Italian Language Lessons

Me familia,

I'm sitting at a picnic table outside listening to Italiano discussions while I write. I am so glad the tape, pictures and memory card arrived. Did Dad's letter and Aidan's postcard get there too? I can no longer remember what I send, and when. Could you please date your letters, so it's a little easier to know the time frame with which I'm dealing? I'm so separate here that it's hard to remember things are happening outside.

I'm working on being more positive in my emails--thirty minutes is not enough time to present, discuss, and resolve angst! I'm stuck glossing over the difficulties and therefore left with being happy. I really don't have many issues very often: I'm usually so happy. It is nice to have a purpose in life--the one I've chosen is posted on my wall (in two languages!)

(The blog admin has tried to install this photo aligned correctly, but not possible no matter what gyrations she makes! It wants to be tilted wrong! So be it!)

Let us begin with awesome Chinese jokes. How do you ask someone to answer the door in Chinese? Say Ding Dong. How do you say masculine formal wear? Bow Taai! The second joke is actual--for real that's how you say bow tie.

Still no address from Ian: I'm seriously considering sending him a postcard via Brian to say thinks for the great packages. Also, in order to RETURN with HONOR, He has to DEPART with HASTE. Tell him to get his papers in!

Speaking of packages, Ian! Thanks! The list of enclosed items is as follows:

1. Thanks for sending my old 2009 drivers license and for finding it in the pocket of the camel bac that I took on the 2009 Cousin Trek to Southern Utah. I knew it wasn't gone--but it was hard to explain to every policemen who pulled me over that it was not gone for good, just lost.

2. Q-Tips! How did you know?

3. Tin Cup, Frog Puppet is the best!!!

4. Ginger Lemon tea/juice I have lots of packets left, but now I can share with the entire MTC!

5. Thanks for the Plan of Salvation puzzle--great teaching tool.

6. I love the missionary stickers.

7. Lotion yay! Smelly, but nice.

8. A blarney stone -- after St. Paddy's hmmm. But Sis Farr and I kissed it nonetheless. Each on the opposite side of course. Need all the luck for blarney we can get!

9. Wintergreen altoids and smelly lotion. Are you trying to tell me something?

10. Mentholatum--My friend.

Thanks everyone for writing me. I am keeping each and every note and card in reserve to read on days without mail--particularly Fridays and Saturdays which are the longest and hardest. By Saturday evening, I admit, I am beat up and frustrated with language, self, MTC, teachers, even my dear companion.

We are saved by our MTC crush. You ask, what is that? Well, when Sister Farr and I were interviewed we were asked an odd question, "Heard of MTC crushes?" We laughed, "What? like, for a 19-year old?" but Sister Farr and I are beginning to look a little more critically on Elders who pop out of the woodwork, take our trays, asking for our addresses, and want to take our pictures... Sister Farr and I are learning slowly that we should be a little less effusively friendly.

Despite our best cautions, we do have a crush. There is a guy who has stolen our hearts. Brother Tyler. He leads the sister coordination reporting meeting on Tuesdays at 9:10 and he is about 72 years old. We love his advice. His most recent: "Our father in Heaven is lively, good-natured and jovial person. How do I know, That is how I feel when I am full of His Spirit."

He also told us that when General conference was first being televised, the lights were so bright that many of the General Authorities seated in the back wore dark glasses-- which," he said, "facilitated secret naps during boring speakers."

Two fabulous mission scriptures: John 21:3 and 5 reminds me that I must work BEFORE God can direct: he can't guide my steps if I’m sitting DOWN.

Matthew 9:11-13 (Moroni 8:8) about the physician being sent to those who need a doctor.

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Repentance, change, and progression hurts--like straightening a broken bone or removing infection. God loves you--right now, which is why He offers help to heal. He knows infection rages unabated if a patient is unwilling to endure the trials of lasting healing. The Savior is the perfect doctor, having suffered all the pain of every malady himself. He is our healer.

My part: God is willing to go to all and knows that every child is precious--my challenge is to see through his eyes, to see my purpose, to see his children as he sees them. I can't expect others to look past my exterior--that's why I have to shine my shoes, etc--but treating others His way helps them see the point of my message, the whole reason I'm here talking to them: God loves you as you are. Right now and He has sent me.

Enjoy conference! We will be! Love your daughter, friend, sister, cousin, Dia