MTC letter No.3

Hola mi familia~

Once again, it is always good to hear from you but STOP EMAILING ME AND INSTEAD SEND ME A LETTER VIA DEAR ELDER DURING THE WEEK SO I CAN RESPOND TO IT DURING EMAIL TIME AND IT DOESN'T TAKE UP EMAIL TIME READING YOUR EMAILS. Get it? Thanks. :)

Being on a mission is truly a privilege, as my Patriarchal Blessing says. You don't realize how lucky you are to be out here until you're actually here, though. Heavens to Betsy! I get to be part of the Greatest Work In The World! There IS no greater work. I get to participate in the work that God Himself called His work and His glory. For a straight 18 months I am able to work among my brothers and sisters doing the work of the salvation of souls. What a privilege. Why anyone would want to go home or to not go if given the opportunity simply astounds me. Yeah, stuff bugs me about it. Yeah, companions get on my nerves and I get on theirs. Yeah, it's super super busy and hard. Yeah the language is tough and half the time I feel overwhelmed. But it's SO worth it. I can feel it, even though I'm not even really out there yet.

Well this week has been another good one! Goodness, what a blessing conference is. I can't imagine NOT being able to hear modern-day prophets speak on a regular basis. As you can probably imagine, I got more out of conference this time than possibly any other time. As missionaries we all meet in the big gym/chapel where we have our devotionals and watched it all together on huge projectors. :) What were your guys' favorite talks? I must say that Elder Holland's had almost every single missionary bawling right off the bat... but my favorite talk was Elder Christofferson's talk on a consecrated life. I LOVE THAT MAN. I couldn't keep up my note-writing with his speaking. Every sentence was note-worthy so I can't wait until I have that Ensign in my hands. As usual. :) Also, the talk that Pres. Monson gave in the General Relief Society meeting on compassion, charity and being non-judgemental was very touching and powerful. I wish I have time here to really explain how I felt while listening to conference, but alas I don't. I did write in my journal, however. :)

This week we've taught many lessons and been trying to refine teaching with the Spirit. It's amazing how the experience of something that you always did believe in makes it so much more real to you. When I read about Jesus' life in the NT and think about it, it dawns on me how incredible His reality is and the fact that He really does lead this church. Also, being able to teach with the Spirit so often and realizing how essential it is makes the concept so much more personal and real to me, even though I always believed in the concept before.

Do you guys ever have like personal testimony meetings just with you and God at night in bed? Maybe that's just an Emily-thing, but I had another one on Friday night. I've already told you a lot of what I pondered about that night. I loved learning how the Lord communicates with us on an individual basis. Many times He speaks to me through my own words, or rather, while I'm praying and opening up my mind and heart to Him, He'll say what I need to hear through my mouth when I'm praying. Hopefully I'm learning the true order or prayer as it talks about in the Bible Dictionary and how prayer is for us to bring our will in accordance with His. I don't pretend for this to happen all the time, but it's definitely amazing when it does. It's a little harder when you're trying to pray completely in Spanish, however. :)

Today in the temple we got to do sealings. My first time! What an interesting experience. It'll be neat to do sealings when I get home.... Not to mention my own, haha. What beautiful blessings and promised to those who are faithful.

One of the reasons Elder Christofferson's talk was so poignant to me was because I had been thinking lately about really keeping temple covenants and what means in the mission field--to give EVERYTHING to the Lord and His church. I guess the mission field is one of the best possible places to learn that concept. It is very easy, however, to NOT keep that covenent in the field. When you feel busy all the time it's easy to justify slowing down or taking a few extra minutes for yourself. But you have to push yourself to keep going because you're on the Lord's time.

Well, I'm outa time!

I love you all sooooooooooooooooo much and miss you terribly. :) <3

Un abrazo!

Hermana Underlin