Okay, Primeiro, to explain, we got new schedules on Sunday because the teachers who basically all attend BYU just finished their semester and they had to rearrange class times. So normally, every branch has it's own schedule and every district in that branch has the same schedule every day. My branch has always had the same schedule but some districts are in a different teaching zone. So, with the schedule change our branch is split up Monday through Saturday. AND because my district is split into two different classrooms, my half of the district and the other half are on completely different schedules. Different p-day and everything! It’s seriously so sad and we kind of hate it but it was "Sophie's choice". We could either stay with our branch or stay with our teachers. Oh, and speaking of staying with our teachers, apparently the teaching supervisors decided we just didn't need one of our teachers anymore and gave him a new district and now we have a new teacher. We really like him though, his name is Irmao Cannon and he's really funny and nice and INSANELY smart. Like crazy town smart.
Because of the schedule change, this has been the weirdest week ever. On Monday we had this weird like limbo day of everyone trying to figure out which schedule we were on because our teachers had been given the different one, and then on Tuesday, because we didn't have enough laundry to make it to our new p-day, we got like a half p-day to take care of stuff. Then on Wednesday we got to host! Which is basically just escorting the new missionaries around when they arrive, helping them find their residence and get their ID info, and then take them to their class to meet their companion. We had such a good time hosting and we get to do it again next week!
Yesterday was the only normal day we had, but it was also Elder Tucci's birthday! So we woke up at 530 and went and decorated their classroom and stuff, and then just in time for the end of the day, the wonderful Eric Kokkola had sent us some cup cakes to give him (Huge thank you. You are the best!) and we had found numeral candles so we made the extra 2 candle into a 0 and went and sang to him. He was totally surprised. It was so much fun and I'm glad we helped make his day. We have to do what we can here in the MTC ha. And so now today is p-day!!
Last night we got our travel plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We leave Tuesday the 8th at like 4:30 and we fly into Paris and then PORTUGAL!!!! What the heck! It's actually happening! We only have ten days left here!!!
At first when we realized we only had two weeks I was getting terrified of going into the field because I don't feel ready with the language and it was all just becoming a little too real. I was just panicky a little and starting to doubt myself. But as soon as we got our travel plans in our hands I was READY.
I am so excited to be in the field. I'm going to forward a letter from one of the sisters I knew here in the MTC who has been in Portugal almost five weeks. She is such an inspiration and she describes really well what I'm about to get myself into! I'm so excited for this. I can’t believe it. I'm going to live in Portugal. Pretty soon I'll be speaking Portuguese for real! I'm going to be preaching the gospel! Whaaaaaat! This is craziness but in the best way possible.
Oh my goodness, probable the most important thing of all, on Sunday I had a miracle. I've always had a testimony that this church is true and that I need to be living it and that it was important, but I never really had that deep, completely ingrained in who you are, fundamental KNOWLEDGE that this church and believing the way I did was 100 percent correct and fact and the most important part of my existence. I'd always still had my moments of, what if this is just some kind of craziness and I'm doing all this for nothing. What if this really is just some farfetched thing I choose to believe in. Just those momentary like questioning it, because things were hard to do at times, kind of moments.
Sunday was the most amazing day though, and I had a moment where the Spirit was so strong, and suddenly something clicked, I just understood. I know now, in a way that I really can't quite explain, but I KNOW that this church is true, and that it is the reason I have every happiness in life that I have, and that EVERYONE needs to know what I know.
I am so excited and so grateful for the chance to be a part of helping other people get to the understanding I finally have after 21 years. Any way I can help, I know I need to.
Everyone should go read Mosiah chapter 4. I love that chapter. It talks about salvation and understanding the need for the Atonement in our lives.
Once I get to Portugal I'll take the time to bear my testimony to you guys in Portuguese, but for now I want you all to know that this Gospel means the world to me. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true and genuine scripture and any problem we face can be helped through reading its pages. I know that God loves me and each one of you and he wants all of us to understand and love him too.
