Desculpe moments and other randomness

Tudo bem tudo o mundo! (literally translated, all well, all the world! Or in other words, how's it going everyone!)

MTC life...man it is some pretty good stuff, I highly recommend it. Seriously though, every day is such a great day!!! So much to tell you this week so let's get crackin'.

Devotionals. Oh my goodness they are the greatest things you could ever imagine. They blow my mind weekly. I really love doing choir too, we go every week and the director is the best I've ever seen ever. I'm telling you they get the BEST here at the MTC. He always gives us amazing background on the songs we sing and it's really powerful. He's also hilarious so that's fun too. Devotionals are cool too because we go to the Marriott Center with ALL the missionaries and it's sweet, I mean there are thousands of us, getting more every day. They took a picture last week of all the missionaries- only the third one ever taken at the MTC of all the missionaries so that's pretty sweet.

Devotional at the Marriott Center

 After Devotional is really cool too because we have district review where we talk about what stuck out to us and such. It always turns into an awesome discussion. This time people shared trials or doubts they faced to get here to the MTC. It's weird for me to hear that because the honest truth? From the minute I heard about the age change and collapsed on the floor in sobs of joy I have never had a single doubt- not one. It's interesting because I know that it's not because I'm some perfect missionary or something. Mostly I just feel like Satan couldn't get to me for some reason, like maybe my hard trials are coming later. I don't know if that's making ANY sense but basically I'm just glad that I KNOW I need to be here and I'm really excited to see what the Lord has in store for me.

Danielle, Sister Larsen & Samuel Smith

Sundays are cool too because we get to go on temple walks. The temple is closed so we never get to do sessions but it's fun to go walk around it with all the missionaries. It's a little sad because now there are protesters every time we go. It's kind of weird too because I've never seen them at the Provo temple before, or any temple except Salt Lake really. It's sad to see them so angry at us when we're trying so hard to spread joy but if you think about it, it's just fulfilling prophesy.On Sundays we also get to watch Music in the Spoken Word and every week we start Relief Society singing The Sisters of Zion. They rewrote the words to As Sisters in Zion to be our missionary song! I'm still trying to get a copy of the words because it's superrrr good.

Danielle & Jason Allred

Our lessons with Ricardo are progressing! We have discovered the perfect analogy for them. Each lesson is like a flying squirrel. Bear with me. We get to the lessons and he tells us he read the Book of Mormon! So we get excited and we leap...and then he asks us a million hard questions, has doubts about everything we say, we try to follow the Spirit but it feels like it's going nowhere, etc. etc. Well then EVERY time at the last minute when we're falling and we're like well, there's the ground- this woodland creature has wings and the lesson never crashes. It's weird but it made sense in my head. We always end up throwing our lesson plans out the window but it's still really cool because like one lesson we're were struggling and trying so hard when Sister Larsen pulls out a scripture we had planned to use to talk about something TOTALLY different and that verse turned the whole lesson around and we got him to a point where he really wanted to know more, pray more, and really try to figure out if what we're saying is true. So basically, planning helps even if we end up throwing most of our plans out the janela. 2 Nephi was the scripture by the way, it was a good one because Ricardo is SUPER logical and technical. It's a good one.

Paisley Tie Wednesdays

Random facts about my life are as follows: I think I've had a bagel for breakfast about 85% of the days here and I drink lemonade with about every single meal. Sometimes I see companionships matching and I think it's really funny. Like they literally wear the exact same outfit, so much so that you know it's no joke. Too funny! I learned that the best way to learn is to have an elder tell you that you can't do something. Elder Gunther told me I couldn't learn how to do that snapping thing with your knuckles (I can't really explain it but Kurt can do it really well if you remember). Well less than a week later I've got it down! And I can do it with both hands faster than most of the elders. In your face Elder Gunther. Only joking :)

Italian Neighbor

We get to be hosts to the new missionaries next week so I'm really excited about that!!! We got new neighbors this week going to Russian and we've been making friends with them. I say "Oi!" and they say "iuasefipuagwehi" and we have a grand old time. We also have the biggest zone nowadays so we have 3 counselors for the president and I know like 5 people in it from BYU. We do service every week too and ours is cleaning bathrooms. Basically I feel right at home...haha my job was good prep for a mission in more ways than I thought! Let's see, que mais.... Oh we switched the room we do our computer stuff in so that's pretty thrilling. We don't experience a lot of change around here so it's a pretty big deal.

