March 2015 - Mtc
MArch 10 2015
Ola! How is it going back at home? I have been sending you guys some super snail mail every day so I hope you guys have been getting them. Miss you guys a lot.
So here at the MTC (or in Portuguese CTM) it is super crazy! The first day was horrible! The language was hard and I didn't feel like Spanish helped me at all! But I can see now how it is helping me a little. My companion is Sister Weatherford and she is amazing! So nice and a natural at Portuguese! So between the two of us with a Spanish background we are doing quite well. We have already taught our first investigator (Who is really going to be our teacher in the future but we aren't supposed to know that, but one of the other sisters in our district asked her when they were teaching her if she was going to be our teacher...AWKWARD!) The first time was really hard to get across what we wanted to say because we only know so much Portuguese. The second lesson went really well! She prayed and went to church. But last night we taught her and it was horrible! I could not remember any of the language and it seemed like she was not really into the lesson. Before I felt like we were so prepared to answer any of her questions but unfortunately we didn't even get to that. It was definitely a low point. And now we are planning on what to teach her next but we have been at the same place since yesterday. THIS IS SO HARD! But I know we will all make it through.
I am really glad to hear about my FBI clearance! When I got here I asked EVERYONE about the FBI and none of the people I asked going to Brazil had to go through the FBI! I was so scared that we did something wrong! But the other day (probably yesterday because every day feels like 5) I talked to someone from Washington and she also had to go through the FBI as well as one more elder in my district! He is from Florida! So I am finally not alone! Everyone else has had their Visas in since January. But they are all from Utah and correct me if I’m wrong but that is a different consulate? So mine might get here sooner depending on how fast our consulate goes? I am not really sure. But I do know I want to stay here at least till the end of my MTC stay because I love my district (most of it) and our Portuguese teacher whom Ashley better marry. #ILoveYouAash
So my district is pretty cool. Here is a run-down of the people I pretty much live with:
Elder Gomez: He is the oldest out of all of us. He is 26 and I can’t remember where he is from but he speaks Spanish fluently and is super nice. He is the leader among the elders. The other two are 19 so Elder Gomez has maturity on them. He is also the first missionary in his home branch! SOO COOL!
Elder Gines: He is from Vegas. His twin sister is coming to the MTC also going to Brazil. Yesterday he broke our classroom clock on his head :P It was so funny because we were all in little study rooms and the elders were in our classroom without supervision and we all heard the crash. In fact the whole hall heard the crash and we were all silently wishing "please don’t be our elders! PLEASSSSSE don’t be our elders" and guess what....it was our elders. We walked on to our classroom and there was GLASS EVERYWHERE! It was amazing that the one glass clock in the whole building was the one that broke! (Most of them are plastic). So that happened. Actually made my day :)
Elder Rodriguez: He is from Florida and He is the one who went through the FBI.
Sister Thacker: She has the coolest life ever! From Blue Bell Utah which no one knows where it is because it is so small! One of the members of the trio.
Sister Tremblay: From Clinton Utah. Also in the Trio.
Sister Weatherford: My companion from Wyoming.
Sister Cole: She is from St George! Also an amazing place!
Sister McMakin: YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE THIS! Her brother is in our ward! Tiffany Miller's Husband! (Well now it is Tiffany McMakin) WHAT WHAT!?!?!?! I thought that was so very cool! She is awesome!
The food is pretty good. But everyone is telling me that it will not be so good after a while....soooo...I’ll let you know how that is going...
Miss you all so much! It is hard because I cannot just pick up the phone and call you! I want to...but at the same time I think it will be hard to hang up after I make the call.
Let me know how things are going! Email me anytime!
Love you all!
Sister Thomson
P.S. Also I cannot send you any pictures yet because I don’t have a cord for my camera...so if you could send that I would be SOO grateful! And then I can send you some pictures :)
Thanks!
