Saturday, November 7, 2009

YAY! Madison's First Letter!

So it got to me today! and I am so excited for you all to read it! She sounds so happy! And if you haven't written her yet, DO IT!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Today is my p-day (wednesday) so expect an e-mail from me every wednesday, and today is the only day that I am supposed to write letters home. The MTC is great! The long days were a little rough to get used to at first, we wake up at 6:30 am and have a full schedule until 9:30 pm, with 6 hours of class, 4 hours of studying, and other activities in between. My companion is Hermana Wardle from Utah and she is great, we get along perfectly and I am so grateful for her. We both are really committed to learning spanish and try and speak it as much as possible. I have a personal goal to meet 3 random people and get to know them in spanish each day and I have kept my goal thus far and feel like it has really helped me to feel comfortable speaking spanish. I also say all of my prayers in just spanish and feel it really helps my prayers to be more meaningful because I have to really think about what I am saying and then translate it.

I had a really great experience with spanish on sunday! During the week my teacher, Hermano Coles, was telling us that if we have true faith in Jesus Christ we can draw upon the powers of heaven and call down miracles. This struck me to my core and I knew that if I am a bold, courageous missionary, having faith that God will provide for me in the very hour of my need, then I can witness miracles during my mission. This sunday happened to be fast and testimony meeting and for missionaries who have just arrived they can bear their testimony in english if they want, everyone else has to do it in spanish in our branch. During church I knew it was time to exercise my faith and have courage, and I knew I needed to bear my testimony in spanish, even though I had only been learning the language for 3 days. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it was in my throat, but I approached the stand and began to bear my testimony in spanish. It was really shaky at first, probably because I was so scared, but after the first phrase I really got going and was able to speak clearly and correctly in the spanish language. Ever since that morning I feel like I have been blessed with the Gift of Tongues in learning the language and being able to understand and communicate the language. When I speak to other spanish missionaries they are always shocked that I have only been here a week! :)

I am learning so much about the Gospel as well, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ has new personal meaning to me. I have felt so strongly the love of Jesus Christ and of my Heavenly Father during my short time here. Everyday I feel their love through the Holy Ghost and I know they are pleased with the decision I have made to serve their children in Texas. I know that I will be blessed for the rest of my life for this decision and my family will be greatly blessed in my absence. I love you all so so so much and miss you! If you want to write me and don't want to use postage you can go to www.DearElder.com and type up a letter to me and the MTC prints it out that day and hands it to me in class :) So yeah....write me, I haven't gotten any mail this week and would really like to hear from you, especially Mom, Dad, and Alli, I miss you so much, please write so I don't have to wait until next Wednesday to read an e-mail.

Te Quiero Mucho!
Hermana Taets

3 comments:

  1. YAYAYAY!!! I just got done writing her a letter, and then I saw this! What perfect timing!! I'm sooo happy for her; it sounds like she's doing fabulous!!

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  2. Glad to see the first letter! You might want to change the font color, it's very hard to read.

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  3. Sorry about it being hard to read, I do not have the capabilities to change the font color on the blog, on the next post i will play around with it and see what I can do! :D

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