2 Month Mark
Life is getting easier and easier every week. I feel like I can understand more and more Spanish too. Not to mention every preparation day our house gets exponentially cleaner (thanks to the neat freak mentality i got from Mom) but I am so grateful for that. Our house was a disaster before I showed up…
General conference was awesome. I got to hear all of Saturday and the first half of Sunday in english. It was crazy, every question/concern I had about the mission was answered in the talks. Okay crazy story, the reason I wasn’t able to watch the last session in English was because the computer I was using in the church got stolen. While we were all out of the building someone broke in through the roof and stole the computer.
Weird note about the food here. We have Chinese, burgers, and pizza here. All are terrible… the pizza doesn’t have sauce, the burgers are some other kind of meat, and the Chinese food is just really bad Chinese food. Oh but I did find a jewel of food. There is a panini place from across the street that I wanted to try for a while. When we walk in it is just like a little cafe in California. Super hipster. Turns out a french guy runs the place and makes paninis, crepes, and smoothies. This place is heaven. My plan is to eat there every week because it so healthy and sooo awesome.
Wow! I love the cool
Little cement apartment & your gratitude for your mom’s cleaning teachings! So proud of you Braden for serving the Lord, for working so hard & sacrificing these years to bring others JOY! I loved Russel M. Nelsons talk about joy & the talk about our purpose in missionary work is to share that joy rather than to increase the number of memebers in the church. Those thoughts increased my motivation to share — even though I knew that, the clarifying words of the apostles helped bring it to the surface of my mind and sunk it deeper into my heart.
I stayed up late reading my missionary journal the other night because I get to reconnect with my trainer next week & I wanted a refresher of my experiences with her. It’s been 20 years since we’ve seen/talked, so super exciting/fun to reunite! It was so neat to read about my experiences that I couldn’t put it down & ended up reading the whole first year of my mission rather than the original plan of reading just the first two months. I encourage you to be an excellent journal writer on your mission! I am deeply grateful for all I read the other night. It strengthened me greatly, not only on testimony topics but also in other areas of my life. It reminded me of my strength to do hard things & get through struggles with hard people. It reminded me how satisfying your mission can be when you are obedient — NO REGRETS, that was my motto — I was obedient and worked hard & feel fully satisfied with all my efforts. Most important, reading my missionary experiences reminded me that the Lord is in charge! Be SURE to write every day! Write of the richness of your experiences & relations with companions and others: Even if it is only a few sentences at the end of a Long day saying how tired you are it will be meaningful. I am SO glad I wrote!
Again, I am so proud of your hard work. My journal reminded me how HARD missionaries work!
We love you Braden! Grateful for your sacrifice and strength to serve a mission! You can do hard things!
Much love,
Aunt Melanie