You guys I love you all so much!!! I still miss you but no offense; I can wait the next 16 months to see you again, because I know how important this is.
ciao! eu amo voces!
Irma dean
Friday, April 27, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Easter Sunday in the MTC
Hola familia e amigos.
I’m sad to say there’s not a lot going on this week so I don’t really have anything to write. I want to give a huge thank you to Aunt Kathy, Shauna Bere, Mary Sage, and Brooke for your letters! I absolutely loved hearing from you guys. I can’t say enough how much I love getting letters emails and dear elders. They are the best part of the day!
Okay, the one highlight this week was Sunday! Happy late Easter by the way!! It was really cool. We had an entire MTC wide sacrament and Boyd K Packer and his son Allan came and spoke to us. It was so amazing to sing all the songs as an entire MTC and have an Apostle speak to us again. His message was wonderful. They both talked about the Atonement and conversion and building your relationship with the Savior. It was wonderful. We then had individual fast and testimony meetings and we all bore our testimonies in Portuguese. It was amazing and it’s kind of funny, I think about spiritual stuff in Portuguese now before I do in English. I can almost feel the spirit better in Portuguese and my prayers feel more meaningful in Portuguese.
So, obviously things with the language are getting better. My companion and I are trying really hard to keep progressing and it’s hard but we are making progress for sure. Oh! also, we met our OTHER future mission president this week! Ha ha, how crazy is that? He and his wife are here for training and reviewing their Portuguese so we got to meet them and they say "Hi" to us at meals.
Please keep praying for me. it’s getting hard to keep up because the further we go the more responsibilities we have and I can barely manage the ones I have now. On Wednesday we get to become investigators so we understand how a person learning about the church should feel when we teach them. I’m so sorry that I can’t think of anything else to say so I’ll just tell you a little more about the people in my district.
My companion is Irma Barlow, she’s also from Maryland, and she’s from Potomac. She went to BYU and studied comparative literature so obviously we get along really well and have the same interests. She’s so loving and I appreciate her so much. Irma Patterson is from North Carolina/ California and has the most awesome sounding family! She’s a totally sweetheart and went to BYU Idaho. Irma Layton is from Utah, went to Weber state, and she’s so righteous it’s ridiculous. She always keeps us in line. We definitely need her. In the other classroom are the other four members of our district; Irma Bringhurst is lovely, from Utah, and such a sweet girl. She has a beautiful voice too and she keeps trying to get me to sing in church with her. Irma Davis is just as sweet and the two of them have quiet dignity down packed. They are so humble and spiritual. I love our elders. Elder Platamone is from California he’s a convert and he and his sister are the only members in their family. He loves to dance and he’s such a goof. Elder Tucci is from Australia and he’s probably my favorite person who I feel closest to as legitimate friends outside of the MTC context. He’s crazy and reminds me a lot of the entire group of guys from home like Joe and Ethan and Alex and Mitch. He would fit in with them so well. anyway, I really don’t have anything else.
I love you guys so much though and I pray for you guys and think about you all the time.
Love, Irma dean
I’m sad to say there’s not a lot going on this week so I don’t really have anything to write. I want to give a huge thank you to Aunt Kathy, Shauna Bere, Mary Sage, and Brooke for your letters! I absolutely loved hearing from you guys. I can’t say enough how much I love getting letters emails and dear elders. They are the best part of the day!
Okay, the one highlight this week was Sunday! Happy late Easter by the way!! It was really cool. We had an entire MTC wide sacrament and Boyd K Packer and his son Allan came and spoke to us. It was so amazing to sing all the songs as an entire MTC and have an Apostle speak to us again. His message was wonderful. They both talked about the Atonement and conversion and building your relationship with the Savior. It was wonderful. We then had individual fast and testimony meetings and we all bore our testimonies in Portuguese. It was amazing and it’s kind of funny, I think about spiritual stuff in Portuguese now before I do in English. I can almost feel the spirit better in Portuguese and my prayers feel more meaningful in Portuguese.