Tchau
So here at the MTC (or in Portuguese CTM) it is super crazy! The first day was horrible! The language was hard and I didn't feel like Spanish helped me at all! But I can see now how it is helping me a little. My companion is Sister Weatherford and she is amazing! So nice and a natural at Portuguese! So between the two of us with a Spanish background we are doing quite well. We have already taught our first investigator (Who is really going to be our teacher in the future but we aren't supposed to know that, but one of the other sisters in our district asked her when they were teaching her if she was going to be our teacher...AWKWARD!) The first time was really hard to get across what we wanted to say because we only know so much Portuguese. The second lesson went really well! She prayed and went to church. But last night we taught her and it was horrible! I could not remember any of the language and it seemed like she was not really into the lesson. Before I felt like we were so prepared to answer any of her questions but unfortunately we didn't even get to that. It was definitely a low point. And now we are planning on what to teach her next but we have been at the same place since yesterday. THIS IS SO HARD! But I know we will all make it through.
I am really glad to hear about my FBI clearance! When I got here I asked EVERYONE about the FBI and none of the people I asked going to Brazil had to go through the FBI! I was so scared that we did something wrong! But the other day (probably yesterday because every day feels like 5) I talked to someone from Washington and she also had to go through the FBI as well as one more elder in my district! He is from Florida! So I am finally not alone! Everyone else has had their Visas in since January. But they are all from Utah and correct me if I’m wrong but that is a different consulate? So mine might get here sooner depending on how fast our consulate goes? I am not really sure. But I do know I want to stay here at least till the end of my MTC stay because I love my district (most of it) and our Portuguese teacher whom Ashley better marry. #ILoveYouAash
So my district is pretty cool. Here is a run-down of the people I pretty much live with:
Elder Gomez: He is the oldest out of all of us. He is 26 and I can’t remember where he is from but he speaks Spanish fluently and is super nice. He is the leader among the elders. The other two are 19 so Elder Gomez has maturity on them. He is also the first missionary in his home branch! SOO COOL!
Elder Gines: He is from Vegas. His twin sister is coming to the MTC also going to Brazil. Yesterday he broke our classroom clock on his head :P It was so funny because we were all in little study rooms and the elders were in our classroom without supervision and we all heard the crash. In fact the whole hall heard the crash and we were all silently wishing "please don’t be our elders! PLEASSSSSE don’t be our elders" and guess what....it was our elders. We walked on to our classroom and there was GLASS EVERYWHERE! It was amazing that the one glass clock in the whole building was the one that broke! (Most of them are plastic). So that happened. Actually made my day :)
Elder Rodriguez: He is from Florida and He is the one who went through the FBI.
Sister Thacker: She has the coolest life ever! From Blue Bell Utah which no one knows where it is because it is so small! One of the members of the trio.
Sister Tremblay: From Clinton Utah. Also in the Trio.
Sister Weatherford: My companion from Wyoming.
Sister Cole: She is from St George! Also an amazing place!
Sister McMakin: YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE THIS! Her brother is in our ward! Tiffany Miller's Husband! (Well now it is Tiffany McMakin) WHAT WHAT!?!?!?! I thought that was so very cool! She is awesome!
The food is pretty good. But everyone is telling me that it will not be so good after a while....soooo...I’ll let you know how that is going...
Miss you all so much! It is hard because I cannot just pick up the phone and call you! I want to...but at the same time I think it will be hard to hang up after I make the call.
Let me know how things are going! Email me anytime!
Love you all!
Sister Thomson
P.S. Also I cannot send you any pictures yet because I don’t have a cord for my camera...so if you could send that I would be SOO grateful! And then I can send you some pictures :)
Thanks!
Tchau
March 17
I got the package! Thanks so much! THE COW MADE ME SOOO HAPPY! I love it! Meu amo isso! I will try to get those names to take to the temple but the printer here is broken, so I might not be able to do that this week. But I will let you know!
So aperently I have been breaking the rule and I am only allowed to WRITE and EMAIL once a week, So I cannot send you guys those letters. :( But there is this thing you can look at. I heard it was free but I am not sure. It is called dear elder. And it is a site that you can write a letter and it will deliver it to me the same day! :D Packages are great but letters are great too :) They cost less and I have more room for them in the end :) BUT I loved the packages! IT made my day! Especially because that morning we taught an investigator for the first meeting and it went so bad that me and my companion were feeling sick and not good all day, but when we open the package it made us both happy :) Thank you all so much!
