Week 4: "We give up something, to gain something MORE."

I never thought that one month could go by so fast! Wow! It's so great! Everyday it is such a blessing! I love being a missionary!

This email may be a bit messed up because it's hard for me to think back a week. I'll do the best I can! :D

Now that I have been here for a month, I may or may not get my flight plans this week. Not really sure! I'm hoping tho! haha I will probably be leaving on Nov. 9th or 10th. Yay! Cannot wait to get to Mexico! I did hear about the crazy hurricane in Mexico though which is really scary. I hope all is well. It didn't really effect my area, but I'm sad for all those who were effected. Yikes. 

Well this was for a sure a week where Spanish has gotten pretty hard. It's all things that I have heard and done before but I struggle to get it to a point where i can use it. And may I just say.....Irregulars are the worst! haha jk jk (kinda). It's what makes this all adventure though right?!?! Wouldn't be the same without it. 

We played a game in my Spanish class yesterday called "Native" where one of our class members
is secretly the 'native' and has to speak Spanish the whole rest of the day. The point of the game however is to also speak Spanish so that everyone thinks you're the native. It's pretty great but also super hard! I did pretty well though... with the little Spanish that I know I was able to make it work!  

My whole district was finally able to memorize the First Vision in Spanish. It was amazing! With knowing what it means, it's incredible to realize what a miraculous event you are testifying of even if it is in a language you don't understand. So incredible! We also have the Missionary Purpose memorized which is great because it helps us to focus on what is really important. I need to more often remember that the only reason why I need to learn Spanish is to share the gospel with people to fulfill the missionary purpose of helping others to 'venir al Cristo' (Come unto Christ).

It is so funny to learn Spanish because for some reason when we are learning new words and we accidentally mispronounce them, it somehow turns out to mean some awful word in Spanish. Yikes! Haha this has happened way to often too! Luckily, we really have great teachers so they just explain how NOT to say it and then how to say it correctly. Oops! 

On Sunday night we had a devotional by Chris Randall who is the Director of Admin. for missionaries or something. He and his wife gave some great remarks! They both talked about how we can better center our lives on Christ so that we can have the Holy Ghost with us. Bro. Randall also talked about how we may still be unsure if our mission destination is really where the Lord wants us to go. It was great! He reassured us that yes, it would take time for us to personally realize that we are called 'exactly' where the Lord needs us but that it would come over time. Such a great comfort given to all the MTC, including myself. As he later started talking about the Holy Ghost he said, " Obedience brings the Spirit where we must then Listen and Follow." "You have been prepared to be a LIGHT for the world wherever you are called. 

We had the most amazing opportunity last night to hear from Elder Neil L. Anderson from the Quorum of the Twelve. He was so great! He have a wonderful talk that we were all just so blessed to hear! He focused on how we are 'becoming' through the things that we are learning here and that we have already learned things in the past that have helped us to become the people that we are now. So amazing. He talked about the process of us becoming better and for us to become the people that we want to become in the future. Sacrifice -> Opposition -> Adversityy -> Deliverance = Becoming. It's a repeating cycle that helps us to sacrifice what we have in order to gain something more.

 "We give up something, to gain something more." -Neil L. Anderson-

From his talk I was really able to realize that we can become anything that we want to if we put in the right amount of trust,work, effort, and sacrifice. What a blessing is was to hear from an inspired messenger of the Lord. 

This week was really great and my companions and I are having a great time teaching and learning from our mistakes. We are trying to figure out how to best use the small Spanish that we know to help them to feel the Spirit and to know that we want to share this joyful message with them because we love them. <3 

Week 4 was definitely a success and my days here at the MTC are becoming limited. I cannot wait to get to Mexico but I also know that I have plenty of things to learn here during the rest of my time at the MTC. I am so grateful to be a missionary! I love every minute of it! <3 I know that it's only through Christ that I able to learn these things here at the MTC. 

Thank you for all of the love and support I have received! 

Con Todo Mi Amor,

Hermana Connolly