Hi Family,
Sorry for not writing until now (mid afternoon), this
past week has been crazy! A little update: One of the Sisters went home this past weekend due to anxiety and stress issues. It was such an
incredible experience to get to know her over the past few week. On Saturday
afternoon she and I walked to the upper fields to "work out" instead, we ended
up chatting about how she was doing and what was going on with her, she wasn't
sure if she would be going home yet and so I was able to talk to her a bit. I was glad to show her that any
problems she might have, she can and will get over. Both her and her companion are FOR REAL the two most gracious girls I've met here yet. Because she left, I now have a
"solo" sister to be companions with! She is a solo as well, but Irma D and I
hang out a lot and as such, we haven't had time to write until now. She's
fabulous and it's been fun to have a half companion. All the Irma's leave for
Portugal this next Tuesday however, and I will be the lone Sister of the zone.
(We're getting 4 elders this week, no sisters) which means for AT LEAST one day
I will be in the Ukrainian Sister's room (they don't speak English I don't think).
Pray I get my visa! hahaha.
All in all however, this week has been fabulous. We had a great day last
Wednesday- our teacher Irma O'Brien dared us to go the entire day speaking
Portuguese. Eu fala portuguese muito muito mal, mas muito muito animada por todas
dias! I didn't speak one word of English all day! Since then, my love for Elder
W has grown and we are getting along much better. It wasn't ever his fault
I've realized, the poor elder is just so shy and so not me that i was trying to
make him me instead of loving him and all of his insecurities. On that note,
Elder Larsen got his visa this past week and left with Elder Willets.
So now it is officially just me and Elder W in our district, then my favorite
elder, Elder L...he's like a younger Taoete, and then an Elder from
Rigby that just talks about his girlfriend. The five of us are bound together
because without us all we can't go anywhere. They're Hawaiian, Black and Hispanic
and then I'm the token white person. We get along just great. Also, Elder W and I
now officially just teach together....but I am not allowed to call him my
companion, instead he is "my elder" and I am "his sister" and we teach together
like an old couple. We've gotten use to each other now and we're finally getting
down Portuguese enough that we understand each other, it's going great!!
One of our "investigators" (really our teacher, Brock Groesbeck) wasn't
getting a lot of what we were saying and I taught him how to pray and he did
it!!! As dumb as this sounds, it was a great moment that i could actually
communicate using just Portuguese for an entire 10 minutes and he understood the
jest of what i was saying.
On Thursday we started teaching with NO NOTES. I am loving it, and it's
super hard but I feel like I can speak enough that it's okay I have no notes!
Since the sister left Sunday afternoon, we had a Sister sleepover and put all
the mattresses on the floor telling embarrassing stories
and we of course, all ended up crying about how much we love each other....just
like any other normal sleepover. hahaha.
Sunday was a special day, all of us are expected to write talks every week
in Portuguese and then as they're on the stand they just announce your name and
call you up. One of the zone leaders Sunday morning (Elder T from
Melbourne) was like Sister Sackley you're going to talk! (in reality he has no
idea who is going to talk and who isn't, he just likes teasing me) and I did get called to
talk!!! I was so nervous and the minute they called me I was first, so I walked
up and was like uh....ola......uh....and then I talked and it wasn't perfeito,
but I did okay! Elder C had to speak after me and he did fairly well as well.
After the meeting we were all shaking hands and Elder C accidentally put his
arm out to give me a side hug. I jumped back a good foot and stuck my shaking
hand out. In that moment I realized oh dear, I have become the awkward sister
missionary. It was a fearsome moment to behold (name the movie).
Relief society is SO EMOTIONAL. It's like we're all not use to being around
so much estrogen and then they put us all together and we WEEP! We had a
testimony meeting and I bore my testimony very first (p.s. still waiting for
Logan's response on both Book Of Mormon and his testimony).... I talked about how one of my
very favorite people in the past three years has gone from being a non member,
to member, to married in the temple. And how each of us is called of God to find
people just like them. I also talked about how I was a solo sister and how
thankful I was for the promise in my Patriarchal Blessing that i would "never feel alone" because
I haven't and I am so fortunate for that.
After all of that, later at night we have movies we can go to last thing at
night. I chose "the character of Christ" by David A. Bednar. He gave it
Christmas this past year at the MTC. I don't think you can find it anywhere
however, IT IS AWESOME. And it most definitely has changed my life. It was all
about the natural man and how to put off the natural man, I thought of how it
was Grandpa's favorite scripture...anyways, it was a great great devotional and
I loved every moment.
On Monday we have "workshop" in which we learn about a characteristic we
should be striving to achieve. This week was faith in Christ. Just a small clip
of what i learned, from Elder Holland's talk:
"come to the edge" he said
"no we'll fall""come to the edge!" he said
"no, we'll fall"
"COME TO THE EDGE"
so we came to the edge
and he pushed us
and we flew.
How much in my life I have not wanted to go to the edge when in reality,
it is precisely what and where I should be. I promise that the Lord will push you
to your limits and that you really will fly when you go to the edge. Mission
life is so unexpected and ever changing and so great. Harrah for Israel!!
This week on Wednesday the new Elders have what's called "first lessons" in
which they all go to a room with an "investigator" in the room, some
investigators are real, some aren't but they all are going off their real lives.
More experienced elders and sisters come and start the lesson off and then they
stop and all the new elders try to teach. Because the Sister left, I get to go
with Sister D and be an experienced sister! Normally you can't and don't get
this honor until you've been here 8 weeks....and they pick a very small number
of people in the MTC...like 8....(shows how great those two Irma's are) so I'm
excited I get to go do it!
Alright I better go, I'm sending letters tonight or
tomorrow morning with a few more things... also yes I would love Tom's if that's
okay. You can order them online and they will ship here....and I loved all the
packages you keep sending! Thanks for them all, I love the dress, I'll try
sending photos soon.
eu amo voce!!
Sister Mad
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