We are like in our own little spiritual world set apart from everything...I know the Lord wouldn't want me to be anywhere else but here...

District 7C!

Ola Meu Familia! 

How goes it y'all? Or I guess in meu language here at the MTC and for the rest of my mish life ha we say como vai? For starters I've just gotta say holy Toledo this MTC thing is...so stinkin' awesome! Def not like anything I've ever done before haha. We are like in our own little spiritual world set apart from everything. Which is both crazy weird to think about but crazy AWESOME. I know the Lord wouldn't want me to be anywhere else but here in such a sacred, dedicated place. 

There are still adjustments I'm having to make such as um saying "hey guys!" aint' allowed. We are all elders and sisters here so we have to drop the blessed slang stuff. It will come, it will come. Con tempo... Haha. Oh, and the gals in my dorm with me (I guess I should say sisters but shh) sometimes find ourselves singing all these Disney songs while we are getting ready in the mornings. 

Like this morning for me and Sister Cordner (shes from Alpine & we totes went to Timberline middle together) it was cheetah girls and singing our favorite song from the second movie "strut like ya mean it!" Ha we will have to fix that for next week since we are all trying to tell ourselves we're going on an English fast AKA no English and just straight up #PORTUGUESE.. yeah. We reach for the stars here at the MTC. Haha but yeah, definitely gonna need some prayers on my behalf next week as we try to conquer this blessed English fast. Gah. 

So here's for Papa E as he sent me some bullet points to answer because we all know my writing and responses can be all over the place. So I will do my best to answer all your ever so wanting to know questions and hopefully it'll just make your whole week haha.

So my comp? Um hashtag LOVE HER. I seriously have witnessed so many miracles being here just since my arrival only 6 days ago... (pushin a week holla). But yeah she has been suuuuuch a blessing. She and I are like the same human being and it rocks ha. We have thee same exact humor ha we could laugh for days. She is like the cutest petite little thing ever, oh and believe it or not she like totalllly accepts my blessed little lingo and goes along with it and even includes some crazy hilar vocab from her own life. 

Haha its the best. We get along super super well. We've both just been praying our guts out that the language will come sooner rather than later! There's been times it has gotten a bit frustrating because all we want is to share this amazing message with people and let them FEEL OF THE LOVE THEIR HEAVENLY FATHER HAS FOR THEM BECAUSE HE IS THERE & WANTS TO HELP US. 

We have had some maj anxiety attacks ha because um day 2 or I think it was 3 here we had an investigator named Samira and we were like k so we've obv got this gospel down in our native tongue, but NOT Portuguese! And Samira could definitely tell! HAHA. We talk about it every day how Samira probably wanted to just record us and show everyone and their dog how BLESSED we sounded haha oh my dear. It was the biggest struggle our Portuguese was soo broken. 

Sister Haycock by the way sorry ha (forgot to mention her name) told me afterwards she was like dude there were like at least a handful of phrases I didn't catch at ALLL ha like what in the world, how did you get those words out? She kept saying like omg I'm so proud of you you totally let the spirit take over and he clearly took over and put those words into your mind and you were able to help Samira feel something. But I'm basically like 100% positive I whipped out all my Spanish knowledge from high school ha because when in doubt revert to espanol right?

But yeah ha I was a biiiit overwhelmed after that experience thinking holy moly how in the world are these Cape Verdians going to feel anything when I'm speaking some like alien language to them?! BUT, tudo bem (its all good/everything's good) because the dom de linguas (gift of tongues) is a very verdadeiro (real) thing and I know my companion and I will qualify for it if we study diligently and have faith that The Lord will provide a way for us to accomplish this... (stay tuned for some Portuguese later) 

Oh and Dad I think by Kiana you meant Sister Johnson:) Yes I totes saw her last week after getting dropped off and it was the sweetest tender mercy ever! Heavenly Father knew I needed to have a familiar face out there in Cape Verde (CV) ha and boy did he pick a good one. Ha bless Kiana's heart, she's somethin else that sista. We hugged the biggest hug you could ever imagine ha it was great. She be rockin her braid things (cornrows) and I'm lovin it and know she will fit right on in with the people of CV. 

Haha funny thing is though she hasn't changed a bit. Gotta love it. More competitive than ever out on the bball court but I haven't let her 1 v. 1 me yet because the MTC needs to humble her a bit more before I can play her because omg that girl has mastered the art of trash talk. Pretty sure she invented it ha. But love her. She and I have already set our goal of baptizing everyone out in CV so go us!

Our district is pretty stellar. We're district 7C haha not that you really care but yeah we pretty much rock. There are about 12 of us in our district and they're all pretty sick. Elder Poulson and Elder Cook are going to um somewhere in Brazil ha p.s. no shocker like this entire MTC has 378274289 missionaries going there its nuts. But yeah they are kinda the strugglers of the group ha because they have zero experience like taking any form of any language...but we're all qualified like our teacher tells us for the gift of tongues so I know they'll be alright. 

