Where does the tempo go?

Tudo bem, tudo bom!

Can you believe I'm heading into my last week at the MTC?! We got our flight plans this week and I about died of joy I'm SOOO excited! We have a couple layovers so I'll get to chill in Texas and London for a couple hours! THEN ON TO LISBOA!!!! I'm so so so pumped.

Travel Itinerary

Travel Itinerary for Elders Hillman & Lynn

As always, lots of thoughts from this week. It has literally, and I mean LITERALLY been the best week of my entire life, but let's start with the most joyous of all. I SAW ROB!!! Okay who even knew that he was still doing roofing because I certainly didn't! I about cried but seriously it was just surprise and joy! I obviously couldn't really stop and talk to him for too long but it was so weird and cool to see him especially because he was in Spain when I left. I'm telling you, this week really felt like Heavenly Father looked down and said, "Hey Sister Swasey, you have a good one!"

Running into Rob at the MTC

That day we also got to skype with a man in Brazil! He was a member and so we shared a quick lesson with him and got to talk to him for a bit. He was super nice and it was so cool to talk to a native!!! Then that day I got a whole bunch of letters and all. Sister Call also had a quick question about a skirt and we went to ask the front desk and the referred us to all sorts of people until we got all the way up to Sister Nally, the MTC president's wife! I want to be her when I grow up, seriously she was SO nice! She invited us in right away and just sat and talked to us about the skirt and just about our missions. She also said she felt impressed to share some advice with us. She told us to compliment people, which sounds simple but she went on to say that sometimes we may have to look really hard to find things to compliment but that will help us be positive and always be able to see the good in the world. She was the neatest lady ever. That day we also happened to run into President Nally as he was leading a tour and he asked us what mission we were going to and all. SO COOL.

Sister Tingey & Elder Clement (BYU Friends)

 It's actually kind of funny, we met him while Sister Larsen and I were playing this silly game. The MTC has tons of pictures all over and we love looking at them. I found a picture of Japan and someone said you can't tell the difference between Asians. I thought this was ridiculous because of COURSE there are differences and I told them so. So Sister Larsen went up to the next picture of Asians and covered the caption but they were clearly Korean and so I said so. This turned into an ongoing game of Guess-Where-This-Photo-Is-From. That day I even guessed Mongolian right so I was pretty pumped. Yes I'm still as weird as ever.

Devotionals continue to be one of my favorite parts about the MTC. It's interesting because in at least 3 or 4 of the devotionals the speakers have instructed us to be bold but not overbearing. I'm thinking that means it's pretty important! I don't usually struggle with being bold but sometimes I worry about being overbearing and annoying or whatnot. I've been really working on showing my investigators I love them so when I am bold, they'll know it comes from a good place.

This week was just really great. I thought it was going to go downhill one morning when I woke up kind of sick. I took some medication and felt even WORSE. Then as I was sitting in class really wanting to just whine and complain, but then I just kind of realized that hey, I'm on a mission and whining really isn't going to get me anywhere. I can't go take a nap or slack off because this is all way too important. The SECOND I decided this I swear I felt tons better and by the afternoon I was completely fine. Isn't that amazing how that works? I love being a missionary because it's so much easier to be better because you know you have to work hard know matter what and that this work is super important. It's easier to bite my tongue when I want to complain and just ask Heavenly Father to help me push through whatever insignificant thing may be bothering me.

French Speaking Friends

Fun fact for the week about Portuguese- they have a TON of contractions, but unlike English they aren't optional. So far I've learned contractions for with-me/you/us, in-the/this/that, of the/this/that, and more that I can't even think of right now with the clock of doom ticking down my time. Also, Portuguese has two ways to say "for" but they're not interchangeable and really they mean a LOT of other things. The stressful part for me is they really change the meaning if you switch them. So basically I know never to pray para your enemies, only por your enemies because the first one means your pray too your enemies...yup! Fun stuff. I'm stoked to talk to natives and really immerse myself in the language!

Another cool thing is reading the scriptures in Portuguese. Fun Fact #2 is from Ether 12:6 which talks about receiving a witness after the trial of your faith. The interesting thing is that in the Portuguese Book of Mormon it says after the PROOF of your faith. There is a word for trial and I know they're similar but I thought it was neat how whoever translated it felt to say that we literally need to prove that we have faith to receive a witness.

One thing I think you all should check out is a video about Cape Verde on LDS.org. It's the mission 5 of the elders in my district are going to and it's a really neat story! Also the Europe Area Authority in the video was one of the first converts in Portugal! I'm so excited to teach the people there because they really are pretty receptive. There are over 30,000 members there and there have only been missionaries there since like the 70's. SO COOL.

Danielle's District & Instructors

Anyway, basically still just loving my life more and more every day. Missionary work IS the work of salvation! The souls that I'm supposed to help save are in Portugal and I can't wait to get there to meet them. I just encourage you all to consider the souls the Lord has asked you to help save. Are they your children, your, relatives, your fellow ward members, yourself? I'm definitely still working on that last one myself. This work is so much more than missionaries and baptisms in foreign countries, it's just helping as many people as we can come unto Christ, starting with ourselves and then on to others. I'm so humbled and blessed to be apart of it!

Thank you for the package Eubank Family!

Hopefully I'll get a chance to email next week but I'm not sure because we may not have a P-day with traveling and all that. Either way I love you all and I love hearing from you! 

Ate mais e com amor,

Sister Swasey