WOAAAH WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!!! (Living on Prayers) 3rd week of CTM!

 As you can see from the title from this weeks entry, I have officially finished the 3rd week of my CTM training, so now there is only 3 more to go before I enter the field in Orlando, Florida!  Wow, so crazy.  It's blown by and just taken me by surprise how fast this last week went by.  This week started in a very unique way, I got to see two of the missionaries in my district in person!!!  It was kinda weird to see their full body, and officially meet them in person for the first time.  

The wonderful Elder Doller, and Elder DeWitt!  

Now this week was a challenge in terms of learning Portuguese.  Our instructors challenged us to go Tuesday-Friday with no Google Translate in class (which we were all basically living on that for the first two weeks).  However!  It went surprisingly well!  Instead of looking things up, I was able to ask for meaning and definition in Portuguese, which honestly helped me learn even better.  Me and Elder Draper also had the awesome opportunity to give our first two lessons to Daniel over Zoom!  We did a lesson about Jesus Christ in 3rd Nephi 11.  IT IS A MIRACLE that we went through two lessons completely in Portuguese and we actually understood most of it and were able to teach and share scriptures in the language.  THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REALLLLL!  I will preach that from the mountaintops because I have truly felt it.  But now we moved onto Intermediate Core, which involves memorizing 2000 words and 300 phrases in the next three weeks.  So I hope that blessing continues!  

She mostly just slept......

Also, for fun, I got to have a little companion with me in all my classes.  We are currently dog-sitting for a friend, and the dog just liked to chill in my room while I was in class.  I'd like to introduce you all to my physical companion, Sister Scout.  

Now, with it being the halfway point of the MTC, it was the last day we had with our instructors, Irmá (Sister) Dias and Irmáo (Brother) Sá.  First, I want to mention a scripture that we talked about in  Irmáo Sá's class.  We were talking about the topic of the Atonement and the opportunity we all have to repent because of Jesus Christ.  He took us to a verse I thought was strange at first.  Alma 25:11 "And now, Abinadi was the first that suffered death by fire because of his belief in God."  And it wasn't until  Irmáo Sá pointed out that 'Jesus was the first person to die for his belief in ME.' WOAH!  Holy cow, the spirit flew over me in that moment.  Jesus believes in me, and in all of you individually.  I was so fulfilled and loved that feeling of peace I felt, knowing that Jesus died because he believes in my belief to get better, to do better, and to be the best missionary I can be.  I'm not perfect, I'm far from it.  But I'm trying to continue and work hard to be worthy of the blessings that the Lord gives to his servants.  

It was also an emotional time with our teachers!  It was hard saying goodbye to these people we have consistently relied on to learn language-wise but also spiritually.  I know the Holy Ghost truly taught us, but when you have amazing teachers that invite that spirit so freely?  It is addicting.  SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO Irmáo Sá and Irmá Dias!  Amazing, amazing people.  I hope the next teachers are just as good.  My whole district may have gotten a little teary-eyed to see them go.  

Irmáo Sá and our district, 28C!  

Irmá Dias and our messages of love! 

 

I think that's all that I have for this week.  I just want to bear my testimony that God lives, that his Son JESUS CHRIST died for us.  Eu sei que Jesus nos amo. Eu sei que Deus é assistindo eu todas dias.

I love this gospel and my district of amazing missionaries!