Hermana Rachel Feldermann: Argentina Bound!

Finally!! This is my last email you will be receiving while I am still in the MTC! Our P-Day got changed to Wednesday this week instead of Friday because of Thanksgiving. We have infield orientation all day Friday and then we depart nice and early Monday morning!! I am so excited. 5 days! Less than that actually. This week has been such a good week! I feel like every day is a good week. How could it not be when you're serving the Lord 24/7?

So last week I met a bunch of missionaries serving in Minnesota! It was so great, and I'm way excited for them. I told them that they had the best mission in the world. Sundays here are amazing, if I haven't already said that a million times. We had another district leave in our zone, so now we are officially the oldest! Our of two zones...but it's great. They had 3 sisters leave and 5 elders to Mexico! They sang a farewell song and I had the chance to play for them as well. It was "Come Unto Christ" and was so beautiful! I just loved it. Funny story, so there was this huge flat screen TV on a stand by the wall, and I sat kind of near it so I could have easy access to the piano. After the talks were over, when I was going up to the piano I completely tripped over the TV stand...haa classic Rachel move, huh? I love being a missioanry.

On Monday, the coolest thing happened. I was in line during lunch and I thought I might have accidentally cut in front of the couple that was behind me so I went to apologize and talked to them and then they were older so I asked where they were serving their mission, because older couples that are serving missions come to this MTC as well, and they told me that they would be serving in the MTC for the next two years! So I thought wait a minute...and then I asked them if they were the new MTC presidents and they said yes! Oh my goodness! So I met the new MTC presidents and then when I was sitting down the current MTC president, President Nally stopped and talked to me. What a neat thing, they are such great people! I was so fortunate to be able to meet them even if I won't still be here when they're serving. Mom! You know how you asked me about Hermana Cannon? She is in my district!! I love her so much! Her mom had asked her if she knew me as well. She's such a great person.

Tuesday was the best day ever! It was November 25th, but since we aren't going to have a cold or snowy christmas in Argentina, we decided to celebrate Christmas on November 25th instead! Oh my goodness it was so fun. I convinced everyone to wear Christmas colors so we all showed up to class wearing red and green and sang Christmas songs all day. And everyone loved the little stockings! It was such a fun day. The spirit of Christmas can be alive any time of year, right?

Celebrating Christmas on November 25th

Sister Turner and I on "Christmas" I love her!

Also to add to that, we got to hear from Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles!! Best Christmas ever!! He gave such an amazing talk and I was just so humbled to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord. During choir beforehand, our choir directer said something that really hit me. We sang the song 'Nearer My God to Thee' and he said that God and Jesus Christ have the power to solve all of our problems in an instant. So why don't they? I guess I always knew that sort of, but I never really thought about it that way. I thought more about it and I was thinking that sometimes we are allowed to suffer through hardships and trials because we need them. We need them to become better and to become the people that our Heavenly Father knows that we can be. I read this quote once that said something like, "Every trial you suffer is necessary for your salvation." So the things we go through, all our difficulties and trials, are not pointless. Everything has something that can be learned. It's amazing too, because even though we may suffer sometimes, we never have to suffer alone. When we turn to Christ, everything in life is so much easier to bear.

I feel so blessed with this amazing opportunity to serve the Lord. The more I'm out here, the more I realize how much this is not my mission, but it's the Lord's. Dallin H. Oaks gave this really cool analogy of comparing a missionary to a pen, and being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. The pen is an instrument. The outside of the pen are our bodies, and they need to stay healthy. The inside of the pen is all the stuff we're filled with. When we pick up a pen we want it to write what we want it to write. We don't want the pen to say "I'm too tired to write today" or "it's P-Day" so I'm not going to work today. I love this! We need to be willing to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. We need to desire to do His work, His plan, according to His timetable. We become less effective when we are disobedient, or choose to do our will rather than His.

Can I say again, I love being a missionary?? Thank you for all of the letters and packages! Also, please don't send me any more dear elders after friday morning. They don't print them during the weekends so I won't get them if you send them to me! I love you all very much and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me in Argentina! I might not be able to write for a couple of weeks because I don't know what my schedule will be like when I get down there, but I love you and I love doing the Lord's work!

Alas, my nickname "felderdude" from highschool made it to the mission too! I lost my tag and one of our hermanas found it and made this for me. So funny!