaking Portuguese. They're speaking a slightly different
dialect, but we can all understand each other.
2)
I have sung in the MTC choir, yes! It was fun, but it takes a lot of
time and my companion doesn't love it, so we're only gone twice. We do
get to sing with the whole MTC at devotionals, though, so that is pretty
cool! They have different lyrics for a couple of the hymns that center
around missionary work, so that's always fun to sing.
3)
Yep, Elder Bingham and Sister Bradley are now gone! But I got to see
them quite a bit, so that was cool! I have yet to see Elder Burgoyne.
And Elder Hudak comes in tomorrow!! I might be his host!
4)
Yes, we have a ton of awesome speakers here! No general authorities
yet, but the speakers have all been really great :) I'm lucky to be
here!
P.S. I included the urinals part because Sister Moss and I had to clean a
bunch or urinals for service this week...it was surprisingly fun."
