Hi,
everybody! I love you, I love you, I love you so much!
I know Mom is probably elated today, because it is finally April, her favorite flip of the calendar ever. Happy April Fool’s day! I thought about sending a scary email where I pretended I was in the hospital with some incurable disease or a dog attacked me or something, then I thought, "Nah. Mom and Dad are sending Millzie off this week. I'll just be a nice little daughter." And speaking of which- Millzie! Millzie is leaving this week! Hooray! The big adventure starts this week! I know that the rest of you are probably kinda sad right now. It’s so weird to think of our house with just the parents and lil Berns. And Lizzie. But whenever you guys miss us, you can turn up the music downstairs real loud and spread our books and homework all over the floor and plug up the bathroom drain with a ton of hair, and then you won’t miss us too bad. But truly, I know it’s going to be a little difficult for a while, but it will be okay. It is worth it. I have learned to pray very hard out here, and this week we will all be growing in our prayers and faith and courage together. Millzie, you are making the best choice you’ve ever made.
So guess who this is in the picture I’m attaching? Thats right, its little T! The boy I wrote about last week! We had a little miracle happen, and within three days, he chose a date and was baptized! It was a very special experience because his mom is not a member and his dad has been inactive for years and years, but they were both there at the service, and both of them had a very, very good experience. We are hoping to start the lessons with his mom as soon as possible.
This week I have thought a lot about baptism. During one of my scripture studies, I looked back at a note I had written in my Preach My Gospel in the MTC- "baptism is the symbol of conversion." It struck me very hard that what I am here to do is truly help people convert. We get warned very often as missionaries not to get caught up in how many baptisms we accomplish, or how high the "statistics" are for baptisms. It is absolutely, totally true that working to have baptisms just to have numbers is completely wrong. But I realized this week, re-realized, that I am he
re to help people get baptized. It is about baptisms. Why? Because baptisms represent so very, very much. They represent people who have changed, who have found truth and joy and learned about their relationship with God. It represents work and humility and progression and hope. A baptism is a beautiful, crucial moment where people accept the Atonement of Jesus Christ and commit fully to loving Him and following Him. It is performed by the authority and power of God, and it is eternally binding. It is about baptisms because baptisms represent converted people. And T. is definitely converted.
The
girl in the purple is Soeur C! Every single day she wears a different
colored t-shirt with her first name printed right on it. What a funny
lady. The other day I got a letter from Katie W (Katie- I finally got
your letter! And it was so comforting and so necessary for my soul!) and
she said that it was okay to write about the hard stuff on my mission,
too. That way you guys can know how I’m really doing. Thank you,
Katie. Seriously, thank you. I’m going to tell you guys that one of
the hardest things is finding things to say to my companion. You know, I
can speak French enough to be here and be a missionary. But when you are
with someone twenty four seven, you have to have a LOT of things to talk
about. And I don’t have a lot of things to talk about in French.
Cuz I don’t know how. So sometimes it’s really awkward cuz we are just
living together, and we like each other, but we don’t know what to talk
about. I hate that. But this morning was great because I showed her
pictures of the family and we ate some jelly beans (Grandma- THANK YOU for
sending me Easter Jolly Rancher jelly beans!! That was the only Easter
celebration that happened over here! I loved the package so much!)
and talked. I have been praying a lot for Heavenly Father to help me find
things to talk about so it will be more fun for us, and He helped me a lot this
morning.
This other picture is something else that I did today- I learned a song on the ukulele from these two fine fellows! I can play Teach Me To Walk in the Light! Wahoo! It really is true that everywhere you go, someone is playing the ukulele. And now I am joining them. But only on P-days. The man on the left has an amazing story that he told us today- after years of doing drugs and wasting his life away, he was brought back to his faith because someone asked him to come play the guitar for a church activity. That is what started him back on track. One night he was at his home, and it was storming really bad outside with lightning and thunder, and he dropped his backpack on the ground and heard the "clink" of his drug stuff hit the ground. Just like that, he decided it was time to change his life around. So he called over his friend, the guy on the right in the picture, and said, "T, I want you to be a witness for me, right now. I am done with this business." And he took all of his drug stuff and destroyed it right there. After he finished, the wind calmed and the storm went away. And now is an active member of the church.
Tonight we are going to two family home evenings, one with the three teens I wrote about last week - H, P, and K. They are so funny. Afterword we are going to see Papi V, an old, super nice/super grumpy, extremely skinny old grandpa who would like to get baptized too, but who is working on stopping smoking. I love this Papi. He acts like he's kinda mean, like if you talk too long, he yells, "Ooti, heare!" which means, basically, "Okay, you’re done, getta outta here!" Ha ha! But he loves us. I know he loves us, cuz when we do say goodbye and shake hands, he holds on for a minute, and his eyes are kinda twinkling like, "I actually really do love you."
I want to share my testimony that the Holy Ghost is real. I am learning better and better that God does speak to us through the Spirit, and I am learning to listen and trust Him. I will never, ever stop saying it- I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so much. I love Them. And I know They love us, too.
Be brave at the MTC drop -off! We can do hard things because we are so, so blessed. Our family is forever, and we can be away for a little while to help other families have our joy, too. Hurrah for Israel!
This other picture is something else that I did today- I learned a song on the ukulele from these two fine fellows! I can play Teach Me To Walk in the Light! Wahoo! It really is true that everywhere you go, someone is playing the ukulele. And now I am joining them. But only on P-days. The man on the left has an amazing story that he told us today- after years of doing drugs and wasting his life away, he was brought back to his faith because someone asked him to come play the guitar for a church activity. That is what started him back on track. One night he was at his home, and it was storming really bad outside with lightning and thunder, and he dropped his backpack on the ground and heard the "clink" of his drug stuff hit the ground. Just like that, he decided it was time to change his life around. So he called over his friend, the guy on the right in the picture, and said, "T, I want you to be a witness for me, right now. I am done with this business." And he took all of his drug stuff and destroyed it right there. After he finished, the wind calmed and the storm went away. And now is an active member of the church.
Tonight we are going to two family home evenings, one with the three teens I wrote about last week - H, P, and K. They are so funny. Afterword we are going to see Papi V, an old, super nice/super grumpy, extremely skinny old grandpa who would like to get baptized too, but who is working on stopping smoking. I love this Papi. He acts like he's kinda mean, like if you talk too long, he yells, "Ooti, heare!" which means, basically, "Okay, you’re done, getta outta here!" Ha ha! But he loves us. I know he loves us, cuz when we do say goodbye and shake hands, he holds on for a minute, and his eyes are kinda twinkling like, "I actually really do love you."
I want to share my testimony that the Holy Ghost is real. I am learning better and better that God does speak to us through the Spirit, and I am learning to listen and trust Him. I will never, ever stop saying it- I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so much. I love Them. And I know They love us, too.
Be brave at the MTC drop -off! We can do hard things because we are so, so blessed. Our family is forever, and we can be away for a little while to help other families have our joy, too. Hurrah for Israel!
All my love,
Soeur
Mann
P.S. I attached the wrong picture- okay, THIS picture is a little kid standing on his roof flying a kite. The big road in the background is the airport runway. Scene I saw while doing my personal studies. Isn’t there something inspiring about that? Standing on roof, flying a kite, airplane runway- up, up, up! We’re always trying to go up!
P.S. I attached the wrong picture- okay, THIS picture is a little kid standing on his roof flying a kite. The big road in the background is the airport runway. Scene I saw while doing my personal studies. Isn’t there something inspiring about that? Standing on roof, flying a kite, airplane runway- up, up, up! We’re always trying to go up!