Spirits are up and down. But I am guessing that is normal. We have 2 sisters in our district (one is the sister training leader) and they are always late and super judgemental to other girls in our district. It is really hard because they are supposed to be the leaders and they are setting such a bad example. Also EVERYONE in my district is late. EVERYDAY! except me and my companion. I dont know how to fix that...but we just keep being on time. Irmao Sears has a thing if you are late then you have to do a door approach all in Portuguese. So far me and sister weatherford have not had to do that. I dont think we could afford letting Irmao down by being late. We got another teacher too. irma wells. AKA Amelia. She was our first investigator and I like her more as an investigator. Irma Wells is more OCD about things. If we dont say something right we repeat it about a million times. But Irmao Sears teaches in a much different way. I am not sure. Sometimes I dont think sister wells likes me very much. But the majority of the class feels that way.
Fun fact of the week! I am able to read and understand Brother Dance's testimony! After 2 weeks at the MTC I can read it! This just shows you what a marvelous work is happening here! That in 2 weeks I can learn more of a language that 4 years of High School! I have a first hand knowledge of the Gift of Tongues. (in Portuguese it is O Dom de Linguas) It is real! And i know because half the time I am speaking i dont even know what I am saying. It is amazing in a frustrating way. And in the reverse I have been able to understand things my teachers are saying even If we have not learned or heard the words before.
Another funny thing! Irmao sears sometimes writes on the board to tell us thanks for the spirit in the class or whatever. And this week he wrote "amo voces! E Dus ama voces muito mais!" Im not sure how to take that one :P But We all thought it was funny :) (it means I love you but god loves you much more)
That is so cool sammie is still into reading! Good for her! There are so many good books out there! Tell her she is welcome to my tennis shoes books! They are amazing! If she has time :) I hope mavany is reading them too. I wish I could read them while I am out here. But Alas our reading selection is limited. I am glad to hear Mav is doing good too!
Nothing super interesting happened this week. Found out the choir wont be singing at general conference. So thats a huge bummer. One of the elders in my district said "His [Irmao Sears] looks like the Holy Ghost. He is so perfect." Which is amazing because it is true! He is perfect! And it is comforting that me and sister weatherford are not the only ones to think that. We also talked to Elder Cervantes who has an amazing story. He was baptized 23 months ago and his family is completely unsupported of him being a member let alone going on a mission. It is really sad. But he came and talked to us because he is leaving the MTC this morning to Portugal and he told us something that I will never forget. He said "If you have ever worried about your mission, the language that you are learning, or your calling as a missionary I invite you to repent. Because this is a calling of God. He has called you to preach His restored Gospel...He has called you to preach His gospel in the language that He knows you will teach in the best." This elder is super inspirational. He has been through so much! Hopefully i can get his address and maybe send something to him.
Pictures. I have been taking a lot but there is a fire wall here at the MTC and it is really hard to get them uploaded. So its a hit and miss kind of thing. And it takes forever. So I will try in a little :) Hopefully I can get you at least one or two!
Miss you guys so much!
Meu Amo Voces!
Sister Thomson
So aperently I have been breaking the rule and I am only allowed to WRITE and EMAIL once a week, So I cannot send you guys those letters. :( But there is this thing you can look at. I heard it was free but I am not sure. It is called dear elder. And it is a site that you can write a letter and it will deliver it to me the same day! :D Packages are great but letters are great too :) They cost less and I have more room for them in the end :) BUT I loved the packages! IT made my day! Especially because that morning we taught an investigator for the first meeting and it went so bad that me and my companion were feeling sick and not good all day, but when we open the package it made us both happy :) Thank you all so much!
