Make the Change

Well hi!!!

This week has been a long one! But it has been great! We had a speaker last Sunday who went over the 4 stages of time in the MTC

1: The Honeymoon Stage
2: The Hostile Stage
3: The Grin and Bear it Stage
4: Successful Readjustment

It's so funny to look back on my four weeks here and distincly see myself transitioning between these phases haha. This week I moved into a successful readjustment, I feel confident and comfortable, and learned and grew more than I have since my arrival at the MTC.

Each week we have to prepare a 5 minute talk on a given subject in Portuguese, then on Sunday they stand up and announce who will be speaking. Guess who got picked this week?

Me. Did you guess right?

After I gave my talk the members of the branch presidency came to tell me how wonderful my talk was and how great my portuguese sounded. But they didn't understand one word... what did espantoso mean?

Earlier in the week, I had looked up in my handy dandy pocket dictionary the word "amazing" so I could tell the audience that we were all children of God and we were all amazing. I made a point of using that specific word quite a few times in my talk.

But after some discussion with the branch presidency, I found the word espantoso comes from the verb, "to scare". Apparently, the "amazing" I used was more of a frightened amazement. So I got up and told the entire congreation multiple times that they were all incredibly frightening hahaha.

I also got assigned to a new companionship, they thought they'd pass me around to help some of the other elders with the language. It's going really great. It's been a real eye opening experience for me. Through the change, I have seen so much the Lord's hand in my life. I have learned lessons, through working and teaching with them, that I wouldn't have learned otherwise that I needed.

It is really incredible to me how active the Lord is in my life. I don't know how I never recognized it before. It is incredible to see the how He prepares me for events that happen, even in the smallest aspects of my day.

I know He is aware of me and mindful of me. It's incredible... how on earth is it possible for Him to concecrate everything we experience, along with the experiences of others for our good? Living in an imperfect world, I often find it hard to grasp the reality of a perfect plan, but it IS. It is real and tangible and it is perfect. He extends His hands to me every minute to guide me to receive and accomplish all that is in store for me.

And if I miss, and take a wrong turn--somehow those experiences STILL work for my good to help me learn and grow; I have a hard time comprehending it , but I am certain that I FEEL it. And I see Him more clearly now than I ever have.

Thank you so much for your letters this week, they mean the WORLD to me.

Sister Elizabeth Smart lives on my floor, she is really sweet, and she told me a joke the other night while we were a-brushin' our teeth.

Q: How many missions are there in Brazil?
A: A BRAZILION!

I laughed.

We were really lucky this week to hear from some AMAZING speakers! Elder Dallin H. Oaks came on Tuesday and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came on Thanksgiving morning.

They were WONDERFUL! They brought such light into the room before they even got up to speak, and the love between them and their wives was heart-warming! :) Thursdays devotional was especially cool because Elder Holland took time to answer personal questions that missionaries here in the MTC had asked. It was fun to see them in a more casual setting than conference. They were so funny. Elder Holland opened talking about how great it was to be with us on Thanksgiving: "This is perfect. You are perfect. Okay, you're not, I talked to some of your companions... but you're nearly perfect.

I'm running out of time... but Thanksgiving was good. I hope yours was too! And I hope you took advantage of the picture perfect Turkey Bowl weather. We had the devotional in the morning; an early Thanksgiving dinner with all the turkey, pie, and stuffing; we worked on humanitarian projects, watched a presentation on the humanitarian efforts of the Church around the world; and had a fireside with musical numbers and missionaries getting up to share what they are greatful for.

There are so many people suffering in the world... I was shocked to see the numbers... over 900 million people are chronically hungry every day. It's so heartbreaking. We are so blessed here, and we take SO much of it for granted.

I am so glad to be here, to have a small opportunity to share with others, to have all my needs taken care of so that I can devote 24 hours a day to feeding those people who are spiritually hungry and looking for comfort and security and peace in their lives. I'm so sad 1/18th of my time is already up!

I love you so much!!

Sister Rachel Smith