Hola mi familia!!
Wow do I love hearing from you! It is amazing how you can
forget that there is a world outside the gates of the MTC! I hope you have fun
at the wolf sanctuary and on your backpacking trips! (PS Dad, "nature's
scrubber" and Hot Chocolate don't mix, I wanted to remind you before the
Carneys became victims too haha). I can't believe Nemo died, I thought he was
the invincible fish! I never got to say goodbye, but at least he had a good
life in that bucket and his snowbird fishbowl in the winter. How long was he
dead before Allie found him?
Oh and that is really hard for Sister Sollee and her family.
She is in my prayers!!
Well its kind of hard to believe, but I am on "week
4" here at the MTC. In some ways it is crazy to think that it is already
week four, but mostly it is crazy to think I have ONLY been here for three
weeks. Hermana Mortensen and I joke that we have been here our whole lives and
forget our "pre-mission life" haha. I think I am finally adjusting
and the days seem to be going by quicker.
Something of interest....all the missionary services
(bookstore, dry cleaning, mail, doctor) are in the Jacob Hamblin building. When
I am having a hard time, its nice to walk into that building and be reminded of
my ancestry and a pretty phenomenal missionary :)
The language is coming. Our church is in Spanish and I feel
like I am able to get more and more out of it each Sunday. It is miraculous how
quickly you can learn and understand something with the spirit of the Lord. I
am speaking MUCH better Spanish than I ever did after taking 5 years of it in
school. And things that I never understood (like Por y Para) are clicking. God
truly helps His missionaries. Oh and you would be delighted to find out that
yes, my roommates still report to me what Spanish I say in my sleep....it is
now almost a daily occurrence. I guess the other night I said "Hola, hola,
hola, hola espanol amen".....It is now even a joke with the Elders in my
district. Teasing apparently still occurs on the mission haha.
Miracle of the week: I wasn't able to sleep very well AT ALL
for the first 2 and a half weeks here. I guess I was just was really stressed
with everything going on and I couldn't put it down at night. I still was
following the rules and was in bed at 10:30, but I would just lay there. Also,
I don't think it helped that I have been a college student who never sleeps for
the past 3 years either. Anyway, MTC work is EXHAUSTING; we get up between
6-6:30 and just go go go to classes and teaching appointments until 9:30pm.
Anyway, I was dying and a very tired missionary. I prayed really hard every
night to know how to get sleep and that I would be able to sleep. Finally on
Sunday, I prayed to find a solution, because really I didn't know what to do. I
had another interview as senior companion with a member of the branch
presidency and at the end of the interview, he asked if I needed anything. I
was about to give my usual, "nope, I am doing great" but right then,
the spirit filled me and I had the strong impression that it was appropriate to
ask for a blessing so that I can get some sleep. I almost disregarded it seeing
how I had gotten beautiful and powerful blessings recently, but I am grateful I
didn't. I told him my situation and asked for a blessing that I could get some
rest because I knew if I could sleep, I could do the work required. He very
humbly laid his hands upon my head and pronounced a powerful blessing that I
would be able to rest at night, beginning that night. I knew that God was
answering my prayer. That night, even an hour before bedtime, I could feel
myself wind down and on that night, and the two nights since, I have been able
to sleep better than I have been able to in months. I know that the power of
the priesthood is real, I know that the power of our faith is real and that God
hears our prayers. He loves us dearly and wants to bless us desperately. We
need just to demonstrate our faith in him and ask.
Heavenly Father lives and knows us. Jesus Christ overcame
all so that we can too. The gospel is true and estoy agradecida que puedo ser
una misionera! (I am grateful that I can be a missionary!)
Love you! And I miss you all dearly!
Hermana Chipman
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