Oh and p.s. quick side story ha Elder Poulson he just graduated this past year he went to AF as well and his little "significant other friend" I got to know super well like senior year so he wanted to take a pic with me out on the temple walk so we start to position when a huge voice popped in my head "omg sister e bless you you arent allowed to be with an elder alone haha get the heck outta there!" Ha so we quickly made adjustments and grabbed another sister and another elder and the prob was solved. Don't worry. Exact obedience my friends. Exact obedience brings exact blessings. Holla. 

So yeah and then there's another companionship going to Lisbon, Portugal, they are elders and they are like geniuses. Pretty sure they did Rosetta Stone before they came in ha well and one of them is Asian so ya know. Given. They need to share the wealth. And then another set they are the other 2 sisters besides Sis Haycock and I they are going to that same mission as well. They are just darlinnnnn. Love them. One of them is pretty fresh outta high school and just knows the whole world here at the MTC and tells us all about it ha so we just laugh with her and are like dang sis you're up there in the world. 

But yeah and then another set is going to uh Salvador South Brazil mission and the other one is going to somewhere in Portugal and his comp is the only elder going to CV with us! Haha hes super funny he's hispanic-ish so he knows tons of Spanish so he and I tend to bond via Spanish when we can't spit out any Portuguese. Oh and his fave word we have learned so far is bascech (me and Sis Haycock blanked on how to spell it) but it means basketball in Portuguese so that's kind of awesome. It is everyone's go-to word in the class ha well mostly just me and the elders. 

Our zone is super great they are probably like 40-50 people in it. Oh and yeah total the amount of us going to CV together is 6 of us. Myself, Sister Haycock, Sister Johnson, Sister Tongi, Elder Artaega, and the other sis omg I am drawing a blank on but we are super stoked. Elder Artaega aren't super big on fish though so we are gonna have to try some blessed dishes here in the MTC that are as close to it as possible ha. 

Our teacher Irmao Buttars (Brother Buttars) is so so sick. We are so blessed to have him. We actually didn't even meet him until uh Saturday I think it was. We had Irmao Smith before him, he was great too. Super nice. But this guy... he's super intense, super animated, and super dedicated to our class and I love it/it freaks me out! The first day in class with him was a BIT overwhelming because he was throwing out alllll this Portuguese at us and we were like QUE?

But he finally came to his senses and caved and spoke in English the last like 20 or so mins of class and told us that would be the only day from there on out that we would hear him speak in English. He wants us to get completely immersed while we are here so we can be as prepared as possible. He told us some of his story and its awesome. He was inactive for like 10 years or so but the missionaries stuck with him week after week and finally were able to bring him unto Christ and he eventually served his mish in Sao Paulo I think it was... (Brazil of course) 

He's such a neat guy. You can tell he's lots of fun and has an awesome personality, I just pray that he will have patience with me because he is definitely going to push us and get us out of our comfort zones ha there's no question. He's totally that type, but I think that's just what Sister E needs! Every single time he bears his testimony I feel the spirit so so strong. It's brought me to tears just about every time. But he holds suuuch a special place in his heart for missionaries you can tell! 

He bore witness to us that he KNOWS we as missionaries have been called of God and we are the only people here on earth that have that sacred calling to invite people to come unto Christ. We are the version of Christ here on earth because He cannot be here with us right now. We are His messengers, and it's up to us to gather all His lost sheep and bring them home with us to our Heavenly Father. I'm muito animada for these next 5.5 weeks with him and for all the things we are going to learn and study together!

I only have like 5 mins left so I have to run soon but CONFERENCE? Wasn't it INCREDIBLE? Oh. My. Lanta. The spirit in the room with all of us 3827497 missionaries was something I will never forget and probably won't ever be able to put it into words. Definitely went into my journal haha. Every single talk was out of this world! And how SICK was it that they let the authorities speak in their native tongues?

And even cooler that we got to hear PORTUGUESE! Haha our whole zone was flippin out when Elder Gudouy got up to speak. So awesome. But I would like to bear my testimony to y'all in Portuguese (what I have so far) if that would be alright:

Eu sei que o evangelho e verdadeiro. Jesus Cristo e o nosso salvador e nosso redentor. Eu sou grata pelo amor do nosso pai celestial e este conhecimento me ajuda quando em preciso de consolo. Eu amo jesus cristo e meu famila muito. Digo estas coisas em nome Jesus Cristo, Amem. 

I LOVE YOU ALL AND AM SO GRATEFUL FOR ALL YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT! KNOW THAT I'M PRAYING FOR Y'ALL DAY AND NIGHT..AND HOPING YA HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT SISTER ELIASON JUST YET! LOVE YA WITH ALL THAT I AM. THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND I WILL GO TO MY GRAVE DECLARING THIS WORD TO BE TRUE.

XOXO

P.S. please send this out to peeps dad love ya