email of 22 February 2010

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE OLYMPICS ARE GOING ON RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Oh wait...

Well, it was news to ME, anyways...I have no idea what's going on in the world right now. Found out the olympics last night...the week before I found out that Ted Kennedy had died...a while ago, apparently. You know what though, I really don't feel as though I'm missing out on anything -- it's pretty freeing to not have to worry about that kind of stuff at all right now.

David, congrats on being so close with your Eagle project! I've been praying a lot for you and will keep doing so, especially that you can have nice weather this weekend to finish things off!

Tell Auntie JuJu that I'll be praying for her too. I'm so glad that she's doing better and know she'll continue to improve.

So remember back to my first email from the field where I talked about Christine, who was supposed to get baptized that week, but then didn't? Well yesterday she finally got baptized!!!!! That was sure exciting, let me tell you! We got to go down to Downey for the baptism, which was really good. It was a little weird being back in my old area and seeing the members and people there, but it was good :)

I was SO EXCITED to read about David's friend, Kami! How awesome that she's going to be baptized, and especially that y'all get to be part of the process! It's such a great experience and feeling to be part of this incredible missionary work, isn't it? I just love it! And what a great privilege it will be for you, David, to baptize her! I hope things continue to go well with that, and will add Kami and all of you to my prayers this week! Make sure to be great members for her and the missionaries -- bear your testimonies frequently, comment and participate in the lessons, but be sure to keep things simple and remember not to overload her with too much! And love her!

Mom, you asked me last week abuot how my spanish is coming; very well, thank you! It actually has improved leaps and bounds since coming to Marina del Rey, where I have had less spanish, and 2 non-native speakers...go figure. Actually, President told me that that's fairly common; since I don't so much have a more experienced/able companion to lean on, I've really had to work and improve myself. So although I still wouldn't consider myself fully fluent, and definitely have days where I struggle to get the words out, my ability to speak and understand spanish has improved greatly!

I'm sorry that I don't always write a whole lot of spiritual things...insights and such (at least I don't feel like I do)...I'm going to really work on that, because I'm realizing that the spiritual growth and development that I'm receiving here are far greater and of more importance than some of my silly little stories. I'm working on improving that in my journal as well -- I tend to get caught up in the "I only have 5 minutes to write something quick, so here's what happened today..." rather than share my thoughts and feelings and impressions from the day, which are far more valuable...though the stories can be pretty good :)

So I wanted to share a little something with you this week; something that I refer to as "the parable of the soy milk," (It's really not a parable...more of an analogy, but "parable" sounds better :) and it has to do with change.
I don't really have time though, but I promise to share it next week! Here's the first part of it though!

I've never been a huge milk drinker. I'd have it with cereal now and then, and definitely need milk with cookies, but to just drink a glass of milk really isn't my thing. However, I've discovered that I really like soy milk. I'm not into it because of any health reasons or anything, I just like the taste better. So since making that discovery, breakfast is much faster because I usually eat cereal (with soy milk), AND I tend to enjoy it more. Most of my companions on the mission are more into regular cow's milk -- which is totally fine! --

The church is true!!!


I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

I love being a missionary!

Love,
Hermana Sallie


HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

ps Just a little FYI: next week is our temple p-day, so I won't be emailing until Wednesday...don't procrastinate the day of your writing though! :)