this is the letter from Feb. 27
Hola Familia! turns out the enter button doesn´t work on these
computers so you´ll have to enjoy this long, on going paragraph. just
a word of advice for letters while i´m in the MTC, it is faster to
send through dearelder.com and it´s free & gets to me faster. My first
friend that i met in the airport was Hermana Skousen from Mesa, AZ.
She is 19 and beautiful. We both dance when we get the chance. My
companion´s name is Hermana Belnap from Liberty, UT and she is a
sporty girl. We have become super close and the Lord has allowed us to
strengthen each other´s testimonies. My teacher´s name is Hermana
Garrido and she´s a little firecracker. My companion and I taught our
first investigator our 2nd day here! His name is José and we have
taught him 3 times now. We have set his baptismal date for March 15th!
We have taught him in Spanish twice now, but we taught our first
Spanish lesson on Wednesday morning to a family who traveled 3 hours
from Zacapa to come to the temple! There are 8 Hermanas and 3 Elderes
in my district; 2 of those Elderes have been called as the District
Leader and Zone Leader. They are excelling at those assignments. There
is a Latino Elder who walked past our class one day and caught me
dancing (typical of me), and now every time he sees me at meals, he
says "dancing!!!" There is a Latina Hermana named Hermana de León who
has become my friend. I feel confident speaking to her in Spanish
because she is confident speaking English to me! During the afternoon
we have deportes (sports) where a few Hermanas and I have been running
around the MTC grounds practicing our Spanish. I have now successfully
memorized Joseph Smith´s First Vision, the first lesson we teach the
investigators, prayers, and my testimony in Spanish. I´ll go ahead and
say i´m doing pretty darn well with this language thing. Church in
Spanish is....different, and they randomly choose missionaries to
speak in church as it´s beginning, so i´ve had to prepare lessons for
every week. SO... all in all, things are great. I think this is a
different kind of "hard" than i expected. I want yáll to know that I
pray for you each by name every night as i kneel next to my bed. I
also had your names put on the prayer roll here in the Guatemala City
temple. The church announed 58 new missions in the world, and I am so
grateful to be a part of this wonderful work! In every temple, there
is the same picture of Christ asking the rich, young man to give up
everything he has to come and follow Him. As i sat and pondered on
that picture this morning in the temple, i realized that there are
people here in central america that have to sacrafice so much just to
come here and partake of the blessings of the temple. I think of my
mission the same way. Sure, i´m sacraficing a little of my time and
energy and comfort of my friends and family back home, but i know that
my life will be blessed and i will see the harvest of blessings in due
time. In Isaiah chapter 40 i read this week that "Behold, [her] reward
is with [her], and [her] work before [her]." This is true, my friends.
I am so grateful that God loved me enough to send His Son, and also to
restore His church through the dilligent and faithful servant Joseph
Smith. I know few things, only a few, but I actually know: I know that
I am a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am here to love
God´s children. I also know that I cannot lead those children to the
waters of baptism without getting wet myself. I am a daughter of my
loving Heavenly Father, and i am safe in His arms. I love you all.
"Freely ye have received, FREELY GIVE!" Matthew 10:8
