Thank you thank you for the tennis shoes, socks, letters, etc....they are perfect! Those ARE the right shoes, mom, thank you so much. Where did you find my glasses? Oh also, I got my backpack from the sister missionary mall---love it!!
Dad, I got your letter about your trip to Italy. Sure sounds derricious :) I loves all the details about the views of the Alps and Greenland from your window. I miss you Poppalops! Speaking of Greenland, there's an elder here from there and he joined the church in Denmark when he was there for school. I asked how big the church is in Greenland and he just held up four fingers...not including himself. Crazy, eh? Also, there's a sister from Jordan that I met in the bookstore the other day. I guess her dad joined the church because he met some humanitarian missionaries there and he started asking about the church. Cool. Something else kind of interesting, she told me that all the Christian Jordanians added "ian" to their last names during some Turkish genocide something (I was having a hard time hearing her---it was a little loud in the bookstore) to distinguish themselves, so her last name must have been Sultan because now it's Sultanian.
Gah!!! I'm leaving tomorrow! I can't believe it! There's so much to do...man alive. I had to say goodbye to Hermanas Font and Mitchell way too early this morning, and I miss them tons already, but I'm companions with my friend Hermana Jensen for today, so we're taking good care of each other. It's so strange only having one companion--it sure makes potty breaks quicker though!!
So this week for our devotional, we sang in the choir and we did a song called "Ever Be Near Us Lord" by David R. Naylor--It's AMAZING. I'm finding out that I have a pretty deep affinity for American Folk hymns. Thanks a bunch, padres.
Also, I heard something hilariously excellent the other day: "complexity is of the devil". It's funny to think about in terms of teaching the Gospel, because it's really so simple, but if we get sidetracked and start pulling in doctrine from random places, it doesn't make sense anymore and it's harder to feel the Spirit.
So Sunday was a really big day. Every weekend, the missionaries in our branch have to write a talk about a specified theme for that week (this week was about faith) and they'll choose someone at random to speak for 5 minutes (good prep for wards where they'll call up the missionaries to speak when the assigned speakers fail to show up ). They almost always choose a sister and an elder from the district that's leaving, so we knew it was going to be someone from our companionship. Lo and behold, the first counselor in the branch presidency kept on smiling at me through the announcements and the sacrament, so I decided I'd better review my talk again. So anyway, I got called up, gave a talk that taught me A TON about faith, and THEN I sang with Hermanas Font and Mitchell with Hermana Jensen playing piano and THEN I was asked to say the closing prayer in Relief Society (the church-wide women's organization). But for Relief Society, they have EVERY sister (presidency wives included) in the auditorium and usually some kind of General Authority Sister come speak, so I got to chat with Sister Rosemary Wixom (General Primary President (children's Sunday school)) and she gave a phenomenal talk about Christlike love. Her husband was so sweet, I shook both their hands (well, hugged sister Wixom,) and her husband said " Ya know, we just love sister missionaries. We think they are absolutely shazam!" They're adorable!
Ok, so here's the journal entry that led to my talk, I hope it makes sense:
" So last night we read Ether 12 (in the Book of Mormon) for companionship study, and verse 18 struck me as very interesting. It says, in effect, that no miracle has been performed until after one had faith, and they first had to believe in the Son of God. I started thinking about faith being a principle of action and power and how this principle tied into the content of some Large Group Meetings we'd had about setting goals and about having both desire and vision be integral parts of a goal. Without a plan of action, it's not faith or even a goal, it's just a wish. That got me thinking about the various miracles that have been performed throughout history: social, technological, philosophical, etc. and how those individuals' faith would have been tested. I came to the conclusion that their plan and action was what made them different from others. Once they made a plan, they ceased to be merely philpsophers and became men and women who really made a difference in the world. But I was still confused as to how that would have to be based in their faith in Christ I rememebered what my teacher Hermano Anderson had said about there being absolutely no hope without Christ. Without the Savior we have no means by which we can return to live with Heavenly Father, and we therefore have no purpose on this earth. And if we have no purpose, everything we do in this life would be entirely futile. There would be no progression, no point to making goals, plans, or to hope. Therefore all hope MUST come because of the Savior, whether we acknowledge it or not. It is because of Jesus Christ that we have a purpose and a plan, and work to better ourselves and our world. So THEN I thought more about faith being the initiator, perpetuator, and end result of obedience and trust in Heavenly Father's promises, and I wondered where faith comes from if we have never experimented upon His word and had those experiences of trials of our faith. Where does that intial motivation and determination and hope come from to get us started on growing our faith? I remembered that scripture about faith coming from (or at least growing from---I didn't have time to look it up) hearing others' testimonies."
My talk ended up sounding a lot more eloquent, and in Spanish, but there's the general gist of one of the major things on my mind this week.
I love you I love you,
I get to talk to you tomorrow from the airport! Keep your cell phone on!!
Love you more than all the snow we got this morning!
Hermana B.
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