Danielle & Elder Lynn with his Free Rabbit

 OH! We've started going through the free bins where departing missionaries leave lots of good stuff. So far I got a couple mini American flags and a Jesus the Christ which is AWESOME. I also got a Cebuano Bible for fun but that will probably return to the free box.

Zone Leaders Roberts & Gunther

Life is just good! I mean sometimes I have hard times like when I have to move my hair because it's covering my nametag or like when my sheets fall off my top bunk but I'm pulling through ;) Okay but in all seriousness, this week has been really fun and hilarious. We were practicing teaching in class with the Elders. We were supposed to be depressed investigators so Sister Larsen and I said our mom died. We were supposed to be practicing getting to know people better and such. Well in response to this Elder Elsmore says, "Desculpe. Como e seu trabalho?" Which means, "Sorry, how's your job?" Which was funny enough as it is. To top it all off that's the wrong kind of sorry which is what you say like when you bump into someone, NOT when their mom dies. Even better, we found out "desculpe" really means more of "my bad" or "my fault" so translate that one now haha. Oh yeah and the Portuguese write a laugh like the following: "kkkkk," "huahuahua" and "rsrsrsrs" TOO FUNNY. Another highlight, Elder Hillman gave a glorious prayer as an investigator as follows- "Deus, desculpe por pecados, obrigado por missionarios, amem." Which is just "God, sorry for sins, thanks for missionaries, amen." Classic elder. And when you're in a classroom as long as we are that is some prime comedy stuff!

Well worn scriptures

Study Materials

This week I made a lot of goals that I'd like to share. My MTC goal is just to be able to walk away knowing I had a good attitude the whole time and I used my study time wisely. I hate when people say they hate the MTC, especially because I LOVE it. I also don't want to regret not studying enough so I've been working on not being so distracted. My end mission goal is to be able to say that I gave all the love I had to every person I met, taught, and worked with. I really feel like love in a mission is the most important thing. Charity IS the pure love of Christ and it is the first great commandment. Christ was so loving and so if I can be more like Him then...sweet, I mean that's the ultimate goal! I also want to memorize a scripture a week of my mission in Portuguese. So far I have the first vision, ALma 32:21, Alma 34:32, James 1:5 and John so I'm even ahead! It's super cool to read the scriptures in Portuguese because they translate slightly differently so you get a better understanding of the meaning.

Smells like Cream Soda

 We had the coolest lesson this week with Irmao Taylor. Look up Elder Holland's talk about the Atonement and Missionary work, there's a youtube video for it that we watched. SO GOOD. I really learned that being a missionary really is just trying to be like Christ. Missionary work isn't going to be easy because the work of salvation has NEVER been easy. It wasn't for Christ and it won't be for us. And so even when I give all my love to an investigator that rejects me, that's okay because that's exactly what Christ does everyday. Elder Holland talks about how to have a lasting and enduring testimony of the Atonement we have to walk a few steps into the Garden, we have to go where Christ went. We have to pay a SMALL token of the price He paid to truly be able to testify of the atonement. He says it so much better than I can but it's a great thought. I just need to love as He did, and maybe experience some pain as He did (okay definitely) and then just lean on Him. This IS the Lord's work. I know it! I love it! Every day I'm so grateful to be hear. I'm so grateful to be a part of bring salvation and happiness to other people. It's humbling, it's hard, it's worth it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else doing anything else.

I love you all, write me emails or letters anytime!


Tchau Tchau for now,

Sister Swasey

Volleyball