Spirits are up and down. But I am guessing that is normal. We have 2 sisters in our district (one is the sister training leader) and they are always late and super judgemental to other girls in our district. It is really hard because they are supposed to be the leaders and they are setting such a bad example. Also EVERYONE in my district is late. EVERYDAY! except me and my companion. I dont know how to fix that...but we just keep being on time. Irmao Sears has a thing if you are late then you have to do a door approach all in Portuguese. So far me and sister weatherford have not had to do that. I dont think we could afford letting Irmao down by being late. We got another teacher too. irma wells. AKA Amelia. She was our first investigator and I like her more as an investigator. Irma Wells is more OCD about things. If we dont say something right we repeat it about a million times. But Irmao Sears teaches in a much different way. I am not sure. Sometimes I dont think sister wells likes me very much. But the majority of the class feels that way.
Fun fact of the week! I am able to read and understand Brother Dance's testimony! After 2 weeks at the MTC I can read it! This just shows you what a marvelous work is happening here! That in 2 weeks I can learn more of a language that 4 years of High School! I have a first hand knowledge of the Gift of Tongues. (in Portuguese it is O Dom de Linguas) It is real! And i know because half the time I am speaking i dont even know what I am saying. It is amazing in a frustrating way. And in the reverse I have been able to understand things my teachers are saying even If we have not learned or heard the words before.
Another funny thing! Irmao sears sometimes writes on the board to tell us thanks for the spirit in the class or whatever. And this week he wrote "amo voces! E Dus ama voces muito mais!" Im not sure how to take that one :P But We all thought it was funny :) (it means I love you but god loves you much more)
That is so cool sammie is still into reading! Good for her! There are so many good books out there! Tell her she is welcome to my tennis shoes books! They are amazing! If she has time :) I hope mavany is reading them too. I wish I could read them while I am out here. But Alas our reading selection is limited. I am glad to hear Mav is doing good too!
Nothing super interesting happened this week. Found out the choir wont be singing at general conference. So thats a huge bummer. One of the elders in my district said "His [Irmao Sears] looks like the Holy Ghost. He is so perfect." Which is amazing because it is true! He is perfect! And it is comforting that me and sister weatherford are not the only ones to think that. We also talked to Elder Cervantes who has an amazing story. He was baptized 23 months ago and his family is completely unsupported of him being a member let alone going on a mission. It is really sad. But he came and talked to us because he is leaving the MTC this morning to Portugal and he told us something that I will never forget. He said "If you have ever worried about your mission, the language that you are learning, or your calling as a missionary I invite you to repent. Because this is a calling of God. He has called you to preach His restored Gospel...He has called you to preach His gospel in the language that He knows you will teach in the best." This elder is super inspirational. He has been through so much! Hopefully i can get his address and maybe send something to him.
Pictures. I have been taking a lot but there is a fire wall here at the MTC and it is really hard to get them uploaded. So its a hit and miss kind of thing. And it takes forever. So I will try in a little :) Hopefully I can get you at least one or two!
Miss you guys so much!
Meu Amo Voces!
Sister Thomson
march 24
So I guess this is my first official "weekly email". The rest have just been so very busy and I am still getting the hang of things. First I just want to say that I loved the DearElders! They are super great! And for some weird reason I always get the letters from home or from grandma just when I need them the most. I don't know if this is because I always need them or just because it feels like that, every time I open one :)
Some of the stuff I have to type is for specific people in a response to a question so to preface the rest of my email I will just let you know if it is for you. :) Because I am trying to manage my email time and write one big email to save utilize the whole hour...which goes by way too fast. This is my only hour of the whole week that I can think about things other than my studies and language.
So here goes!
Brie! That was a great scripture to share with me! We had a lesson this Sunday also about repentance and I wish I could have read that before so I could have been able to share it with the rest of my district! They would have loved that!
One thing Grandpa Thomson told me before I left, we NEVER make mistakes! all the decisions that we make, we made the best choice with the best knowledge we had at that time.
about my blog. I can virtually visit any site. I am not sure if they monitor the sites, and I hope they do for the sake of every missionary out there. One of the elders in my district was on you tube the other day looking up hymns in Portuguese so that we could get better at singing them as a district. But there are also people who get on and use Google translate to write sacrament meeting talks...so that’s LAME!! But for the blog I have been on and I showed my Sister Weatherford but for the most part I would rather spend my hour of computer time emailing you guys: D I can also get on periodically throughout the week and check my visa status, but no email...not even reading email until my hour on Tuesday.
