Hola de Hermana, 16/11/11

Hola mi familia fantastica!  :)

It has been a great week!  I’ll see if I can get most of what I want to say on here before tiempo runs out.  First, Mom and Dad, estoy MUY EMOCIANADA por su trip a Germany!!!  Have a BLAST!  And siblings, I hope you tell me about your adventures while they’re gone

I am leaving the CCM for the FIELD on TUESDAY!!!   (as such, I don’t know if I will get email time next week)  WHOA!  Time has flown!  I can hardly believe I only have 16 months left!  Gah!  I am trying to learn how to best use my time now.  One of the most enlightening moments from this past week is when one of teachers asked us if we’d accomplished our goals for the CCM, and I had this awful sort of realization of "I don’t know.  I didn’t set specific goals before coming here."  That was a MAJOR wakeup call.  And so now I am working to learn and apply how to better set inspired goals and make inspired plans so that instead of just working, I can be diligently focused on ACCOMPLISHING the PROGRESS I must make in order to be an effective instrument in the hands of the Lord.  A lot of thoughts that have touched me have been on this topic this week.  An Area Seventy authority came and talked to us last night, and he said that there are two ways to learn a habit, by obligation or through conversion, and it is ONLY through conversion that we will keep that habit through the rest of our lives.  One habit he talked about is the importance of setting daily goals, and than EVERY DAY following through by evaluating how we met that goal, and then planning for the next day.  This is a habit I want very much, and I commit to learning it by conversion so that I can apply it the rest of my life.  I invite you to do this too!

Mom, the elders and Hermana TOTALLY LOVED the bubbles you sent.  Bubbles have been floating in our classroom for a week now.  That and the Thanksgiving decorations have made our classroom chipper, and much more fun.  The elders love you.  :)

I was called on to give a talk on Sunday in Sacrament meeting.  When I got to the part about being patient with others and their weaknesses, I got choked up.  How on earth can we expect others to want to listen to us, representatives of Jesus Christ wearing His name, if we don’t act, live and love like Him?!  I testify that Jesus Christ lives, He knows you individually, He understands your trials, and He loves you.  We too must seek to understand, love, and help others.  I testify that as we sincerely seek for inspiration, we will receive it. 

A quote I loved from Preach My Gospel, "You can be certain the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you"

My favorite language bit from this week: we were walking up the stairs and it smelled like fish.  I told my companion, "It smells como pecados!"  And then we both collapsed in laughter.  It was hilarious.  :)

I LOVE YOU TONS!!!!!

--Hermana Ivy [-]