Ok well first things first....HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that I am missing your 18th birthday, but I am so proud of you I can barely even stand it! Congratulations. I know you don't think it is a big deal, and I can kind of relate seeing as how I don't care much about birthdays, but you are a shining star of an 18 year old, and everyone should know and celebrate that. Thank you for being my brother.
Now, on to other news. First disclaimer is that I am sorry if my grammer or spelling is off. I am starting to think in Spanish a little bit and it is really hard to go back and forth all day!
Funny story of the week though: I have been learning about the past tense (kind of important when telling people about the history of the church huh?). Anyway, in order to improve on my conjugation I have been writing out english sentences on the different sections of Preach My Gospel and then translating them into Spanish. When I do all I can remember I try to look up the rest and then have my teacher look over them and give me feedback. Well this week I was writing questions for Christ's earthly ministry and the Great Apostacy. I was trying to translate the sentence "Jesus and his prophets were killed." as a transition to the Apostacy. Well, turns out what I said in Spanish was 'Jesus and his Prophets killed'.... as in killed other people!!!! Oh man, my teacher laughed for a good five minutes!
I love my one teacher Hermana Rex, she is only about six months older than I am and she served in Tucson. She is always willing to help. She is studying to become a teacher and is taking a sewing class right now. She has been struggling in the class because she doesn't really like it. Yesterday she was frustrated because she had to sew her zipper on three different times. I decided to brighten her day by sharing my 'Sewing through my finger Incident' from eighth grade. After she stopped laughing (and crying a little bit) she said, "so you are the kid my teachers warned me about when I have my own sewing class!" Needless to say, I felt very proud.
Spiritual story of the week: WAYYYYYYYYY too many to possibly do justice. However, I do want to share one. This happened Wednesday night. We were teaching our teacher as her investigator Summer (it is weird how much it feels like an actual different person when we are in there). Anyway, this was our third time meeting with Summer. It was so frustrating because she kept saying she would try to read and try to pray, but never agree. When we went in there this time we were prepared to start teaching lesson 2 (Plan of Salvation) but when we asked her if she had read the readings we gave her and prayed she said that she read but didn't pray because she was embarrassed and it was weird.
I can't even tell you how incredible what happened next was. So we are sitting in this room and the three of us are in a row I'm closest to the door and Hermana Clinger (H.C.) is in the middle and Hermana Vogelsberg (H.V.) is on the other side. Our investigator is in front of us. So from where I am I can see every person's face. In most lessons I end up talking quite a bit, H.V. most of the rest of the time and H.C. hardly at all. Now keep in mind this whole lesson is in Spanish. We started talking about prayer, and how it is truly a one on one conversation with God. And how important it is to bring our worries and questions to Him.
Then I had the opposite of the gift of tongues happen to me, I could suddenly understand every single word that was said and could not speak to save my life. I sat there and watched in rapture as my two companions spewed the spirit at our investigator. I felt like I was sitting on the sidelines with the spirit and God saying, 'would you look at that, they are doing awesome!' Oh, it was soooooo cool, I wish I could explain it better.
My one contribution when Summer still wouldn't pray was when I asked her if I prayed first if she would pray. So I prayed, I kept it simple. Then H.C. prayed, then H.V. prayed. Finally we asked Summer to pray. It was AMAZING! She started by saying 'Hello God, how are you? I'm doing well." She went on to say the most beautiful simple and sweet prayer I have ever heard. I wish I could tell you all this story in person, because it was just... incredible.
Well, I wish I could tell you all about every minute I have here. I am changing and learning and growing so much that I barely recognize myself any more.
We have had some incredible speakers at the devotionals and firesides. We have watched some amazing talks. Don't get me wrong, I don't love being at the MTC. But I can say that I DO love being on a mission. There is NOTHING that tops this. You forget about yourself completely. Your whole life is the gospel. It is simply perfection. I can't believe how lucky I am to be a part of this great work. There is no greater calling in the history of mankind. In the words of Elder Holland, 'My mission means EVERYTHING to me." And I truly have the best, hardest, and most rewarding 17 months in my life ahead of me. I can't wait.
Con Amor,
Hermana Levanger (Beck)
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