For Bishop Esquibel, My favorite scripture is 1 Nephi 3:7, but since I have come here, there are so many more that I have found to love even more that that one. I will share those with you later but the one that I want on my pl ack is Philippians 4:13 which reads "I can do allthings through Christ which strengeneth me" But since it is so simple it would be cool if you could put it in PORTUGUESE!! which is:
Filipenses 4:13
Posso todas as coisas em Cristo que me fortalece.
I love this scripture SOOOOO MUCH!
I LOVED THE STORY ABOUT SAVANNAH! I tried to tell it to my companions but no one thought it was as funny as I did. I had 2 stories like that here...and I am going to try to tell them to you but don’t sweat it if they sound dumb.
1) We were walking out of gym...played volleyball and I told an elder I liked his tie and he just looked at me and said "ooohhhhhhhh sister" WHAT THE HECK! LOL it was so random me and sister weatherford almost died laughing!
2) We were walking back from the temple and there was a young man who was not a missionary. My zone had just taken a big zone picture and this guy was walking right in front of us and he was walking towards his friends and said "GUYS! I just had the most epic photo bomb! there was this huge district and they didnt even notice I was in there....." then he turned arround and say me and my companion and stopped talking and tried to hush his friends who were like "AWE MAN! Thats so legit" and then I told him it was alright he photo bombed our zone because none of us will ever know! :P
Packages: we dont really get a lot of those. Sister Tremblay usually gets the bulk of them. But in that I have some sad news. I will report that under the district news section :)
Videos: I am not sure...I think it will be fine.
Documents are a no go. We dont have word or anything because there is not really a need since we have to hand write everything.
Savannah and Mavany!
Church waS CRAZY CRAY! I wake up at 6:30 and study till sacrament at 9. we started a new thing where we dont watch music and the spoken word anymore which is really sad becuase I loved that! And we have a new Relief Society thing that we are starting next week. But CONFERENCE is coming SOOO SOON! I am excited!
The Exciting thing about sundays tho is that we get to watch a movie. obviously it is a church movie but this sunday we got to watch the Joseph Smith movie and last week it was Legacy. And the first week it was the David Bednar talk. WHICH WAS LIFE CHANGING! I really have the desire to watch Johnny Lingo tho...really want to! Also how are the books going? Tell me all about them! I miss books so much! So TELL ME ALL ABOUT THEM! I wish I brought more books with me. Like my Articles Of Faith book Mark and Steph gave me for Christmas a while ago because the book Jesus the Christ references it SOOO MUCH! and the picture book! The one dad said I would want! WELL HE WAS RIGHT! he always is! And it would have been so helpful especially with the first couple of lessons.
So let me know of all the good books you are reading!
ESPECIALLY THE TENNIS SHOES BOOKS! AND BOOKS ABOUT DRAGONS!!!
District news:
lots of things happened in my district this week. The first and best (good news first) is that my companion Sister Weatherford ALMOST HAS HER VISA! on the website to check it she has 3 dots! out of 4! and I still only have one...but SHE HAS 3! we are all so excited for her!
Sad news. Sister Tremblay went home yesterday! It was so hard to see her go! I have learned so much with her in the last couple of weeks with her! And we will all miss her dearly. It all happened so fast. We blinked and there she went.
Actual things that happened:
I don’t know if you guys received my hand written letter about reading the Book of Mormon. So one of the requirements is to read the Book of Mormon before you come to the MTC. And as soon as I got here I made the goal to read it again. I have never read the Book of Mormon twice in a row this fast. I am already in Mosiah! I am extending the invitation to all of you! Read it as a family or as individuals! My testimony has grown so much from reading it again! I learn new things every day! So I want to share with you one thing I learned from my personal BOM study!