So, obviously things with the language are getting better. My companion and I are trying really hard to keep progressing and it’s hard but we are making progress for sure. Oh! also, we met our OTHER future mission president this week! Ha ha, how crazy is that? He and his wife are here for training and reviewing their Portuguese so we got to meet them and they say "Hi" to us at meals.
Please keep praying for me. it’s getting hard to keep up because the further we go the more responsibilities we have and I can barely manage the ones I have now. On Wednesday we get to become investigators so we understand how a person learning about the church should feel when we teach them. I’m so sorry that I can’t think of anything else to say so I’ll just tell you a little more about the people in my district.
My companion is Irma Barlow, she’s also from Maryland, and she’s from Potomac. She went to BYU and studied comparative literature so obviously we get along really well and have the same interests. She’s so loving and I appreciate her so much. Irma Patterson is from North Carolina/ California and has the most awesome sounding family! She’s a totally sweetheart and went to BYU Idaho. Irma Layton is from Utah, went to Weber state, and she’s so righteous it’s ridiculous. She always keeps us in line. We definitely need her. In the other classroom are the other four members of our district; Irma Bringhurst is lovely, from Utah, and such a sweet girl. She has a beautiful voice too and she keeps trying to get me to sing in church with her. Irma Davis is just as sweet and the two of them have quiet dignity down packed. They are so humble and spiritual. I love our elders. Elder Platamone is from California he’s a convert and he and his sister are the only members in their family. He loves to dance and he’s such a goof. Elder Tucci is from Australia and he’s probably my favorite person who I feel closest to as legitimate friends outside of the MTC context. He’s crazy and reminds me a lot of the entire group of guys from home like Joe and Ethan and Alex and Mitch. He would fit in with them so well. anyway, I really don’t have anything else.
I love you guys so much though and I pray for you guys and think about you all the time.
Love, Irma dean
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Singing in Conference
Ola familia!!! Como estam???
I freaking love you guys! This week has been amazing. seriously, completely incredible. Our district is having so much fun together and the MTC is getting easier to cope with. Ok, the biggest things about this week are really cool. Are you ready for them?
1. In case you somehow weren't aware, I sang in the MTC choir in General Conference. You guys. I was in the same room as the prophet and ALL OF THE GENERAL AUTHORITIES. It was seriously the most wonderful once in a lifetime experiences ever. It was so amazing. I'm sorry if this description is kind of redundant because I can’t think of how else to describe it.
The members of the 70 all congratulated us and were turning around to look at us while we sang. It was so cool! I hope you all loved conference. The talks were so amazing and I loved every minute of it. Thank you all for the Dear Elders saying you saw me and thank you so much Jen for sending me the picture!! It was way cool. We all came back and watched the session online to see ourselves and I was so glad I was on the aisle so people could see me!
OK number 2. so as I've told you guys, one of my teachers is my Mission Presidents' son. Well, earlier last week, the OTHER teacher told us Brother Torgan's dad would be in town for Conference which is weird since they're not supposed to leave the mission area. So we get to the session of Conference to sing, and I'm sitting there and they announce the new members of the 70. Moroni B Torgan was announced. So even though he’s getting released in July, he's still our mission president for a while and now he's also a general authority of the church. HOLY GOODNESS. There have been so many remarkable things like that and awesome cool coincidences so far.
So we came back and we were talking a lot about how cool that is. Then. after dinner yesterday we were getting ready to go to the section of class where we teach our investigators but when we walked into the hall Brother Torgan was there in his suit and we were really confused and then I got this awful sinking feeling and I was like "no!!!! no he did not!!"
HE BROUGHT HIS PARENTS TO MEET US. Just in case you guys aren't aware, this kind of thing DOESN'T HAPPEN. We got to meet our Mission President! It was so scary until I walked in the door and saw them and they were so sweet and had the best and strongest spirit about them. We gave Sister Torgan a big hug and it was so amazing to get a mother's hug. I felt like I was hugging you, Mama Dean. I miss you but it was a great tender mercy. You can really tell that they already love us. President Torgan talked to us for a while while Brother Torgan translated.
