9.23.2013

{ Hoping to Inspire 'cause I'm in the Choir! } #4 MTC



Hola Familia!!
How is everyone?!  Everything is great here!
Best news!  I made it into the Relief Society General Broadcast Choir!!! All five of my district sisters did! It's so amazing! We are practicing every single day until Saturday when we head to Salt Lake and the Conference Center! I am so excited to get off campus and go for a little field trip for the night! I will be wearing a plum shirt, so look out for me!!  We're singing some really good songs and a great one that Sally Deford wrote for this choir and night specifically! The General RS Presidency came to our second practice and it was so cool to see them there supporting! Also the choir director is great! (The Relief Society Broadcast will be streamed live on lds.org on Saturday, Sept. 28th at 5:00pm Arizona time. Each time the choir sings, the camera scans the choir members, so it is possible Kendall may get some air time. We hope so!)
So gym time is probably my favorite time here! On Saturday we played kick ball and it was super sad because I could hear the BYU game going on!!  haha  All the fans were walking over there and maybe no one would even have noticed me joining in the walk over to the stadium... well, except for my missionary name tag,  ; ) ...BUT Gym time was fun too! We've also been playing a lot of soccer here and the weather is just GORGEOUS! A little chilly at night and in the morning but other than that, it's amazing!
My companion Hermana Rust is amazing at neck cracking... haha  The other night she gave me a face massage and cracked my neck and it was pretty much like the scene in the Hunger Games where someone gets their head ripped off... Haha... except my head stayed on,  but you get the jist of it.. and Hermana Crump is a great back cracker! We have mini relaxing spa nights with the 20 minutes of free time we have before bedtime. Oh, and just to describe my companion Hermana Sleight in a nutshell... Her jokes go a little like this..." How does Moses make his tea?? " Anyone?.. Anyone?... "Hebrews it! "...cue pity laugh now.  Oh, she also says the most random facts like, "Cockroaches can see 600 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom." Seriously,  I learn so much every day!  hahaha  And Hermana Rust has probably watched every single " You Tube" video in the universe and quotes one every day. It's pretty impressive!
The past couple of days I've been a little sick with congestion and a cold and it's taken me forever to get to bed but I'm sure it will pass soon! Lots of Emergen C and Day Quil!! My whole district went through the cold but I'm lucky to not have gotten it too bad! Phew! ( knocking on wood)
So you may be wondering if the food has gotten better.. It hasn't... but I'm still alive!... And I'm working on not complaining about it! :)  Hermana Rupe and I eat the exact same things and then quietly cry in the bathroom and complain to each other because some people in my district are just a little annoyed with negativity.. haha or they just don't understand my sarcasm... Jk
The district is still amazing though!! The guys are like my brothers and we also just got a new district of elders that I got to help train too! They are way sweet and one is from France and he is just so fun to talk to! He is going back to Lyon France speaking Spanish! The rest of his district is going to Mexico! So I'm not the only lonely one going somewhere different than my whole district.. speaking of.. That's going to be so weird!!! I can't think about it.


We (Hermana Rust, Rupe and Crump) got to sing in Sacrament this Sunday!! Hermana Sleight accompanied and we sang " Nearer My God To Thee."  It was beautiful! (If she does say so herself!) We arranged it the night before haha.. So fun! The first verse was just normal with harmonies, the second we started out A Capella.  Me first Soprano, then Hermana Rust with Alto then Hermana Crump with Tenor and then Hermana Rupe to join me singing Soprano! Then the last verse we sang in Spanish and I did a descant.  It was wonderful to sing again and I'm so grateful I was given the opportunity! Great experiences here.
So this week on is HSI (Habla Su Idioma) This language is getting real! It's been studying on studying for a month straight!! Surrriously getting real.  It's hard but when we are speaking it all the time it gets fun! I'm getting the accent down a bit but it'll totally be different in Argentina! One of the sisters was told she speaks like a gringa today (no names Hermana Rupe) haha but it's all such a challenge and then so rewarding getting to learn it and our lessons are going so much better each day!
Speaking of lessons! Alberto and Clara are getting baptized! We have set the date for October 5th! The thing that was holding Alberto back was that he just wasn't acting on his faith. He wanted to read the whole BOM before he knew it was true and would commit to baptism. But we wouldn't take that. We read Alberto Ether 12:6 and I taught that "faith is like a seed" lesson.. haha The object lesson won him over! We taught him how he will not receive his answer until after the trial of his faith.  He loved it and he committed to be baptized! So great! And Clara.. It took us a while to figure her out but this lesson we really focused on comparing her life in her Biology major to the gospel. That in order to do well in either you have to read, ask for help, study, listen and we drew a little diagram for her comparing the two. We taught her abut Joseph Smith and I think because now we are focusing so much on teaching people and not just lessons we are just soaring!  The spirit is so strong and we have been so blessed! So just to let those that don't know.. these investigators are fake! haha.. But they are acting as real investigators! My teachers act like an actual investigator that they had on their mission and at the end of our stay here we get to hear all about their real story! It's nice to know that it was real previously and  it is such good preparation  learning how to relate to and love others. :)
So I guess my new favorite scripture is Romans 8:8 ??? Or so my Missionary Plaque says? haha Seriously that is hilarious!  For the record... It isn't...they put the wrong scripture on my plaque and hopefully it is getting fixed! (it is already fixed) I don't want everyone to think that I just LOVE that random, nothing relating to a mission or anything really, scripture... " So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God...." haha .. NO.  My actual scripture is Romans 8:28! "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose."  When I read that other scripture I just laughed.  I hope you all got a good kick out of it and glad that the whole ward thinks I'm a psycho... yay!.... (Just for the record, that same scripture was Tommy's favorite before I (Lisa) met him. He would write Romans 8:28 on each baseball he autographed.  Kendall never knew. )
So we watched "The Ministry of Thomas S. Monson" last night and it was amazing! I have so much love for our prophet! I hope everyone gets a chance to watch that!! We also had the great opportunity to hear Merrill J Bateman, an Emeritus General Authority speak at the devotional last night. It was all about the power and authority of a missionary being REAL. That we need Worthiness, Courage and Diligence. It's all so true and I have seen miracles through it! Also that the STRONGEST missionaries are BUSY and don't waste time.  I am really working on that this week!  So great!  He also shared the three best stories about listening to the spirit. I wish I had time to write all about them but maybe another day!
Since you asked, when I'm not e-mailing this chapter letter, the rest of my P- days just include going to the Temple, Laundry, Cleaning, Eating and then class starts at 6:30 and lot's of letter writing! It's a great relaxing day!
I'm also getting back to all of your letters today and tomorrow! Two more weeks left and it just flies by! The days last forever but the weeks are like a blink of an eye! Weird!!
It's hard to believe that I only have a couple more weeks here until I'm off to Argentina hopefully! They have been saying that most people assigned to Argentina are getting travel Visa's but we will start hearing about that probably next week! So weird to think about but I am so ready to get out and serve!
 I love you all so so much and hope all is well!  BTW,  I love letters!!   :) :)
Hasta la vista Loves! 
Con mucho mucho mucho amor, <3


Hermana Barrett


Birthday Banner
Soccer Night with attitudes!



Sister Price
(She's my Mom away from home!)

Temple day with The District
Sisters Left to Right:
Sleight, Crump, Barrett, Rust and Rupe

No comments:

Post a Comment