another chapter
Querido amigo,
Its crazy to me how far we have come. How much has happened, how much my life has changed and moved...and transformed until I hardly recognize myself anymore.
I sometimes look at the picture of the girl with the red jacket and the big blue bags going into the MTC. She was scared and unsure. And totally oblivious as to what 18 months could hold. Today, I look nothing like her. The clothes worn in that first picture are old or already thrown away, the contents in the bags of extra Floss and mountains of tampons has been replaced with tattered scriptures and colorful dresses. Her flawless pale legs are now marked and scarred and worn.
I could sit here from now until Christmas and tell you all about what mission life brings. All about the love that begins to swell in you. All about the food, or the sisters I have been training, or the areas I have been through, or that one time....or another.
We were in the leadership counsel meeting this past week when the question was posed; How much do you love your mission? An Elder with just under 2 years seated next to me was the first to speak. With tears in his eyes he said just one word- muito. And that is probably the only thing I could say. Muito. Because I can not say the smallest part which I feel. I can not even begin to explain how much I love Minas Gerais. How much I love love love Brasil.
And it is the craziest, strangest dream I have ever had to be totally honest. And I would be oh-so ungrateful if I did not thank God from the bottom of my heart for the chance He took on me here in BH. For Him to have given me this small section in His vast vineyard to work for this short amount of time. Nothing has been better.
But you know what the best part is? Sister Mad´s life did not begin in Minas, and it does not end here either. A mission was a chapter in the book. A large, very significant chapter-a turning point in the story, quite right. But it is just a chapter. This week marks the end of the page. And it is a page I will turn, a chapter full of stories and experiences, and I am ever so glad I wrote on these pages. . . But I have other pages, and other chapters to write.
After all, it is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is perhaps however, the end of the beginning.
love with all my heart,
sister mad
p.s. I´m coming home, coming home-tell the world that I´m coming home.....
p.s.s. if you dont know that music, ask Logan.
Pictures