HELLO!

(letter dated April 9th 2010)

My dear dear friends and family!

Another week already past? Time is flying by, but also slow moving. Any return missionary will tell you that in the MTC the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It is so true.

First I want to say thank thank thank you for all of your love and support. As missionaries we are promised to have angels help and support us in our endeavors, and I can feel your prayers for me everyday while I'm here. Also I receive so much mail that people are starting to get bitter I think hahahah. But it is such a blessing at the end of a long day of hard work to hear the words of familiar friends.

Bil, thank you for being so diligent and for inspiring me, your words are powerful and continue to help me everyday.

Stepper, thank you for you beautiful words in your last snail mail and dear elder, you know me in ways that only a sister could, Also thank you for the Easter package and my own little creature, it is so special and sits on my bed right next to my pillow. 

Elisabeth and Clinton, THANK YOU for the easter package, yummy cookies and candy and also for your dear elder letters, your encouraging words are such a blessing. Clinton I'm glad you know where Portugal is. 

Thank to everyone else who continually writes to me despite my lack of response, just know that every letter is a tender mercy and that I treasure them. I will try to write some letters today.

Stepper- those pictures of wyatt.... are out of control. He looks like he is 16. Such a little teeny tiny cutie! Speaking of realy teeny tiny cutie, Daph makes me cry, she is so pretty, I love her.

I wanted to share a little bit about the experience here at the MTC as a sister missionary and how it differs from the possible experience of an Elder. Each day we wake are to wake up at 6:30am, and then usually we have gym. For Sisters we have to option to go to yoga, kickboxing, pilates, aerobics etc. at 6:00am each class varies by day. It is so cool. Believe it or not I love going to gym with just the sisters (although I really do love playing 4 square with the Elders). If you do go to regular gym and play 4 square with the Elders a sister is treated with so much respect. Anyone who pulls a cheap shot (like a slam) on a sister in the game will be shamed for the rest of the day... no one wants to carry the burden of 4 square shame...no one... so it's a real treat.

Also as a sister I don't know if I have opened more than 3 doors as I walk around the campus with my companions. Elders will go out of their way (almost shoving us out of the way) to open a door for a sister. It is so kind. By the time we make it into the doors at meal time, the real royal treatment comes into play... I walk to the end of the line for pulled pork sandwiches and I think to myself "I should have brought a sack lunch to eat while I wait for this line to hurry up, this will take forever" and then before I know it the Elder in front of me turns around and the instant he sees that he is in front of a sister he implores me to go ahead of him in line...I say obrigada (thank you) and wait again, now one place closer. As you might imagine this creates a chain reaction and before I know it, I am at the front of the line with every single Elder insisting that I go ahead of them. It is a beautiful thing. Especially for girls like me, who love to eat. As I walk back to the table to enjoy my meal, the entire table of Elders will then proceed to stand up and wait until I have settled into my chair. Chivalry is not dead. This treatment is not exclusive to Irma McCrery, oh no, every sister is treated with love and respect. 


It is something else.

Portuguese is beautiful. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm so grateful for high school Spanish, it is helping me soooo much with grammar. Muito bem!

Ok on a more spiritual note. Let me explain something very simply. Eu sei que this is the True Church on the Earth today, that through a modern Prophet Joseph Smith the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in it's fullness. I know that I have a loving Heavenly Father. How do I know? Because I am blessed every minute of every day with kind people, words of wisdom, letters from friends, whisperings of the spirit bringing me comfort, I'm blessed to know the Plan of Salvation, which is possible through Jesus Christ. This plan is for everyone. Every single one of our Heavenly Father's children. He loves you, he wants you to turn to him through Jesus Christ.

I Love all of you and I wish I didn't have to stop so soon, but there is work to be done. For we are all enlisted til the conflict is o'er happy are we, happy are we.

Love, 

Sister Liz

(A note from Stepper: Watch for pictures later this week! She sent some via snail mail. I just need to remember to bring them to work so I can scan them in and post them here!)