Monthly Archives

November 2010

Brazil, Lower 48

Loving MTC Life

21 November 2010

Bom dia!!! Do you realize what a blessed day today is? After all, it’s TIE DYE FRIDAY!!!! :D

I got a tie dye kit from my aunt Connie yesterday and I am soooo happy about it! Oh she just makes my week! So does tie dye! During laundry time this morning, my district and I tie dyed! Oh happy day. I miss tie dying, especially with my darling niece Natalie. But oh it was so so good and I can wait to unveil our shirts. One elder actually did a tie, another dyed an old button up shirt, and I dyed some white tights too. We’ll see how those turn out. :) But it was so fantastico.

I’m loving the MTC life. Learning so so much and I looooove these people here, especially my companion, the ten elders in my district, and the other Brazil bound sisters. As well as the new three sisters in our room! The four hermanas we had the first six weeks are now in Argentina, and on Wednesday new missionaries came.

Speaking of which, we got to host for the new missionaries and show them around. Twas fantastic! Especially since I got to sit outside in the lovely sunshine with the beautiful leaves and things.

And… one sister got her visa this week! But that’s the only one that came, a bunch more missionaries got their temporary reassignments this week. I guess the US doesn’t give Brazilians visa very easily, so they’re doing the same thing for us. I wonder when I’ll get there. My time here in Utah is done in 2.5 weeks. Crazy!

Portuguese is going well.I love it oh so much! I’ve still got so so much to learn of it though. But it’s incredible to believe how much I can speak after only studying for 6 weeks. Truly blessed we are.

I’m learning so much these days. It’s excellent. We have such good speakers and such good lessons and my study time is soooo wonderful.

For Relief Society we had MAry N. Cook of the Young Womens General Presidency come. She spoke to us sisters on the enabling power of the atonement. How Christ suffered for all of our sins, all of our pains, sufferings, temptaions, afflictions, all feelings of every kind. Every feeling, mental, physical, or emotional, Christ has felt. And he went through that not only to pay for our sins and redeem us, but to comfort us. He knows how we feel, because He has felt the same way, because He loves us.

And because Jesus has suffered for all of our sins, we need to use the atonement and repent. We can be forgiven of every sin and we must be. No unclean thing can dwell in the kingdom of God and we must be made clean. Repent and return to Christ.

I also learned more about Prayer this week. We are children of a loving Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants to bless our lives. But we must pray to Him. We are commanded to pray always and if we do, our Heavenly Father will bless us. But we need to pray in faith, knowing that God will answer our prayers. And we too must become to answer to our own prayers and to others prayers. We can’t just give God a shopping list of blessings we’d like, we have to work for them.

When we obey the commandments of God and do as Christ would, we are blessed immensely. We are also blessed with happiness, alegria. Who wants more joy in their lives? I think everyone does. So keep the commandments, all of them, and come unto Christ. And in order to keep the commandments, we must know what they are. AKA study the scriptures and words of the Lord and His prophets.

I love our prophet. And there’s rumor going around that he might come to the MTC on Tuesday for devotional or maybe for Thanksgiving. If not President Monson, then I’m sure another apostle will come. We didn’t have a 5th apostle at our devotional on Tuesday, it was given by Elder Pearson, a memebr of the first quorum of the seventy. And it was oh so wonderful. I learned lots lotslots.

He talked about being a disciple of Jesus Christ. As a missionary, I wear the name of Jesus Cristo on my name tag every single day. I am recognized as a representative of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel. I need to work more on giving up myself and finding the Lord, forgetting about who I was before the mission and find myself in the service of Jesus Christ. For when we lose ourselves for His sake, we find ourselves. I’m Sister Owens now. It’s so wonderful. I love it. I have never been so surrounded by the Spirit all day every day. I looooove being a sister missionary! :D

Brazil, Lower 48

Visas are coming!!!

