email of 10 August, 2009

Guess what today is?

Day 99, that's what.

Day 99 of being a missionary. That means that tomorrow I will have been a missionary for 100 DAYS. Talk about crazy. I could have won "Survivor" twice now. We'll call this "Survivor L.A. - The Mission" :)

Ok

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the package!!!! I was surprised and laughed pretty hard about the corn nuts...definitely not expecting them!!! Thanks Dad! And thanks for the journals too!

Ok, so with the 18 minutes that I have left, here's a quick little bite of mission life this week:

Freddy postponed his baptism to next week because of needing/wanting to tell his mom, and to give her time to adjust to the idea. He is still getting baptized though!

You know how English-speakers tend to make fun of Spanish by adding "-o" to the end of a word (cake-o pound-o, anyone? ;) ?? Well, a memeber from the spanish branch was telling us that they do the same thing with English, only they add "-ation". For example: "Por favoration pasation la aguation" It's pretty funny.

Mom, you would die as a missionary here; everyone has dogs. And a lot of them are pretty huge mean ones too. There's a GIANT German shepherd named "Rambo" that lives down the street from one of our investigators. Trust me, it's a very appropriate name, and he's a very good guard dog. There have been a couple of times when I was a little scared of a dog, like when there was a dog who was trying to eat through his fence to get at us, or one who was running at us like mad (but chained up) and barking pretty ferociously, or like just yesterday, when someone's German shepherd had gotten out, and was just taking a nice little stroll down the same street we were...I'm really grateful that Heavenly Father protects His missionaries!!!

Also, you asked about the L.A. Temple. It's beautiful, and also HUGE. The endowment rooms seat about 300, but they are some of the most beautiful rooms I've ever seen. And no, it's not quite as "old" looking as the IF temple (LA was built in the 50's).
I've been thinking a lot this week about giving my heart to the Lord. Im reading the NT right now, and came across Matt 6:21 this week, which hit me differently than it has before. I just realized that up until this point, I've had a hard time putting my WHOLE heart into the work here because it hasn't been my real "treasure." So I thought about that and decided to really give all of my non/pre-mission hopes and dreams to the Lord for the next while of my life, and let Him keep them safe in a jar on a little shelf somewhere, and have asked Him to help this - the mission and all that that entails - to be my treasure. It's really helped me a lot.
Also, I've been thinking a lot about "Harvesting" lately, and how that applies to what I'm doing right now.

I'd elaborate more, but I have no time. Just know that I love being here, and am doing well!

I love being a missionary!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Sallie :)

ps I was wondering if some of the people who read my letters and were converts wouldn't mind writing and sending me their conversion stories. I'd love to read them, and also think that they could be a great tool in my teaching people here!