He shared some scriptures with us and told us about the prophecy that was given that Portugal would be the lighthouse of converting all of Europe. It’s so true, last month Portugal had 130 baptisms and the second highest baptizing country only had 40. How amazing is that! President Torgan testified that we are going to be a vital part of that and I felt such a strong confirmation that despite how random it seemed, Portugal really is where I need to go. It is such an honor to be chosen for that mission and it revitalized my excitement to get out in the field. It was amazing!
Other than that, everything seemed kind of boring in comparison. Ha, ha but no, it’s been a really good week. Really funny too. In one of our lessons Irma Barlow accidentally said the Christ was our avocado instead of our advocate. I love her. The investigator started cracking up.
I seriously love you all so much and I wish I could give you guys giant hugs. I’m feeling so much happier and having a fantastic time and trying really hard to get better at the language and at teaching. Keep the letters coming! I love hearing from you guys!
I love you guys and I miss you so much!!!
Irma dean
I freaking love you guys! This week has been amazing. seriously, completely incredible. Our district is having so much fun together and the MTC is getting easier to cope with. Ok, the biggest things about this week are really cool. Are you ready for them?
1. In case you somehow weren't aware, I sang in the MTC choir in General Conference. You guys. I was in the same room as the prophet and ALL OF THE GENERAL AUTHORITIES. It was seriously the most wonderful once in a lifetime experiences ever. It was so amazing. I'm sorry if this description is kind of redundant because I can’t think of how else to describe it.
The members of the 70 all congratulated us and were turning around to look at us while we sang. It was so cool! I hope you all loved conference. The talks were so amazing and I loved every minute of it. Thank you all for the Dear Elders saying you saw me and thank you so much Jen for sending me the picture!! It was way cool. We all came back and watched the session online to see ourselves and I was so glad I was on the aisle so people could see me!
OK number 2. so as I've told you guys, one of my teachers is my Mission Presidents' son. Well, earlier last week, the OTHER teacher told us Brother Torgan's dad would be in town for Conference which is weird since they're not supposed to leave the mission area. So we get to the session of Conference to sing, and I'm sitting there and they announce the new members of the 70. Moroni B Torgan was announced. So even though he’s getting released in July, he's still our mission president for a while and now he's also a general authority of the church. HOLY GOODNESS. There have been so many remarkable things like that and awesome cool coincidences so far.
So we came back and we were talking a lot about how cool that is. Then. after dinner yesterday we were getting ready to go to the section of class where we teach our investigators but when we walked into the hall Brother Torgan was there in his suit and we were really confused and then I got this awful sinking feeling and I was like "no!!!! no he did not!!"
HE BROUGHT HIS PARENTS TO MEET US. Just in case you guys aren't aware, this kind of thing DOESN'T HAPPEN. We got to meet our Mission President! It was so scary until I walked in the door and saw them and they were so sweet and had the best and strongest spirit about them. We gave Sister Torgan a big hug and it was so amazing to get a mother's hug. I felt like I was hugging you, Mama Dean. I miss you but it was a great tender mercy. You can really tell that they already love us. President Torgan talked to us for a while while Brother Torgan translated.
He shared some scriptures with us and told us about the prophecy that was given that Portugal would be the lighthouse of converting all of Europe. It’s so true, last month Portugal had 130 baptisms and the second highest baptizing country only had 40. How amazing is that! President Torgan testified that we are going to be a vital part of that and I felt such a strong confirmation that despite how random it seemed, Portugal really is where I need to go. It is such an honor to be chosen for that mission and it revitalized my excitement to get out in the field. It was amazing!
Other than that, everything seemed kind of boring in comparison. Ha, ha but no, it’s been a really good week. Really funny too. In one of our lessons Irma Barlow accidentally said the Christ was our avocado instead of our advocate. I love her. The investigator started cracking up.
I seriously love you all so much and I wish I could give you guys giant hugs. I’m feeling so much happier and having a fantastic time and trying really hard to get better at the language and at teaching. Keep the letters coming! I love hearing from you guys!
I love you guys and I miss you so much!!!
Irma dean
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