15 November 2010

Ola familia e amigos!!
Eu tenho muitos good news isse semana!
     First, I LOVE PORTUGUESE! And I looove learning it! We started teaching in Portguese this week and it’s pretty excellent. I don’t have all the tenses and conjugations down, nor do I have a very large vocabulary, but I can get by just fine. We taught in volunteer “investigator” this week for an hour and at the end he was telling us how impressed he was with our Portuguese, especially for only being here for 5 weeks. We are so blessed.
     More good news… visas are coming! 5 came on Monday afternoon, and then five people were gone by the next morning. Wowza. But before your visa comes you have to do an online application, which only lasts 30 days. Annnnnd, I did the online application! So did 5 elders in my district! Which possibly means I’ll be in Brazil within 30 days. Maybe not though, we have no idea. But things are moving along!
     And more good news, so you know how we’ve had three apostles in a row, Nelson, Scott, Ballard… well, yes yes, make that FOUR apostles in FOUR weeks at devotional! Elder David A. Bednar came on Tuesday! Whoa whoa crazy daisy. It was excellent of course. He spoke on how the answer to everything is ALWAYS in the DOCTRINE. The doctrine is found in the scriptures, in words of the profetas/prophets, and in authorized proclamations by the first presidency. He told us to study and teach the doctrine. It was so good and the spirit was so strong, especially when he walked into the room. Oh I love the MTC.
    We had mission conference this week. Excelllent. I realized that those of us who are blessed with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ MUST share it, and that we really should be the happiest people in the world. Ola, we have the fulness of the gospel! Fantastico!
    Every Sunday we have firesides, guess who spoke at that? Sheri Dew. Yep. Fantastic as well. She said how when we know who we are, it changes everything. When we know and understand that we are children of a loving God, and He desires to bless our lives, it changes everything we do and how we live. And when we understand and know that He loves us so much that He sent His only begotten son to atone for all of our pains and sins, we appreciate so much more. The Savior suffered every pain we have ever suffered, every sorrow, every sickness, every feeling, he understands how we feel in every situation, because he’s been through everything, because he loves us.
    So more good news I share today is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The word “gospel” means good news. And it truly is the best news ever! The knowledge of the gospel brings me peace and hope in every situation. I know the Lord has his hand in everything and wants me to come unto him. I love the gospel and I am so grateful for my oppurtunity to represent Jesus Christ as a missionary and share the restored gospel with the children of God. Coming on a mission is the best thing in the world.
    We watched a talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about how our missions are so important. They should mean everything to us. They should change our lives, the lives of our families, and the lives of the people we serve. My mission means everything to me.
    I can’t wait to get to Brazil and teach real investigators. And our two teachers are returned Protuguese speaking missionaries and so I learn what it’s actually like from them. One of our teachers was talking about the food and I’m so excited to have acai bowls again when I get to Brazil, and real acai bowls! I’m not excited for the mystery meat, but hopefully I’ll be able to pick around some of it. Our teacher said that one time he had a pig tooth in something he was eating. Some people use the whoooole animal in there. Uh oh. Not good for me. But I’ll figure it out. And their beans and rice are just fantastic and there are sooo many wonderful and delicious fruits. I think I’ll survive, and thrive.
    I got to see my wonderful aunty yesterday which is such a blessing. It is one of the highlights of my week. And she tells me how the family is doing and says inspiring things and brings me delicious treats from the outside world. :) Love it.
    Another sister I met in Jerusalem came this week too! Sister Mayfield! There are sooo many girls that I went to Jerusalem with that are now on  missions. BYU Jerusalem is life changing I tell you. And my good wonderful friend from BYUH, Sister Lautiki, came too! And she told me about more missionaries that are coming. Missions are the best and I’m soooo excited for my amigas who are working on papers and preparing for the mish field. It is the BEST!
    Life is beautiful here. I’m loving the missionary training center bubble. It’s fantastic. And fall is sooooo beautiful! I haven’t experienced fall in a while, going to school in Hawaii, so I am loving it. There are so many beautiful leaves! Be prepared, you might get some in the mail. :)
    Well friends and loved ones, thank you for reading my letters of goodness and I hope everything is joyous for you.
    Ciao!
PS I wear my parrot earrings every day.