Saturday, October 6, 2012

2012.10.6 "My First E-Mail Home!"


Ola minha familia!!
 
I have been super cheesy and labeling all of my first everythings, like this first email home.
 
Holy Conference Batman! Reduced age for missionary service?! The whole room was pretty excited to hear that. I saw some fist pumps through out the audience and the excited whispering was only almost matched  when Pres. Eyring announced that Pres. Uchtdorf would be the next speaker. The MTC as a whole was pretty outspoken about their excitement about certain things. We actually already have a few Elders in our district who are 18. They are from England (as is my companion) and the age limit there has been 18 for a while.
I really feel like I am having the best start to my mission that I could possible have hoped for. And speaking of my companion, she is great. I really feel like I have been so lucky to have a wonderful district and companion of hard-working genuine missionaries who really have strong testimonies and live them.  It seems like each of them is giving it their all, whatever that might be and it really makes the Spirit so strong in our lessons and study time. We have some goals to work on as a district and we have just had a lot of fun all together so far. It really makes things great when we are working too.
We had to give our first lesson in Portuguese yesterday. It's so crazy! I did not expect that we would be giving a lesson to an "investigator" on our 3rd day in the MTC, but we did! and I am here to tell you that the gift of tongues is real! Not like me or my companion all of a sudden started spouting off all kinds of Portuguese without noticing, but we were able to communicate what we were trying to communicate and we were able to feel the Spirit. I also gained the beginning of a testimony of how powerful a companionship working together can be. My companion's name is Sister Warburton and we have gotten along really well from the first day. And by the time we went into that lesson I feel like we had both had a chance to listen to each other, to plan together and to just be friends in a way that allowed us to really work together to communicate what we were trying to. So I am looking forward to learning more and getting better at working with her. Another thing that we have really been learning in the last few days is how important it is to really live worthy of having the Spirit with you and really trusting that Heavenly Father knows what He is doing with you and that He's got your back. That He really is guiding you to the things you need to learn and study and do whether you realize it or not. And that as we follow those promptings, that is when we really can be successful in doing His work and becoming the people He wants us to be.  Do I sound like a cheesy missionary yet? Cause I sure as heck feel like one. And I don't even mind it 99.9% of the time. :)
 
AH! I don't type fast enough.
Also. Conference! What a way to start off your time in the MTC. I especially loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. Mom always says a mission is like a little mini life. And so it seemed like that talk was instructions on how to avoid the biggest regrets I would have at the end of my mission. 1. putting people before tasks and accomplishments. 2. not living up to your potential/ not becoming the person/missionary that God wanted you to be. 3. Not enjoying the happiness right in the middle of it. I feel like that session of conference (that we just had) was like a mini conference all about missionary work.  
 
I also really loved Elder Nelson's. Cause we are trying to learn how to simply and truthfully teach the gospel and testify of it. Well, what better example of a perfect simple lesson than Elder Nelson's teaching and testimony from the pulpit. Apostle's are pretty good at teaching. :) I also loved the long list that he gave of things to go ask the missionaries about. We realized as we were sitting there that those are the questions that we need to learn how to answer in Portuguese. 
 
Well that's all for now. My timer is ticking down.
 
For future reference, my p-day is Friday and I don't think that missionaries do sessions with everyone else.
Also, I need Jeremy's email. And probably everybody else's just in case.
 
Much love from the MTC,
 
Sister Lofgreen
 
P.S. I love that Will has been reading his scriptures! You are so awesome Will! I am so proud of you!
Also, everyone better write me about what they've been up to! Dearelders are so great! we get them every day! *ahem* hannah *ahem*
k bye for reals.

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