October 9, 2012

Oh HI.

So...I don't know if maybe you heard or not but.......THEY CHANGED THE AGES TO SERVE MISSIONS!!! I am STILL speechless! I wish you could have been sitting in the auditorium with 2500 missionaries when President Monson made the announcement, everyone was gasping and cheering etc. INCREDIBLE! One of the Elders in my district is 18.  He's one of the special ones because he is in the Air Force and got special permission so he is so excited also! I can't imagine what all the seniors in high school are thinking! Super exciting!! This will increase the number of missionaries so much! As a coordinating sister I got to go to a training meeting and we talked a lot about it. They are cutting the stay at the MTC by a third for everyone. So the twelve week missionaries will only stay for nine weeks now...and the nine weekers for six etc etc. I just BARELY missed the boat on that one so I still get the honor of being here for an eternity! haha, the work of the Lord is progressing so fast It's amazing, this is a huge step for the church. 

I loved conference, I sat by new missionaries each session and met some really awesome Elders. I snuck in some skittles...shhhh :) I loved Elder Nelson's talk..."Ask the Missionaries!" It was so fun, every time he said that, all of us would cheer! haha Such a strong spirit being surrounded by 2500 missionaries, all getting PUMPED to go serve in our missions! Conference was just what I needed to get me even more excited to serve. I can't WAIT! I wrote down some questions going into conference and every single one was answered. My jaw dropped probably seven hundred times. LOVE IT. 

After conference on Sunday we had a fireside and guess who came, NFL Chad Lewis!! He served in Taiwan and speaks Mandarin so all of us were especially excited to hear from him, he was awesome. All the Elders loved all of his football references, couldn't help but think of the Bro's...haha.

Sister Anderson had surgery today on her ear, she had a cyst? Still not really sure what was wrong but we've spent all morning at the hospital. She's doing fine and Sister Ashcraft and I got a kick out of watching her come out of anesthesia. She was a KOOK! hahaha  She still had some iodine on her neck and we mentioned to her she looks a little yellow and she says..."I'm a green alien, I forgot to tell you.." haha we lost it. She also was laughing for probably 15 minutes straight uncontrollably, people in other rooms kept checking on us to see if everything was okay. haha good times, she is sleeping now. Bless her heart.

Thanks so much for the packages this last week, Mom, Dad and the Wilkes. You are AWESOME! It was like Christmas morning, I shared all the popcorn and treats with everyone. Dad already sent my Christmas present, even wrapped in Christmas paper, I still haven't opened it, I'm trying to hold out. What a sick joke tempting me like that! Everyone loves the silly glasses Dad sent me, I'm officially the "jokester"..obviously.

I keep learning and learning so much, my whole district is growing so much spiritually. We have lots of break out sessions where we will teach each other, as ourselves. So we really get to know each other and hear each others testimonies. Someone always cries, I kept it together this week. I feel like I've peaked with my Chinese, I improved so much at the start but now it's a lot of just memorizing vocabulary so it's hard for me to see my own improvement. But when I'm sitting in class for three hours speaking entirely in Chinese I realize how far I've come. I know I say this every letter but I just can't WAIT to get out there! One of the shuttle drivers is from New Zealand and he has family in Sydney so I asked him about the spider situation, he said they're everywhere...so that's just PERFECT! But of course they are mostly "harmless" so I should be "fine"...oh sure sure easy for him to say. hahaha 

Okay, so the other day some of my MTC buddies came up to me so I said to my district.."These are my pangyous..." which means friends...only...I should've said "pengyous" because "pang" means fat...so I really said...these are my fatties...hahaha. Too good. Sorry, every single word sounds the SAME - gall!

I love all of you so much, I'm so lucky to have such an awesome family and awesome friends. I am loving my mission, It's only gonna get better and better. I hope all of you have an awesome week. My testimony grows more and more, I love my Savior so much. I have learned so much just about the Atonement that I never understood before. I encourage all of you to study the Atonement and think about Jesus Christ. He would have performed the Atonement even if it were for just ONE of us. Incredible. Love you all, Heavenly Father loves you too! :)

Sister Raitt