YES! MY VISA CAME THROUGH AND I'M HEADED TO SPAIN ON THURSDAY!
Hna. P and Hna. H are also going, and Hna. J and Hna. T, and Elder V from my district. I'm beyond excited! :) We're all really excited to be going to Spain, although we LOVE our district. We are all really close, and so it's really sad that half of us will be transferred to the Spain MTC. But SPAIN! You can't beat that!
We go on Wednesday to the consulate to get our visas, and then to the airport on Thursday to fly over there. We just barely found out. It's crazy!
I get to call home for 5 minutes today to share my itinerary and everything with you! So be waiting for that. It'll probably be around 5-6 your time.
Before I get too distracted, I need to thank Janece for her package and dearelder. I didn't get the package until Tuesday, but it arrived safe and sound! And thanks to Laurie and Grandma for the dearelders as well! It's so good to hear from you! Too bad those won't be free once I get to Spain. :(
I sent a letter to Jared on Saturday and one to Miriam and to Emma today. So those should be arriving pretty soon.
I loved Conference so much! So many questions I had, especially for other people, were answered. My Hnas. and I had planned a lesson to teach one of our investigators about peace and had looked up a bunch of scriptures that we wanted to share, then we didn't have time to teach it to him. We told both of our investigators to watch conference, and then Elder Cook spoke, and his entire talk was almost exactly the lesson we had prepared. Every scripture he quoted was one of the ones we had planned to share. That was pretty funny. We've been trying to figure out how he spied on our companionship study. :) One of our teachers was in the BYU choir as well. He didn't even tell us. We were all watching and suddenly one of the elders said, "Hey, isn't that Brother B?" and it was!
I felt a lot of peace and personal guidance from all the talks. They were fantastic. I love that we have prophets on the earth today and that they listen to the Lord and guide us. It's awesome! I felt, as always, the love of the Lord for me and His knowledge of what I'm going through. My very favorites were probably Elder Cardon, Pres. Eyring, Pres. Uchtdorf, Elder Anderson, and Elder Holland. (When they announced that Elder Holland would be the next speaker, everyone in the room hissed "YESSSSSS!!!!" in unison.)
Man, so much has happened lately that I can't remember what's been going on since last Monday. What even happened before conference?
I don't remember if I told you or not, but last Saturday we moved into a new classroom on the 5th floor. It has a gorgeous view of the mountains, but we also have to walk up 4 flights of stairs almost 10 times a day. There is an elevator, but it's only for missionaries who are sick or injured. Let's just say I won't miss those silly stairs.
On Wednesday we got 2 new sisters in our room, Sister K (going to Honolulu Hawaii) and Sister B (going to Auckland, New Zealand). They're super nice, although it's a little harder to have 5 girls in our room than it is to have 3.
Thursday was one of the best days of my whole life. We were practicing teaching in English and I sort of off-handedly expressed my frustration that I wasn't nearly as good a teacher in Spanish as in English because the way I like to teach is by asking questions and in Spanish, I can't always understand what the person is saying as an answer to my question. Hno. B heard what I was saying and offered to get some of the extra teachers who don't have districts right now to come and help me personally. So Hna. M and Hno. V (who are two of my favorite teachers we've had) came in and talked to me, just one-on-one, doing a role-play teaching scenario in Spanish. I learned so many things I didn't even know I needed to learn, not about Spanish, but about teaching the gospel. And I also gained the confidence I needed to be able to be able to teach in Spanish. I could understand everything they said (and Hna. M talks SUPER fast) and I could respond to them by sharing personal experiences and testifying of how the gospel had blessed my life. I gained the testimony I had been seeking that I have the knowledge and the mental capability to speak Spanish, and to speak it by the Spirit. I gained the confidence I had lacked to be bold and direct, to show to everyone I teach that I am a true messenger sent from my Father in Heaven to share His gospel, and to bless their lives abundantly with it.
Later that night, Hna. M and Hno. R did a workshop on how the Atonement changes us and how we need to make sure out investigators have not only a testimony but a changed heart. If they don't want to work and to dedicate themselves to the gospel, it's not going to do anything for them. It reminded me of something C. S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity:
"You are embarking on something that will take the whole of you."
Unless you put something into the gospel, you aren't going to get anything out of it!
I've been loving my study of grace in the Book of Mormon. It's seriously amazing. How great a force the Atonement is. I loved to hear all the speakers in General Conference bear testimony of Christ and the power of His Atonement. They know so certainly. I want to know it that strongly. And I'm definitely getting there. My testimony grows by leaps and bounds every day.
Vocal Point came to do our devotional last night. They sounded amazing and I felt the Spirit SO strongly. It was their first time ever coming to the MTC. I'm so glad I got to be there!
Last night we got to watch an old devotional from Elder Holland. It was HILARIOUS at some parts. I have never seen him be so funny. My Hnas. and I were cracking up at some points. But he spoke with such power and certainty. He said so many good things about how we should serve as missionaries. He used examples from the scriptures where numerous missionaries (Alma, Nephi and Lehi, Ammon) taught with power and authority to astonish people. He said that as missionaries we should work to astonish people every day. He shared a poem that I absolutely loved. Translated from French, it says roughly:
"Go to the edge," He said.
"No! We'll fall!"
"Go to the edge," He said.
"No! We'll fall!:
"GO TO THE EDGE," He said.
So we went to the edge, and He pushed us--and we flew.
That is how missionary work is. We have to put ourselves out there, where it's dangerous and scary and uncomfortable and we're going to be rejected and hated, but if we put ourselves out there, that's when the miracles come.
I'm so excited to start working miracles in Spain! I don't know if my P-day will be the same over there, so don't freak out if I don't email you for a while. :)
Best word in Spanish we learned this week:
aguafiesta: killjoy
It literally translates to "water party." We figured it's probably some version of "rain on your parade." Pretty funny.
Que les vayan bien, todos!
Con amor,
Hermana Lara Schaumann
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