Sister Selk: Halfway There

Well, this week FLEW by! Another day another dollar as Sister Parkinson would say. 3 weeks in the MTC and 3 weeks to go! Hopefully I can remember somethings that happened during this crazy week!

Wednesday was insane. We taught Abrao (Irmao Belchior) and after he was able to give us some feedback on our teaching.....but it wasn't exactly the feedback I was expecting. He simply told us:

"I don't want you to use your notes anymore."

hahaha WHAAAAA?! Are you kidding me? I don't speak Portuguese, so you have got to be kidding me! I just looked at him shocked and asked POR QUE?!?!?!

And this is what he said,

"I haven't told this to anyone else in the district, do you know why?....Because you are ready. Your Portuguese is good, now you need to have enough faith that the Lord will deliver your message."

What were we supposed to say to that? We just gave him blank stares and nodded our heads in shock.

I knew Sister Parkinson was ready for the challenge, but me....that is another story. It took me a few days to really trust in the Lord with this new challenge. Sure enough 2 days later we were teaching Abrao without notes. Just speaking from our hearts- I am pretty sure whatever we were saying was not even close to Portuguese, but after our lesson we asked brother Belchior how he thought it went and if he was sure he didn't want us to go back to our notes again. However, he looked at us again (i swear he literally looks into your soul when he stares at you) and he told us that it was our best lesson yet....Besides our last lesson with Joao.

The gift of tongues is real. I've learned that the gift of tongues doesn't necessarily mean that I will speak Portuguese perfectly, but what is most incredible about the gift of tongues is that my investigators will be able to understand and feel the truthfulness of the message despite my horrendous Portuguese. So Cool.

We started TRC this week, which is when we get to teach volunteers at the MTC who are members of the church. I was kind of nervous for it, but in the end it was so much fun! We talked to this girl who went on her mission in Brazil and she had the Craziest accent! It was insane, and she talked SO fast! I thought that would have intimidated me, but I was loving every second of only understanding two words of what she was saying! hahah

We had a bit of excitement this week with Sister Parkinson and I. Sister Parkinson has been feeling super nauseous throughout the day, and it has progressively gotten worse. We stayed home most of Saturday and she slept while I studied, and we also had to stay home from our meetings on Sunday. I was able to be really productive during that time and get lots of studying done, but poor sister parkinson just feeling awful. We got her some pills on Sunday, which made her feel a lot better and we got to attend the Sunday devotional. I'm not going to lie, I was very grateful to get out of our room for a few hours. I've also had a really bad head cold but nothing that has kept me from the work, which I am so grateful for! We've felt a bit like we are living on a prayer with all our illnesses, but God answers prayers, so things have worked out!

Also, Huge shout out to Rawley and Lindsay for their package this week! The MTC is getting old real fast, so healthy food from the outside world was like heaven. I am sure Lindsay thought of that whole package, so Rawley tell her I say thank you......but also thank you to Rawley for choosing to be with such a thoughtful woman! That was so nice!

Success Story of the week:

I haven't gained a single ounce of weight here at the MTC! Whoooo! hahaha I eat pretty dang healthy here, and Gym time is my favorite thing in the world, so it has been good! Also I just found out that they have rice in the cafeteria everyday, so I am pretty stoked about that, because eating salad 2x a day gets old sometimes. I literally thank my heavenly Father ever night that I am only in the MTC for 6 weeks and not 9!

P-day has been good so far! We went to the gym first thing this morning, did our laundry, and we are getting ready to head to the temple later this afternoon. We are also praying an apostle is coming to speak at our devotional tonight since we haven't had one since being here!

Sorry this email was so scatter-brained this week! A lot when on in a short amount of time, but hopefully I can compose my thoughts a little better next week! Eu amo voces!

-Sister Selk