Ole familia y Amigos!
Como estan? I am doing well. I have been a missionary for 5 weeks now. I feel like I have been here forever but at the same time, I know it will be coming right up when I am leaving for Paraguay. On my way to Paraguay! In 3 weeks! My departure date is set for April 11th. Mom, thank you for telling me about the clearance form. My teacher says they have no problem sending missionaries to Paraguay because no one goes there! So they don't usually have visa problems. And I will be calling you from the airport. Guess what? My birthday is in three weeks and I get to email you on my birthday! I am so excited because it's a P-day so it will be lots of fun- going to the temple, eating in the temple cafeteria (which we did today and we all really liked it) and having a picnic party outside for lunch. I am just really looking forward to it. My comp asked if I was excited to have a birthday in the MTC and I was like "of course!" I never thought I would get that opportunity.
So highlights of the week:
- I gave a talk in Spanish on Sunday. Can you believe it? Every week we all prepare a talk (the whole district- like 35 missionaries) and then they choose two missionaries and don't tell them until Sacrament Mtg. I had a feeling I would be speaking all day so when they called me I wasn't surprised. There are only 5 sisters who are fluent enough in Spanish to do it and one had already spoken. Anyway, it was on baptism. I talked about how beautiful my little sister Jenna looked on the day of her baptism all dressed in white- a symbol of purity, cleansed from sin. It made me happy to think about her and talk about how proud I am of the decision she made.
- So my teacher Hna. Ortega is from Argentina and Argentinian's always say a "shh" sound instead of a "y" sound. For example, llamo, or name is said like "shamo" instead of "yamo." And so now I talk like an Argentinian. I like it. I have heard that Paraguayian's are really LOUD when they speak and they have kind of a different accent. Haha. They say their "ll" in between a "shh" and a "j" sound. I am so excited to sound like a Paraguayian. My teacher also knows my mission president because he is from Argentina and they are family friends. She said that walking into his house was like walking into a temple- that he is a very spiritual man and he loves music. That makes me SO happy. Also, my branch president owns Kneader's, which is a bakery in Utah. If you go to BYU, you know it because they have $5 unlimited french toast which is awesome.
-We got leadership in our district and zone. Elder Labra, the Aussie, is now our district leader and Elder Bigelow and Elder Wilkins are now the leaders of the whole zone. It is so cool to see them accept their new leadership roles and rise to the occasion. We are pretty proud that the zone leaders are from our district. It was quite the event- we all made bets on who it would be- the winner had to get the other person dinner- which consists of taking it from the counter in the cafeteria and giving it to the person. We missionaries have to entertain ourselves.
I am so sorry to hear about Japan. We haven't seen any footage but we have heard it is terrible. We are all praying for them.
I love this Gospel. How grateful I am for the opportunity to share the good news with my brothers and sisters. Everyday the gospel brings peace into my life, even if times are tough. Through prayer and scripture study, I feel closer to my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I am grateful to be a missionary and feel so blessed to have the Gospel in my life.
1 Nephi 15:24-25 "And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments, always in all things."
I love you family!! I love you all.
Hermana Brittner
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