1 Nephi 17:13 - This is my NEW favorite scripture and I am memorizing it in Portuguese! I will let you look it up, But I absolutely love it because The lord is our light! He is the one who guides us! And what a dark world we live in today! But what I really love about it is the last part where it says "and ye shall know that it by me that ye are led" Here at the MTC we are stressing following the spirit and listening to those promptings and one of the things I struggled with at the beginning was doubting that the spirit was guiding me and thinking that it was just a random though that popped into my head. Well I am getting better at knowing that THOSE THOUGHTS ARE the promptings of the spirit. And those are what we need to follow, but more than that we need to know those are from GOD! That we are not doing this on our own. And my other new fav scripture philippians 4:13 We can do anything through Christ.
Also had a couple great devos but I will try to fit those in later. Not much time left. Let me know about your experiences with the scriptures. I know that together, no matter how far apart we are physically, we can learn more together than we could ever learn alone. And God put us in families so that we can learn and grow with each other, so that one day we can return to Heaven and live together for eternity.
Eu sei que Deus ama voces e eu ama voces! e Jesus Cristo e nosso Salvador. Eu testifico o Livro de Mormon e a palavra de Deus e O Livro ajuda-nos. Em nome de Jesus Cristo Amem.
(My grammer isnt very good yet... but the point is there!)
Amo Voces!
Sister Thomson
Forgot to tell you in the weekly email...but we had a couple of protestors outside the gates and he was screaming "FREE THE CHILDREN! I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS" which is funny because we are all here by choice and it is ever so easy to be done and go home. Almost too easy. But I guess if you are not here for the Lords work then there really isnt a reason to be. But anyways I thought that was funny. And there was a whole announcement about how we should not engage in a conversation with them but they gave my teacher Irmao Sears a anti Mormon pamphlet.
Some of the stuff I have to type is for specific people in a response to a question so to preface the rest of my email I will just let you know if it is for you. :) Because I am trying to manage my email time and write one big email to save utilize the whole hour...which goes by way too fast. This is my only hour of the whole week that I can think about things other than my studies and language.
So here goes!
Brie! That was a great scripture to share with me! We had a lesson this Sunday also about repentance and I wish I could have read that before so I could have been able to share it with the rest of my district! They would have loved that!
One thing Grandpa Thomson told me before I left, we NEVER make mistakes! all the decisions that we make, we made the best choice with the best knowledge we had at that time.
about my blog. I can virtually visit any site. I am not sure if they monitor the sites, and I hope they do for the sake of every missionary out there. One of the elders in my district was on you tube the other day looking up hymns in Portuguese so that we could get better at singing them as a district. But there are also people who get on and use Google translate to write sacrament meeting talks...so that’s LAME!! But for the blog I have been on and I showed my Sister Weatherford but for the most part I would rather spend my hour of computer time emailing you guys: D I can also get on periodically throughout the week and check my visa status, but no email...not even reading email until my hour on Tuesday.
For Bishop Esquibel, My favorite scripture is 1 Nephi 3:7, but since I have come here, there are so many more that I have found to love even more that that one. I will share those with you later but the one that I want on my pl ack is Philippians 4:13 which reads "I can do allthings through Christ which strengeneth me" But since it is so simple it would be cool if you could put it in PORTUGUESE!! which is:
Filipenses 4:13
Posso todas as coisas em Cristo que me fortalece.
I love this scripture SOOOOO MUCH!
I LOVED THE STORY ABOUT SAVANNAH! I tried to tell it to my companions but no one thought it was as funny as I did. I had 2 stories like that here...and I am going to try to tell them to you but don’t sweat it if they sound dumb.
1) We were walking out of gym...played volleyball and I told an elder I liked his tie and he just looked at me and said "ooohhhhhhhh sister" WHAT THE HECK! LOL it was so random me and sister weatherford almost died laughing!
2) We were walking back from the temple and there was a young man who was not a missionary. My zone had just taken a big zone picture and this guy was walking right in front of us and he was walking towards his friends and said "GUYS! I just had the most epic photo bomb! there was this huge district and they didnt even notice I was in there....." then he turned arround and say me and my companion and stopped talking and tried to hush his friends who were like "AWE MAN! Thats so legit" and then I told him it was alright he photo bombed our zone because none of us will ever know! :P
Packages: we dont really get a lot of those. Sister Tremblay usually gets the bulk of them. But in that I have some sad news. I will report that under the district news section :)
Videos: I am not sure...I think it will be fine.
