Dear Fam,
I can't believe all that has
happened this week! It has been absolutely the greatest! Singing in the
world wide missionary broadcast was probably one of the neatest
experiences ever!!! We were on the 4th row, about 20 feet away from the
general authorities! no big deal. Hermana Gutierrez is so funny she
said, "We are so lucky, we get to see the back of their heads!!" haha,
she's right, not many people can say that. Elder Nelson kept looking
back at us and waving, it was so great! Singing was such a great
spiritual experience. When we practiced earlier in the week singing
"Hark all ye Nations," the choir director had us all stand up on
different lines of the song, according to which continent we were going
to on our missions. It was so neat seeing all of us gradually standing,
representing where we were serving! Finally at the end when we were all
standing you could feel the power of all the missionaries. It was so
neat. During the actual broadcast, the camera man came right to our
row?!?!?! hahaha Everyone was so jealous! It was the ultimate adreniline
rush. haha I'm glad we didn't forget the last word to the song,
"tooo-day" How crazy is that though! What a fun thing to always
remember! It was fun reading about Dad's reaction yelling out my name at
church! haha I can just picture it! The meeting was so great and got me
even more excited to be a missionary! The other way fun thing was
during our break Hna Gutierrez and I went out to get a drink, and I got
to see JESS AND KELL!!!! AHHH It was the greatest thing ever, seeing mi
hermanas!!! And then Travis too! Even though it was only for a few
seconds, it made me so so happy! :)
Thanks so much for the letters, packages, and "dear
elder" letters, and emails! It's so weird not having a phone and only
being able to get on the computer once a week. Getting letters is the
greatest thing ever! Thanks so much!!
Another great thing that happened this week, was our devotional on Tuesday
night! Janice Kapp Perry came and spoke to us-the one who wrote, "As
Sister's in Zion," and the missionary version I typed and sent in my
last email! She also wrote all my favorite primary songs, including,
"I'm trying to be like Jesus," "A Child's Prayer," and "I love to see
the temple." She taught us about the power of music. I really liked what
she said, she said, "We can learn things through music that would
otherwise take much longer to learn." I have definitely grown in my
testimonty and learned so much through these songs she has written,
along with the hymns! We got to sing a medly of all the songs she has
written all together with her leading. That was such an amazing
experience! At the end, she sang a song she wrote that's called "Like
Jesus," that is her testimony! Before she sang it, she said, "pretend
like I'm your grandma." That was so sweet, and made me think of how
greatful I am for my Grandmas! Thanks Grandma Blake, Grandma Garlick,
and Grandma M for being such incredible examples to me and for your love
and support! I'm so lucky!
We love p-days! We went to the temple this morning, and we
are about to go to our zone picnic we have. Last week an Elder in our
zone rapped to us about his conversion story. It was so funny! haha It's
fun getting to know so many people that are all doing the same thing!
Lots of people are getting sick here, so we are not
even allowed to shake hands! A Hermana in my district got sick, but she
is better now! Hopefully we will stay away from the sickness!
I'm so happy with the food here, mainly becuase they have two of my
favorite things, Life and Peanut Butter. I also really like the wraps
they serve almost every day, it's like subway style but with a chicken
wrap. yum!
One of my teachers here, Hermano Christofferson, gave
us this really great quote: "We are not earning our way to heaven, we
are learning our way there." How true is that! Each day we learn how to
be more christlike, how to rely on the atonement more, and how to best
serve others and to do our best! I've been studying charity, or the pure
love of christ more. I thought how charity is kind of like making
cookies. It takes time, effort, sometimes it's not perfect, but the
effects of our charity blesses others and makes them want to bless
others too! Also, the more ingredients you have for cookies, the more
you can make. The more spirit we have, from scripture study, prayer,
church, and other things, the more we can share the pure love of Christ
with others! It's fun having an hour of personal study every morning to
have time to ponder and think about different aspects of the gospel. I
love it!
Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Garlick
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