Dear Family and Friends,
Wow...kinda weird to
write that in English. Well, two weeks down at the MTC!!! Thank you all
so much for the wonderful emails, letters, and dearelders. I feel so
loved and supported :) This last week has gone by SO FAST. Time in the
MTC is so strange. You're always so absorbed in working hard, and SO
busy that the days go by super fast. I woke up last Saturday and thought
it was a Thursday...I didn't believe anyone at first when they told me
it was Saturday I thought, "Already?!" I'm finally understanding what
missionaries always meant when they say, "My mission went by so fast!"
There's no such thing as weekends or "day of rest" here. It's always
study, work, PRAY, and laugh in between all of that haha. Mi compañera
and I are way tight now. We are always laughing...seriously! As well as
the rest of my roomies, we have so much fun in class and all our other
adventures.
In my last email I think I talked about Rogelio, our investigator.
Well, my companion and I learned a lot from teaching him, and our last
day was last Friday. We were kind of sad to think about not ever seeing
him again, because he had gotten so close to committing to baptism.
Plus, he's just this nice, happy poly guy that we couldn't get enough
of. On Saturday we were suppose to get a new teacher and guess who it
was...Rogelio!! Me and my district leaped for joy! His real name is
Hermano Talitina. He served a Spanish speaking mission in San
Antonio(that's right...Texas is THE BEST) He is the best teacher.
Seriously, once he started teaching us we have all improved so much. My
Spanish is coming so much faster, and he teaches such powerful lessons. I
feel the spirit so much during his classes. He's so funny! Such a big
guy, and kinda intimidating at first, but I love him! We still have
Hermana Powell as our teacher as well. We had to teach her the past two
days. She's role playing the part of someone she taught on her mission,
named Raque (Hermana Powell served in Chile)Hermana Grosebeck and I have
had some way cool experiences with teaching Raquel. After every lesson I
teach, personal study, comp. study, language study, and class time I
feel like I've learned so much. We have an hour for each of our studies,
but it goes by way too fast and I wish I had more time to study my
scriptures and preach my gospel. I thought I knew a lot about the
gospel, but I've been reading scriptures lately that I feel like I've
never read before! I think to myself, "Hey! Who put that there... I
never knew that!" haha. This gospel is SO cool, and the more I study
each day the more I realized that it all makes perfect sense. The Lord
is so merciful. I feel humbled everyday to be a missionary and to be so
lucky to have so many cool experiences here.
Some of my favorite activities here are the devotionals and Music and the Spoken Word. The latter keeps me sane. I love hearing the
beautiful tab choir, and GORGEOUS music! Not even joking EVERYONE in my
district is tone deaf!!!! None of them have any musical
background...like at all. Ah! Anyone who knows me know I love music, and
if it can't be done well, I'd prefer NONE! haha. I'm in the MTC choir
with Brother Eggett(he's been a choir teacher of mine since I was like
7), but a lot of the Elders and sisters cannot sing on key...man it's a
struggle for me to be patient with that. So, I try to remember the words
from the Hymn that say, "and Jesus listening can hear the songs I
cannot sing."Bahaha, it's all good though, I need to think more kindly
about that whole situation. I wish you could hear it though.
On a sad note: Sister Salcido left yesterday!(Yvonne...my mom) :(
Man...we're best friends. A whole year and a half without hanging out
with her...the people and other missionaries in Nauvoo are so lucky to
have her though! She's gonna be a boss missionary. She was so popular
here...seriously. All my friends from back home would come up to me and
say, "I saw your mom! She's so cute and pretty, etc." We took a ton a
funny pictures yesterday and then I gave her a hug goodbye,
bitter-sweet. Much of my testimony comes from her good example
throughout my life.
I'm realizing more each day how blessed I am, and how selfish I
have been. Not once did the Savior ever live his life for himself. His
love is so powerful, and he gives it out freely. What a miracle it is
that the both the righteous and the wicked can find a friend in Christ. I
feel so inadequate to wear His name and have it next to mine on my name
tag, but I know He steps in and teaches the lessons for me...I've felt
that several times already. Without him I wouldn't even have an
identity, because I wouldn't be able to be a child of God, without my
Savior. I'm realizing my weaknesses each day. I hope any of those I've
ever wronged can forgive me. I want to be the best missionary I can be.
Not for myself, but for the people of Texas and Louisiana, as well as
for the Lord. He deserves my all:
"Never can I repay thee Lord, but I can love thee, thy pure word.
Hath it not been my One delight, my joy by day, my dream by night."
Thanks
again for every one's support and love. Go do something nice for
someone else today!! I'd love to hear from all of you sometime. Hope all
is well in your lives, and if not turn to the Lord and love His
children. Relief society is different here, we have speakers come
instead of having teachers. The Primary General Pres. came and said
something neat, "If you're not happy with your lot in life, build a
service station on it" Love you all!
Love,
Sister Draya Salcido :)