Sister Selk: Week 9 and Good News!

Minha Familia!

We had some good times this week, so I will get right into telling you all of the highlights!

Last P-day we had our district activity and we hiked moonshine arch which is in the middle of nowhere and required us to do some off roading in the minivan which was a fun adventure....hahah My district is super cool, and it was way fun getting to spend more time getting to know them better. Elder Kalamafoni had a collection of snapbacks in the minivan, so we thought it was appropriate that we all sport those on the hike. I of course got voted to wear his only hockey related snapback- the Canadian Stereotypes continue!

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I have to admit that I was NOT looking forward to exchanges. They told us that I would be going to Roosevelt until Wednesday and I didn't have the best attitude about the whole thing, but God definitely humbled me because I had an awesome time. I learned a lot from sister Garding and sister Nebo, and there was one lesson in particular that we taught that I really felt my teaching was improving.

When we got back from exchanges on Wednesday, Sister Wagner and I had planned to help a lady clean her house because she was moving.

It was horrendous.

I am pretty sure we killed the vacuum cleaner in our attempts to find the ground, but it was definitely a good service opportunity.

I was able to go back to Sister Bankston's House this week to practice my Portuguese. I feel like I am progressively getting worse at Portuguese, which is not good! Especially because MY VISA HAS BEEN APPROVED!!!! Ahhhhh! Prayers have been answered!!! I am so stoked for life, but terrified at the same time! Looks like it is time to triple my efforts in my Portuguese! Pray for me, I am going to need all the help I can get!

Here are a few fun stories about the lessons we taught this week:

We had a lesson that was quite eye opening this week. As we were visiting with this man he expressed to us that he felt like all of the people in the ward just thought of him as a number, as just someone who needed to be recruited. I was quite shocked by this, and asked him if he felt the same towards us as missionaries. He told us that he did, and I have never been so heart broken in my life! The fact that this man did not feel that we loved him made me reevaluate everything I have done as a missionary. Our Purpose is to invite and to help which ultimately means to love. That is our only purpose, and if we are not getting across that message to our investigators than we are doing something wrong. We had a good talk with him about that, and I hope that by the end of the lesson he was able to feel our love for him, but that is something that I have been thinking a lot about and is something that I hope to improve on.

Another lesson we had was even more out in the boonies than we usually are. We pulled up to this ladies house and all I could think of was "Oh Boy." haha

I fully regret not taking a picture, because it was just the epitome of the kind of people we teach. So great. We walked in her house and she is a bit of a hoarder, but I guess one positive thing about that is that she had about a thousand pictures of Jesus on the wall.....And about a thousand crosses......She is a less active lady- super nice, but we are still a little confused about what she actually believes. All we know is that she is a big fan of Jesus, trinkets, and meditation...

The last interesting lesson for the week happened last night. Sister Wagner went to conference in Salt Lake, so I was on Splits with Sister Cluff from the other district. We showed up to this lady's house that they had apparently visited before, and when we walked in the door I was 90% positive she had been smokin weed or something because it was POTENT in there...no worries though, because she was just burning sage....ha. Oh boy. That lesson was interesting....enough said.

Now for Conference:

SO GOOOOOOOD!

So Good!

Every single session was amazing, but I am pretty sure that the Sunday morning session was especially for me. I literally felt like every speaker was talking directly to me. And not only were all the talks perfect, but they also sang my favorite hymn, so I am convinced that session was for me.

We were able to watch conference with two different families. Both were so fun to watch it with, and both fed us wayyy too much!

I don't know what else to say about conference other than it was perfect.

We have some dang exciting things coming up this week! I am excited to share those next week! Man, April is going to FLY by and before I know it I am going to be in PORTUGAL!!!!

I Hope you all have an amazing week! Amo Voces!

-Sister Selk