As of today, I'm officially one week from leaving for Cape Verde! It's so wild how quickly the time has passed, I can't believe we're already leaving! Our current travel plans have us set to leave from the Salt Lake City International Airport on Monday morning, then we fly to Amsterdam to Portugal to Cape Verde. It'll be roughly 32 hours of travel, so that's fun. That's assuming I have my visa and can go immediately to my mission, but unfortunately I won't find out if I have it or if I've been reassigned until later this week. Here's to hoping. We're pretty sure a couple people in our district don't have visas and will be reassigned, so that's rough and a bit stressful but the work is the same no matter where you go.
Goodbyes are too hard. This week me and my companions got to talking about how on the mission, you just kind of make family wherever you go. I have bonded with my district in this past five weeks more than I ever could've guessed. It never occured to me that I could love these people so much. They have really become family to me, even if the Elders low-key are punks. We've laughed, we've cried and it feels like we've been together for a lifetime. Despite how quickly time has passed here, we've become so close. I guess that's just what happens when you spend your every waking moment with people. Leaving for all our different missions next week is going to be so hard, I can't even imagine how difficult the goodbyes will be, but I'm so happy for them and proud of these amazing Sisters and Elders. On the bright side, Sister Forsyth is stuck with me even if we get new companions.
I'm a little short on time, so a couple of quick stories:
-We had an awesome devotional from Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy, which was amazing and I'll include a few notes/ quotes from it in a moment.
-English Fasting: never seems to last the entire day but slowly our SYL (speak you language) percentages are improving.
-"Missions are for life" is possibly the most awe-inspiring MTC talks ever, I can't decide if I like it or "Character of Christ" more. So much amazing content.
-Sister Howell nearly died choking on some salad and Elder Rolfe nearly died laughing at her. Luckily both are alive and well.
-We had a Skype TRC this week too with a guy from Brazil, he was super nice even though the lesson was kind of a mess.
-Went on our final Temple Trip this morning. Unfortunately it's going to be about seventeen months before I get to go again because there is no temple in Cape Verde.
-We had an awesome devotional from Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy, which was amazing and I'll include a few notes/ quotes from it in a moment.
-English Fasting: never seems to last the entire day but slowly our SYL (speak you language) percentages are improving.
-"Missions are for life" is possibly the most awe-inspiring MTC talks ever, I can't decide if I like it or "Character of Christ" more. So much amazing content.
-Sister Howell nearly died choking on some salad and Elder Rolfe nearly died laughing at her. Luckily both are alive and well.
-We had a Skype TRC this week too with a guy from Brazil, he was super nice even though the lesson was kind of a mess.
-Went on our final Temple Trip this morning. Unfortunately it's going to be about seventeen months before I get to go again because there is no temple in Cape Verde.
And finally a few quotes/ thoughts from this week:
-Missionary work was never meant to be easy because salvation is not cheap. -- Jeffrey R. Holland
-We have the authority of God, act like it.
-This is God’s work and God’s glory, so we have to do it his way.
-You cannot bring them the significance of salvation without bringing some of the struggle and suffering of Christ with it.
-If we are going to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and preach his gospel, we need to be prepared to walk some of the path he did, pay a token of the price he paid. It is supposed to take part of your soul. Why should it be easy for us when there was never an easy way for him. (not exact quotes, but part of the Jeffery R. Holland’s talk "Missions Are Forever".)
-We thrive on opposition...We become stronger with resistance.
-Become the message you are sharing.
-The Lord works much more with the people who want it than the people born with it.
-Purify yourself until your only motivation is love.
-His work is so important that is takes trials to gain the experience to teach it. (All these notes and quotes were from the devotional given by Elder Patrick Kearon.)
-Bless me with the trials I need to become your missionary (the- what has now become mandatory- Elder Wilson quote).
-Missionary work was never meant to be easy because salvation is not cheap. -- Jeffrey R. Holland
-We have the authority of God, act like it.
-This is God’s work and God’s glory, so we have to do it his way.
-You cannot bring them the significance of salvation without bringing some of the struggle and suffering of Christ with it.
-If we are going to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and preach his gospel, we need to be prepared to walk some of the path he did, pay a token of the price he paid. It is supposed to take part of your soul. Why should it be easy for us when there was never an easy way for him. (not exact quotes, but part of the Jeffery R. Holland’s talk "Missions Are Forever".)
-We thrive on opposition...We become stronger with resistance.
-Become the message you are sharing.
-The Lord works much more with the people who want it than the people born with it.
-Purify yourself until your only motivation is love.
-His work is so important that is takes trials to gain the experience to teach it. (All these notes and quotes were from the devotional given by Elder Patrick Kearon.)
-Bless me with the trials I need to become your missionary (the- what has now become mandatory- Elder Wilson quote).
-Sister Bradley
The joys of studying.
The three musketeers.
Look, we're so cute and matchy.
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