June 28,2012

June 28, 2012

Hola mi familia,

It’s crazy all the stuff that is going on over there, I'm especially disappointed about the voles taking over my lawn ha-ha just kidding. But man that is some crazy stuff happening. It sounds like you all worked as a team and fought through it together – that’s great. Trials make us stronger - ha I can testify of that.

This week (if I was English speaking) could have been my last week here, crazy huh? A lot has happened. Last Friday during lunch, I met my new mission president and his wife. They said I have a good light and nice hair? –ha! Then later that day, everyone who is going to DC south soon met with them again. (12 or 11 missionaries) He said that they have 193 serving there now!!  That’s a lot for such a little mission.

On Sunday for the devotional we thought that an apostle would speak, so we waited almost 2 hours in line but when we got in it was just a branch president, still a great talk. Tuesday was a good day. At the fireside L. Tom Perry spoke, all but the First Presidency and Packard and Hales were there. There were 10 apostles in one room together! It was crazy, I got a wave of chill bumps - ha.

Some days I feel like my Spanish is clicking and others I can't form a sentence, ha-ha, it’s frustrating sometimes. I just gotta keep pushing forward. This week I've been really trying to put off the natural man.  We watched a talk by Elder Bednar titled “Character of Christ” and it really was an answer to my prayers. If you can, look it up, even though I'm not sure you can because it was an exclusive MTC talk.

Yesterday I got a letter from Uncle Chris. It was good to hear from him and for him to keep his promise, ha-ha.

Today in the temple I had the question of what does God expect of me and how can I accomplish it?  I was sitting there and almost like a voice said, "just do your best every day." Some days your best may not be your best of other days but you still need to put in your best work. It really was a cool experience. 2 Cor 4 is really good you all should read it.

There are no sweets here I can eat so por favor send me some ha-ha, candy, cookies, etc etc :)

Also any tips on how to study Spanish and the gospel more effectively??? I don’t have a good studying thing down yet and I'm still working on making it good.

Everyone here from the outside world (teachers, and branch presidency's) have really made the effort to let me know daily the fire situation in EM ha, they are always like “no houses have burned or nothing bad has happened to your family”, just stuff like that. They are all really nice.

I'm doing good, wish 9 weeks would pass already, but I can learn a lot in the next 7 weeks. I'm really excited to get out and teach in DC, even though my Spanish is awful ha-ha, but when I find myself doubting my ability to learn Spanish I realize that I'm doubting God's power, because he called me to this language and through Him I'm gonna learn it. So I need to exercise more faith in him so he can bless me more with the gift of tongues.

I would just like to reiterate that God just wants each of you to do your best each day, even if one day your best is getting out of bed, or whatever else, just do your best. That’s all you can do, there’s no point in living if you aren't going to put in any effort. Hope that makes sense.

Well I love you all soooooooo much, I miss you all. I pray for you all, and I can feel your prayers for me. They give me strength. Please keep on praying. Oh yeah, I got my first MTC haircut today with some pics - ha, can't wait to send you all my pics.

I can't remember everything right now so I'll continue to write you all a weekly letter plus this, do you like that? What else do you want/need from me?

Hope everyone is doing well. If anyone wanted a DC South mission shirt send some money and a size so I can place an order.

Please continue to write and email me. Let me know how everything is going.

Love you all so much its crazy! Thanks again for everything.

Love,

Elder Lifferth :) <3