Woooooooooow! Hello! Chile, wow! He'll do great. He told me in a letter that he's got the basics of Spanish already, so he'll baptize the whole mission, I'm sure. Yeah, every single Spanish speaking missionary is going to the Mexico MTC now, even if you're going state side Spanish. They have some kind of special visa permission or whatever that allows it. When I was in the MTC, all the Spanish teachers were considering finding a new job or moving out to Mexico because of it, so it's brand new. Very cool.
I did spend some money on my debit card, just so you know. It totally works. I have not heard anything about a huge announcement, but I'm excited! So many changes have already been made since I've been out here. The end is neigh! I read an article in the ensign that was talking about how crazy it is that the age change was announced right around the time the new curriculum for the youth changed. There's more of a push than ever for the youth to be more involved and become leaders at a younger age. The article talked about how with all of these changes in the youth programs leading up to the announcement at general conference in October, none of it is a coincidence. The Lord is hastening His work. And now with that big sister meeting we had, Sisters are becoming even with the Elders, both in number and responsibility. Brother Hopkinson got back from a priesthood meeting about the new youth curriculum and missionary work one morning. Apparently Elder Bednar spoke and shared how once he had a conversation with President Hinckly while he was still the prophet. President Hinckly told Bednar about big changes that were about to take place that he (Bednar) would live to see, but that he himself would not be there to see it take place. Crazy stuff. I was also talking to Sister Hopkinson once and she said that back when she was taking the discussions, the missionaries had a script they had to follow for each lesson. These days, we have PMG, (which is basically another form of scripture itself with words from modern prophets) but we are encouraged to just follow the promptings of the spirit and trust in the Lord. Things are definitely changing!
So I just went on two exchanges in a row, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Saturday I was in a singles ward area with Sister Johnson, who is a visa waiter going to Peru. The singles ward is an English area, though. I was so impressed with her faith because while most people in her position would really struggle - you know, having to learn Spanish, but being placed in an English area and not knowing when you're leaving...oh and on top of that, her home town is Reno, NV! She loves the area, though, and she already recognizes that the Lord is blessing her. As a result of her attitude of gratitude, her and her companion have seen many miracles. It was a brand new area (by the way, another change is they're trying to put only sisters in singles wards because apparently it brings more success) and they've already had 2 baptisms and now have 2 or 3 with a date. And this is her first transfer. I got to be with her when they screened one of their investigators for baptism. His name's Theran and he's 20 years old. He made a pretty cool announcement to us and sister Johnson cried. He said he wants to put off going to the army so that he can serve a mission. It was real cool. Then on Sunday I went on another exchange with the Central sisters, but this time I was with sister Webb's companion, sister Nieto. Not too much happened, except that, um, you know, Tomas got the priesthood. ;) But we have another exchange tomorrow, so we have to meet up tonight at 8:45. I'm going to be with Hermana Furstenau again in my area. I'm the most nervous for this one. Don't know why. Then I have another one on Saturday with sister Johnson's companion, sister Holland, so I'm going to be in the singles ward again. Oh, and on Wednesday the sister training leaders have to go to another meeting, so I have to go on a mini exchange with two sisters. The reason being is that one of the sisters I'm going to be with is an English missionary and doesn't speak Spanish and we're going to be in an English area, and sister Zagarra (who I went on a mini exchange with the last time) speaks very little English, so I'm going to be the translator/zebra companion. All 3 of our companions are STL, so yeah. Sister Zagarra was really excited when she heard I'd be there with her, though. For some reason she likes me. How strange.
SO MANY, MANY exchanges. And as the companion of a STL, I go on more exchanges than anyone. It's a great learning experience for me, though. The point of exchanges is to learn from each other and get ideas from other missionaries. As you work in other areas and with different people, you learn things you never could otherwise. You get to see how other missionaries work and learn how to work with a variety of different people. And little miracles always happen. It's cool. The Elders have always done exchanges regularly, but this is a brand new thing for sisters. So it's cool to be in the first group of Sisters to start off this new change.
Oh, and remember the Munoz family? We started the lessons over with them. We taught them the Restoration (1st lesson) on Wednesday and are going to continue to teach them. They really have made a goal to get to the temple. And as a family they've been to church twice in a row. Jay, the oldest son, has gone 5 times in a row, but he's not completely on board with the rest of the family yet. He's a tough nut to crack. When I was with Sister Webb and we visited him, he told me that the law of chastity lesson we had with him outside really opened his eyes and he was going to live it. Sister Webb and I really got him to open up more, but on Wednesday he told us he wants to go to church, but basically that even though he knows some of the things he does are wrong, he's going to keep on doing them. That's not the person I saw the other night, though. He seems to think we're doing it all for him and he doesn't want us "wasting our time" but we're doing it for the family, because the parents want it. I believe Jay does, too, so we're not about to give up on them. We need to teach them the Atonement, I think. I found this quote by elder Richard G. Scott that really reminds me of that family...
"You are here on earth for a divine purpose. It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure. You are here to be tried, to prove yourself so that you can receive the additional blessings God has for you. The tempering effect of patience is required."
I shared this quote with Jay once, but they need to each have a copy of it or something.
Anyway, I love you all very much. Stay strong, stay safe, and remember who you are! See you soon! <3
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