"It is such a sacred honor and privilege to wear Christ's name on my chest every single day. How amazing is that."

Some shots from our temple walk our first Sunday here! 

Love me some Sister Johnson!

Hey y'all!

Como vai (what's goin' on/what's happenin/what's shakin'? In Meg speak that's the translation I'll give ya) holy parentheses usage, ha, I apologize folks. Hope everything is going swell por todos (all y'all) missin' ya and praying for ya todos os dias aqui no CTM!

I wanted to start out by doing a little bit of some showin' off. Because yeah, haha, Sister E wants to show off the little bit of good ole Portuguese she knows.. 

Vi um pilar de luz, acima de minha cabeza mais brilliante que o sol que descia gradualmente sobre mim. quando o luz pousou sobre mim, vi dois personages cujo esplendor y gloria desafiam qualquer descricao, parando no ar acima de mim um deles falou-me chamando pelonome e disse, apontando para o outro- este e meu filho amado: ouve-o! 

Bam. Roasted. Haha this right here folks is the First Vision in Portuguese. So if all I hear is blahblah huyuefyhahdui randomness over in Cape Verde and my mind goes absolutely blank, this aqui (here) will be my fall back. pretty brilliant right? haha. 

The language is coming slowly but surely. Cannot wait for the day when I'm just straight up fluent. dia por dia, day by day i know it'll come. the gift of tongues can be mine or (dom de linguas)

Wanted to share some things we've had the privilege of hearing from different speakers we've had. Its like a new celeb's in town around here two times a week! Tuesday nights and Sunday nights we have devotionals given by the brethren and they all just rock. Love them to death. Talk about men called of God. It's like Christmas twice a week ha we love it. 

So this past week we heard from Elder Guodoy of the 70 he's the one who spoke in MY language, good ole Portuguese, in General Conference. Stellar guy haha and oh my heck he's HILAR you guys! He's very fluent in Portuguese AKA his English is very, very broken ha but it was soo cute because he struggled at times but he totally embraced it and just tried to play charades as best he could. 

We had a lot of fun with it. His talk was ooober powerful. In English there's not a tonnnn I could write about it, but you best believe I understood it in Portuguese woot woot. I want to share from Elder Larry Lawrence though if that's okay. He and his wife are from California originally, and wowzerz, that man is genius. 

He had so so many powerful things to share! He talked about the tactics Satan uses to try and bog us all down and talked about how we can protect ourselves. we can always count on Satan to lie to us, but the amazing thing is that the holy ghost will ALWAYS tell us the truth. We need to constantly strive to have the spirit with us in all we do and say. he said quote: Satan trembles when he sees even the weakest saint on his knees! So, so powerful. We all have the power to call upon the powers of heaven. Our heavenly father is always going to be there, but its up to us to call upon him. We must call upon him "Even in our darkest hour!" I know this to be true. 

The MTC pulls you and breaks you down in so many ways you never even thought possible. Haha, Sister E has seen it and felt it. But the amazing thing is, we don't have to do this alone! our Savior walked the path alone so that we didn't have to! The atonement is real, there isn't a thing it can't cover. The love He has for us is incomprehensible, so we must always be doing whatever we can to strengthen our relationship with our Savior. Our father in heaven WANTS to bless us, he WANTS us to succeed. 

We need to learn to humble ourselves and realize that this journey here on life wasn't meant to be journeyed alone. He also said that the lord is the only one who knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, so don't let Satan in on your thoughts through negative thoughts and ill words that we speak. Don't let him win. Satan's armies know that their days are numbered, so they are going to do ALL that they can in the time they have to bring us down and make us feel miserable. but always remember: the armies of God are larger than the armies of Satan. ALWAYS. 2/3 of us chose His plan, the plan of happiness. so let us show our valiance and remain faithful,.."Even unto the end." 

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL SO SO MUCH. And I know I will learn to love it in Portuguese com tempo (with time) haha. Just keep me in your prayers y'all. It is such a sacred honor and privilege to wear Christ's name on my chest every single day. How amazing is that. And even though you all don't wear a badge, you are STILL a disciple of Christ. You can help bring souls unto Christ every single day in the way you lead your life. Be the example. Be the ones people look to. 

We are apart of God's army, so lets strengthen our numbers and bring in more troops! MUITO AMOR FROM SISTER E (p.s. it's hilar because I swear half the people I know if you were to ask them my name is literally Sister E and nothing more... trying to keep things simple for the missionaries round here, just lookin' out for them ha Eliason is far too hard to remember). Keep the faith, xoxoxo

Com amor, 

Irma Eliason