WABAM! 1 month!

AhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

As of tomorrow I've been her for one month already!! Crazy sauce!! Did the time go by as quickly for you as it did for me? I'm halfway done with this jail of spirituallity that I have to pay 400 dollars a month to be in. =) Nah, it's really not that bad...other than the food and the fact that we do the exact same thing at the exact same time just about everyday. I love what I'm learning and I'm thankful for this time to learn more Spanish,

Because I sure need it. =)

Even though I've been here a month now does not give you an excuse to not write me. Not to name any names. *cough* Sarah *cough* =) Love ya girl. =)

So mom, you started work again. How's it going? How are the new little kiddies?

Ryan, you all ready for college? Got everything you need? Is Reginald all ready? Give him a little pat for me, mmkay? Oh and you pretty much have to give your Logan address and you email. No battle.

Mi padres, could you maybe get me an Aggie shirt while you're up there? All this eating BYU food and stuff makes me miss my Aggie roots. Lots and lots and lots. They'll be starting band camp soon. I'm not sad I'm missing that, but I do miss the people.

So what's the deal with the fires? Somtimes it's so smokey down here you can't even see the closest part of Utah lake.

Oh and I saw Daniel. He has class in the same building as me so I see him quite frequently. It was actually him who saw me first. I just heard this loud "JESSICA!!!" coming from down the hall and I was super confused because I'm not really used to being called that anymore and there was Daniel. We shook hands since that's all we're allowed to do, talked a little bit and then went back to class. Since we're in the same building we have the just about the same schedule. So I see him at meals and at gym. He's always too cool to play volleyball with the hermans though. He always switches to the other court.

So I have some funny stories. I know that when I tell "funny" stories they proabably never come across that way, but these ones are hilarious. =) Are you ready?!

Story 1:

It's week one, third time we're teaching Roberto. I ask H. Holmes how to say sin in Spanish. She responds with "pescado." She sotpped for a sec and tells me that it's acutally pecado. Pescado means fish. So I'm trying to remember the word and in our lesson I precede to tell Roberto that he needs to repent of his fish two times in the same lesson. =)

Story 2:

Last week our teacher tells us a story about his companion who wanted to read the scripture Ne 3:7 (I will go and do) to the investigator. But he accidentally tells him 3 Ne 3:7 which is a letter from the Gadianton robbers to the govener of the Nephites telling the Nephites that if they submit to the robbers they will be as brethern not as slaves, that they will be let into their secret works. But as the missionary, since you don't know spanish all that well you can't really tell that the scripture they're reading outloud in spanish is not the one you want them to read. Anwyay, we're in a lesson with Matias last week, the day after our teacher told us this story about picking the worng scripture and H. Holmes deviates from our lesson a little bit, which is totally fine, but I was unsure where she was going, and suddenly asks Matias to read 3 Ne 10:3-5. Which is the scripture about how a hen gathers her chicks. But we didn't know this as she was reading. I look it up in English so I can see where she's going and read the scrpture and bust up laughing in the middle of the lesson. =)

Story 3

Yesterday, we challenged Matias to be baptized....sort of. I'm doing it from memory. And well, Matias has very pretty eyes, he's good looking, I'm scared because I'm not super great at memorizing stuff and I basically say, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by someone with the proper authorty from God?" I totally forgot to put in the part about being baptized!!! AH!! Luckily Matias has a good sense of humor so we laughed and then we tried again. He must have been praying for me or something because I got it right the second time. =) He said if he liked going to church this Sunday and if he gets an answer that its true he will be baptized.

So on Sundays after the devotional we get to watch movies. Movies. Yes. =) Movies of other devotionals and firesides. And the church ones like Legacy and the Joseph Smith movie. Anyway, we watched the recording of Bednar's talk to the missionaries this last Christmas. It was sooooooo good. That man. We will be neighbors in heaven. Whether he wants to be or not. =) His talk was called the Character of Christ. Oh and these talks aren't usually ones you can get anywhere else. So he talked about how Cookie Monster is the prime example of the natural man. "I want cookies NOW!" And please imagine Bednar imitating cookie monster's voice  while saying it and shaking his fists because that is what he did. =) It's all about ME and what I want NOW. That is not the character of Character of Christ. The character of Christ is to turn outward when the natural man would turn in. He gave three examples of it from the NT and then said it's up to us to find the rest. One of the examples is when Christ is in Getsemani (can't remember how to sp in english sorry.) and his three good friend who are there with him falls asleep. They leave him to go through this trial when he asked them three times to stay awake. Then he suffers for every single person's sins every person who had lived and who would live and so great was his pain that he bled from every pore. After that Judas another apostle someone he considered a friend betrays Hims with a kiss. How would you feel? Upset. Betrayed. Hurt. Alone. Etc. Then Peter cuts off the ear of one of the guards. Intead of turning IN and saying that the guard deserved it and focusing on his pain He turned OUT ward and healed the man's ear. A superficial wound compared to what Christ had already suffered and what He would suffer in the next little while. And that is the Chracter of Chirst. I loved the whole talk. It rocked. Bednar rocks. The church rocks.

Herman Scott