Documents are a no go. We dont have word or anything because there is not really a need since we have to hand write everything.
Savannah and Mavany!
Church waS CRAZY CRAY! I wake up at 6:30 and study till sacrament at 9. we started a new thing where we dont watch music and the spoken word anymore which is really sad becuase I loved that! And we have a new Relief Society thing that we are starting next week. But CONFERENCE is coming SOOO SOON! I am excited!
The Exciting thing about sundays tho is that we get to watch a movie. obviously it is a church movie but this sunday we got to watch the Joseph Smith movie and last week it was Legacy. And the first week it was the David Bednar talk. WHICH WAS LIFE CHANGING! I really have the desire to watch Johnny Lingo tho...really want to! Also how are the books going? Tell me all about them! I miss books so much! So TELL ME ALL ABOUT THEM! I wish I brought more books with me. Like my Articles Of Faith book Mark and Steph gave me for Christmas a while ago because the book Jesus the Christ references it SOOO MUCH! and the picture book! The one dad said I would want! WELL HE WAS RIGHT! he always is! And it would have been so helpful especially with the first couple of lessons.
So let me know of all the good books you are reading!
ESPECIALLY THE TENNIS SHOES BOOKS! AND BOOKS ABOUT DRAGONS!!!
District news:
lots of things happened in my district this week. The first and best (good news first) is that my companion Sister Weatherford ALMOST HAS HER VISA! on the website to check it she has 3 dots! out of 4! and I still only have one...but SHE HAS 3! we are all so excited for her!
Sad news. Sister Tremblay went home yesterday! It was so hard to see her go! I have learned so much with her in the last couple of weeks with her! And we will all miss her dearly. It all happened so fast. We blinked and there she went.
Actual things that happened:
I don’t know if you guys received my hand written letter about reading the Book of Mormon. So one of the requirements is to read the Book of Mormon before you come to the MTC. And as soon as I got here I made the goal to read it again. I have never read the Book of Mormon twice in a row this fast. I am already in Mosiah! I am extending the invitation to all of you! Read it as a family or as individuals! My testimony has grown so much from reading it again! I learn new things every day! So I want to share with you one thing I learned from my personal BOM study!
1 Nephi 17:13 - This is my NEW favorite scripture and I am memorizing it in Portuguese! I will let you look it up, But I absolutely love it because The lord is our light! He is the one who guides us! And what a dark world we live in today! But what I really love about it is the last part where it says "and ye shall know that it by me that ye are led" Here at the MTC we are stressing following the spirit and listening to those promptings and one of the things I struggled with at the beginning was doubting that the spirit was guiding me and thinking that it was just a random though that popped into my head. Well I am getting better at knowing that THOSE THOUGHTS ARE the promptings of the spirit. And those are what we need to follow, but more than that we need to know those are from GOD! That we are not doing this on our own. And my other new fav scripture philippians 4:13 We can do anything through Christ.
Also had a couple great devos but I will try to fit those in later. Not much time left. Let me know about your experiences with the scriptures. I know that together, no matter how far apart we are physically, we can learn more together than we could ever learn alone. And God put us in families so that we can learn and grow with each other, so that one day we can return to Heaven and live together for eternity.
Eu sei que Deus ama voces e eu ama voces! e Jesus Cristo e nosso Salvador. Eu testifico o Livro de Mormon e a palavra de Deus e O Livro ajuda-nos. Em nome de Jesus Cristo Amem.
(My grammer isnt very good yet... but the point is there!)
Amo Voces!
Sister Thomson
Forgot to tell you in the weekly email...but we had a couple of protestors outside the gates and he was screaming "FREE THE CHILDREN! I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS" which is funny because we are all here by choice and it is ever so easy to be done and go home. Almost too easy. But I guess if you are not here for the Lords work then there really isnt a reason to be. But anyways I thought that was funny. And there was a whole announcement about how we should not engage in a conversation with them but they gave my teacher Irmao Sears a anti Mormon pamphlet.
march 31
PLEASE TELL ME YOU PUT A RUBICS CUBE IN THE BOX!!! I have been dying to get my own and I have been borrowing one from Elder.Gines in my district. He has been teaching me how to do it and I REALLY NEED MY OWN! LOL! I sent dad a letter asking for that and some boondoggle! Because I realized how silly life is without those things! Especially when I want to give away keychains and I have no boondoggle to give away. DU DU DU DAAAAAAAA.
