Pictures

Happy Halloween!

So I tried to upload some pictures but they aren't working on the computers here...but I will keep trying! I got the packages from you both so thank you so much! Also, thanks so much for the Dear Elders! There's something about getting mail that just makes you day soo much better! So the MTC. I've been here for over a week now, so I'm officially not new any more. So grateful for that! We taught our very first lesson in Spanish 2 days after we got here...the lesson was completely in spanish because our investigator 'didn't speak english.' Talk about getting thrown into things! It's been so great though because it helps us learn so much faster.

    The MTC is hard. There are good days, better days, and not so great days. It's so true what everyone says that days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days! I'm learning to like it more and more each day, and my district is so great. I always feel a little bit bad for our 2 elders surrounded by 9 hermanas...but the one elder had 6 brothers and no sisters, no now he has 9! A little tender mercy that happened this week: We had just learned to bear our testimonies in spanish and our teacher took us outside and told us to find 3 people to bear our testimonies to. The first person I went up to was....latino. Haa just my luck right? So he already knew Spanish. His name was Elder Hernandez and after talking for a little bit I found out that his brother served in my mission! He was so excited and told me some wonderful stories about his brother and the mission and talked about the area quite a bit. It was so nice to hear good things about my area and it got me excited all over again. 

 

     The awesome thing about the MTC is that you have such little time for yourself! You're always thinking about what to teach investigators and how you can better love and serve your companion that little things like if my hair got messed up or if I didn't put on a ton of makeup that morning or things like that, don't even matter and you don't even think about it. You're always thinking about other people and I love that aspect about it. We talked a lot about our purpose as a missionary this week, and I really learned that to be truly converted to this gospel, you have to turn out to love and serve others. I realized that to get what I want most in life and to become the person I want to be, I have to focus on everyone and things other than myself. By losing yourself in the service of others, you find yourself. My companion, Hna. Glazier has given me such great opportunities to love and serve her and sometimes I feel like I pray for her more than I pray for myself. Prayer is the best thing ever! We pray ALL the time here, and it helps us always have the spirit with us. 

 

     Sundays are AMAZING here! My whole district joined the MTC choir, which sings at devotionals on Tuesday nights, but we also have devotionals on Sundays as well. We were told that if you can make it to Sunday, you can make it through your mission. After devotional we can pick which movie we want to watch, and we decided to watch The Character of Christ, by David A. Bednar. It was so amazing. It completely changes your attitude on the mission and what your purpose is. This tuesday we heard from Rosemary M. Wixom, the primary general president. She gave the best talk! Wednesday was our Week-iversary! I was so excited. I'm so glad you sent me all that candy mom, because I wrote little notes that said "happy one week-iversary!" and put them on everyone's desk as a surprise! It was so fun. I learned that if you always try to make the best out of tough situations, they end up turning into the most wonderful learning experiences. THANKS SO MUCH for the piano music! I had been missing playing the piano sooo much! Hna. Morgan plays the piano too and she has a beautiful voice so we had the chance to go play for a while. It's so nice to have that with me. I'm definitely bringing my music to Argentina. Wednesday was one crazy day though. I wasn't feeling that great after lunch and then after dinner during class time I ended up getting sick for real. I'm pretty sure that it was either food poisoning or the stomach flu, but that was probably one of the worst nights ever. I won't go into detail because you know what that all entails, but my companion was so great. I honestly got so lucky though! I'm so glad I got sick at night so I didn't really have to miss much class or studying. Also it was such a huge blessing because Hna. Glazier prepared everything we needed the night before for a surprise lesson that we didn't know was coming the next morning! I felt bad also, because that same night that I got sick...we got 2 new roomies!! They are so amazing! We now have a full room, 6 girls in a room. 3 of them snore, 2 of them talk in their sleep, 1 has a super creaky bed...so let me tell you night times are something interesting. My goal every night is to fall asleep before the snoring starts. The new hermanas were so sweet about everything and I think they'll be so great!

 

     My experiences already have helped me grow a lot, and I'm so excited for what my mission can teach me! I love you so much! Thank you for all the prayers and letters. Please feel free to keep using dearelder while I'm in the MTC at least! I pray for you all the time, and I'm so grateful to know that the Lord is watching over you for me. I just want to bear my testimony, that I know this church is true and that this gospel is the only way to true happiness. I know that as we turn away from ourselves and focus on serving others and finding the good in them, that we will come to find ourselves in the process. We are never alone, because the Lord is always with us. Pray always, for He is always there listening. If you give the Lord everything you have, He will bless you with everything you need and more. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Con amor,

Hermana Feldermann

October 24, 2014

Hola!

I'm here! It's only been 2 days here, but it feels like so much longer. Also, time moves by so fast. You have every second of your day planned out, and that's pretty much how it is when you're actually in the mission as well. I made it here safely Mom and Dad, so no need to worry. I have to give you some grief though, because many of the girls in my district already got letters/emails/packages from their families and when I went to check my email today what did I see? Nada. Es muy triste. It's okay though, I'm sure that you didn't through too big of a party when I left.

 

     So the MTC. My keyboard is super messed up, so please ignore the grammatical errors...I still cant really believe that Im here. That I'm actually a missionary. We jumped right into things the first day. I met my companion! Her name is Hermana Glazier. She is so wonderful. She showed up and guess what....we were wearing the same skirt. And her first name is Rachel, too. Shes from California and so great. My district is comprised of 9 hermanas and 2 elders. Everyone keeps telling us that is completely unheard of. Most districts are made of of all elders, or mostly elders with only a few hermanas. The poor elders. The girls are all so great though. I'm hoping that I can try to motivate us all to work hard and be more obedient. 6 hermanas in my district are going to my mission, including my companion! The others are going to Paraguay, Ecuador, Canada, and San Diego. Our first class was taught entirely in Spanish. I actually understood so much more that I thought I would be able to! The gift of tongues is an amazing blessing of being a missionary, and I feel like I have only scratched the surface of truly being able to access that. Mom! I met this Elder whose name was Elder Perkis and he's from the Leeds, England area. His family grew up in the Wakefield ward. He said that his parents would have been in their teens when you were serving there. Did you know them...(sorry my question mark key isn't working...) 

 

     My roommates are so awesome. There's 4 of us in a room and I was able to get them to all come work out with me in the mornings! We have to get up at 630, but there's these work out classes that start every morning at 6! They are so willing to come with me and are such troopers. We teach our first lesson tomorrow....entirely in spanish, so pray for my companion and I! We were able to go to the temple this morning....Oh by the way my P-day is Fridays in case you hadn't noticed...and the temple was just amazing. I'm getting used to things here, but I can't wait til I get to Argentina. There are rumors to be having problems getting our visas...so we'll see if Argentina is the first place I end up after here! I've officially, as of today, seen every Minnesotan that is in the MTC! It's been so good to see all of them and have that little piece of home. 

 

     The spirit here, is amazing. We pray all the time and I just feel so close to the Lord all of the time. He truly has blessed me so much in my life. We had this amazing lesson yesterday, and we were told that your mission will be the best training ground for almost anything for the rest of your life. I've really been trying to focus on my relationship with my companion because other than the Lord, we were taught that there is no other more important relationship to have. I'm so blessed that Hna. Glazier is so easy to love. I'm learning so many wonderful lessons here, including many things about myself that I need to improve on. I love you so much! Please write me letters! I feel like I'm going to value those soooo much more than emails! Plus I have so much more time to read them.

P.S. Mom will you PLEASE send me my piano music! The one's of hymn arrangements. I miss playing the piano so much!

I will send pictures in another email!

Con amor, 

Hermana Feldermann