Heading Out!

Ok wow! So busy week, haha. The main take away is that I’m finally done with the MTC. Which means as of Tuesday the 14th, I’m going out to Boston. I'll be sad to leave my district, but at the same time, I’m so excited to go out and officially get started, even if my experience in the field is going to start off behind a screen. My district is so great, and I love all of my fellow missionaries. We have had a lot of fun learning together, and all of their unique testimonies have helped to strengthen mine and allowed me to feel the Spirit more than I ever have before! My teachers are so full of love, and I feel how much they care about us and our experiences. Some tears were shed when everyone made their goodbyes on Friday.
On Friday after our first class, Elder Bailey came over, and we did Irmão Santos’ class together. It was a blast having him over; companion study was great now that we were finally in person, haha. We had a standard day after classes; the next morning I went for my final Bench Press pr and then we played racketball with Taylor. Elder Bailey was a natural. I’m happy we got to finally get a good day to get to know each other as well as do do personal and companion study. I’m really excited to have a companion with me full time that I can get to know and study the scriptures with. 
I have a testimony that having people to rely on in your life and to keep you accountable will not only help you keep up with your goals, it will help you to feel like you are pushing forward and progressing. God blesses us for our efforts and loves each and every one of us despite our many flaws. Just the same we must learn to love each other. I’m reminded of a General Conference Talk that asks the question of what comes first, action or love? If you're having a hard time loving people, sometimes you have to try and serve them. As you make an effort to look for ways to help those around you, you’ll find yourself loving them more and more. I’m not too nervous about how my companions and I will get along, because I know that if I focus on loving them unconditionally, I’ll have a good experience.

Saying goodbye to my boys! I'm sure going to miss them.

Only a week and half left!

My sleeping arrangements at my sister's

This week has been pretty crazy haha. My parents have been traveling so I decided to stay with Jessica and Tyson. So, Monday was in Bountiful; Tuesday was in Farmington; Wednesday I realized I left my contacts in Bountiful and went back up and spent the day then came back; Thursday I left early in the morning to wait in Bountiful to sign for a package that ended up just getting dropped off; Friday back in Farmington; and Saturday loading a trailer up and going back to Bountiful. Kind of Crazy, haha. 

That’s not the only thing though haha.  Elder Bailey and I were planning on hanging out on Wednesday I believe, and then he sent me a text the night before saying he had stomach pain and went to the urgent care and his appendix was twice its normal size. He ended up getting it removed that night; he’s fine now but that’s also pretty exciting haha. 

Classes have been going really great, and Elder Bailey and I had our last TRC with Nathan. It was a lot of fun, and he agreed to  "be baptized". I really enjoyed talking to him, and I’m gonna miss it. Now we switched to a different TRC system where instead of scheduling meetings with people, Mondays and Fridays before class everyone goes to a Zoom room, and we each have 15-20 minutes to teach a lesson. 

This is gonna be a shorter email this week, mainly just because so much has happened that it all blends itself out. One thing I have been grateful this week is the opportunity to end each day with the Book of Mormon. It truly is the best way to refocus and prepare for bed, and it's truly night and day between how I feel about my day with and without scripture study. The scriptures are here to bless our lives, but we have to be willing to use them.

Reassignment!

Hello everyone, took me a while to get to it, but here’s my second email "back" haha. Today is Saturday June, 27, and it's been a busy week. Two weeks actually, since I wrote my last email. First and foremost, my reassignment came! I’m headed to Boston Massachusetts where I’ll have the opportunity to continue speaking Portuguese; Boston has a large group of Brazilian immigrants. My mission president is President Mavromatis from Recife Brazil. I’m so excited to have a Brazilian mission president even before I’m in Brazil, haha. I leave July 14th; just a couple weeks away.

First Group Email!

Hello everyone! Today marks a week and a half "in" the MTC. You know, I always said I was gonna be bad at writing emails and no one believed me; they always said I would feel differently once I left. Well, they were both right and wrong, because I both have a lot I want to say and have no idea or incentive to say it, haha. Maybe it's because my entire family is here, and I can still see them frequently. 

My "classroom"

Today is easier though, because I can get away with giving a quick run down of what’s going on in the MTC/CTM. The way it works is we have a zoom call at 10:30-1:30 every day with Irmã Gabriella. In this call we learn a lot of basic Portuguese. It’s mainly review for me, but there are certain things that are new simply, because I learned more by talking when I was in Brazil rather than reading books. For example, I now know what ^ and  '  do, haha. 
From there we have a two hour break; this is when I do my companionship study. My companion’s name is Elder Bailey, a strapping young lad. He decided to go right after high school instead of waiting a year like me. He and I are getting along really well; helping each other with Portuguese and having hot seats where we ask each other questions to learn about one another. He for example, is an avid skier who loves all sports (especially basketball), hanging out with friends, and if he were to perfectly befriend any land animal it would be a cougar or a grizzly bear. You learn a lot about a person based on what animal they would have as a pet if they could. He’s a big hiker and camper, and I’m hoping we can meet up sometime and do something like that on P day. We only live 30 minutes apart, so that shouldn’t be too hard to do. From there we have another block from 3:00-6:00 with Irmão Santos. That lesson we practice a lot of Portuguese and have mock lessons with "Marcos" AKA Irmão Santos in a polo shirt. 

Our district with Irmão Santos (top right corner)