I also was looking at my visa AND GUESS WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!? GO CHECK IT RIGHT NOW! I can only check it so often and on FRIDAY I HAD 2 DOTS! THEY ARE PROCESSING MY VISA! When Sister Weatherford saw hers she went from one dot to three and in a week hers was ready for pick up. Guess what! I MIGHT BE IN BRAZIL WITHIN THE MONTH! I only have 2 weeks left here and if I get it by then I AM MOVING MY BUTT with Sister.Weatherford down to natal!
I don’t know if I told you this but she is also going to Natal. Which would be better if I got my visa because neither of us want to fly down there alone. And since my chances of flying down to Brazil with Greg aren’t that great anymore. Hopefully I will be able to fly down with my awesome companion!
-can you send me some thin headbands? I don’t have any which was DUMB
-slips that I need: a fuller black skirt extender and a white pencil skirt extender. Black and white are probably the best colors to go with all my skirts. And just a plain white slip. Or if you can find one they are called split slips. That might be something to look at.
-a rubrics cube would be really nice. I have a 13 hour plane ride ahead of me.
I was wondering if you could also send me one of those sleep masks? The ones that keep the lights out and some ear plugs? We have been having an issue with one of the girls in our room and they are all out in the missionary store. Also here are some pictures you can choose from for my plaque. I l like the closer one but I’ll let you choose. Also have you heard about the doterra? I think I am going to buy a little bug spray here. Just in case I don’t get it before I go to Brazil. And maybe a flash drive or two if you have any laying around with nothing on them. Then I can send them back with pictures on because I cannot really sent good pictures here. And Get ready because soon I am going to send you a box home with things I won’t need in Brazil.
And maybe I’ll let you know next week, but I might need another skirt.
And some cool Pinterest hair ideas.
That is all I can think of right now. But If I can think of anything else I will make you a List!
Love you!
Thanks!
I also was looking at my visa AND GUESS WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!? GO CHECK IT RIGHT NOW! I can only check it so often and on FRIDAY I HAD 2 DOTS! THEY ARE PROCESSING MY VISA! When Sister Weatherford saw hers she went from one dot to three and in a week hers was ready for pick up. Guess what! I MIGHT BE IN BRAZIL WITHIN THE MONTH! I only have 2 weeks left here and if I get it by then I AM MOVING MY BUTT with Sister.Weatherford down to natal!
I don’t know if I told you this but she is also going to Natal. Which would be better if I got my visa because neither of us want to fly down there alone. And since my chances of flying down to Brazil with Greg aren’t that great anymore. Hopefully I will be able to fly down with my awesome companion!
-can you send me some thin headbands? I don’t have any which was DUMB
-slips that I need: a fuller black skirt extender and a white pencil skirt extender. Black and white are probably the best colors to go with all my skirts. And just a plain white slip. Or if you can find one they are called split slips. That might be something to look at.
-a rubrics cube would be really nice. I have a 13 hour plane ride ahead of me.
I was wondering if you could also send me one of those sleep masks? The ones that keep the lights out and some ear plugs? We have been having an issue with one of the girls in our room and they are all out in the missionary store. Also here are some pictures you can choose from for my plaque. I l like the closer one but I’ll let you choose. Also have you heard about the doterra? I think I am going to buy a little bug spray here. Just in case I don’t get it before I go to Brazil. And maybe a flash drive or two if you have any laying around with nothing on them. Then I can send them back with pictures on because I cannot really sent good pictures here. And Get ready because soon I am going to send you a box home with things I won’t need in Brazil.
And maybe I’ll let you know next week, but I might need another skirt.
And some cool Pinterest hair ideas.
That is all I can think of right now. But If I can think of anything else I will make you a List!
Love you!
Thanks!