Simply Beautiful

If you've ever heard that the mission is a time warp... You've heard right! I'm leaving the MTC in a week and a half for ARGENTINA! Holy shininkies! How did that happen? We're getting our flight plans this Friday and I don't know whether to be happy because the food here is just plain horrible (missionary mom's who send packages of healthy snacks saves lives) or sad because I love the MTC. Don't know why, but I just love it here. Such a peaceful happy feeling here and estoy muy agradecido por la oportunidad tengo estar aqui :)

So this weeks email is going to be short and sweet... Enjoy!

Give us your Children!

So remember how I had dinner with the MTC president and totally did not who he was? And now whenever we see him at devotional Elder Hamblin looks over at me at says "Hey Hermana, that's the MTC president. Did you know that?" or "Hey Hermana Davidson, where do you think he's serving? Here at the MTC?"

...

Well if you didn't know that, now you do. I just roll with it. It's a chiste. Esta bien.

BUT

I've almost been let off the hook.

almost.

Hermana Ahlmer and I were teaching one of the teachers here last Wednesday night... Rewind to a couple weeks ago. Remember when I accidentally told this guy we had a "massage" for him instead of "message." Well yeah this is the same maestro. Hermano Hicks. We all love him but whenever we teach something really embarrassing happens on our end.

Every time

Though this time it wasn't me! So to start off,  walked up to him pretending like we were talking to people on the street in Mexico again. We chatted for a bit, talked about where we were from and a lot awkward stuff (because let's face it... It's awkward when you speak in a foreign language and you're afraid of accidentally saying something borderline inappropriate... Trust me, I would know) when he said something about our hair.

"Pelo? Nuestra Pelo es rubia?" 

We had noooo idea what he was saying. He said some more things that just made us more confused and then we heard the word Nazi. Hermana Ahlmer and I looked at each other and then at him and asked him in english, "Did you just call us Nazis because of our hair???"

He got flustered over that and said some more things.

But we just asked why he thought we were Nazis he just waved his hands said "never mind."

so there's that. We're already off to a great start. (I feel like Uncle Richard would appreciate the Nazi story... I haven't forgotten my promise that I would keep an eye out for Hitler in Argentina... Should I even be saying this as a missionary???)

Anywho... Things get worse. Will first, better, and then worse. So we talked to him about his life, found out he was married with two kids but he and his wife were thinking about getting a divorce which made him muy triste. We told him that we had a message with him that could help his marriage and he was totally down and we all got excited that everything was going so well and we set up a fake appointment in the morning when Hermana Ahlmer said, "Da su hijos tambien!"

I almost lost it.

The maestro got a real concerned look on his face. "Quieren mis hijos?"

At this point I couldn't stop Hermana Ahlmer from saying, "Sí, sí! Quieremos su hijos en la mañana!" 

At this point I was dying on the inside.

And then he said something like "No pienso." And shook his head.

And then I lost it.

I felt horrible but Hermana Ahlmer was soooo confused and I just sat there laughing so hard tears were a rollin' down my face. And then Hermano Hicks started busting up too.

"Doesn't dar mean to bring?" She asked me.

"No, dar means to give. Traer means to bring!"

So allow me to translate the convo for you. I have a feeling google translate won't do it justice.

Hermana Ahlmer after we made plans to meet with him in the morning: "Give your children also!"

Hermano Hicks: "You want my kids?"

Hermana Ahlmer: "Yes, yes! We want your kids in the morning!"

Hermano Hicks: "No I don't think so."

Lost in translation.

I thought I was going to pee when I told the Elders in our district later that night. I'm just grateful that my companion is like super chill so she thinks it's almost as funny as we do. 

Now I don't feel nearly as bad about my dinner with the president haha.

Mas Palabras Lost in Translation

Remember how I told you about that quote that said it takes 40,000 mistakes to learn a language? Well I'm not joking when I say that I'm probably already hit halfway here at the MTC.

Remember how I said that I may have accidentally said something inappropriate once or twice?

Welllll this week during our lesson with Diana, Hermana Ahlmer asked what "concept" was in Spanish so I made the dumb mistake of taking a whack at it and guess what it was and I said, "concepcion". Yeah it is what you think it is.

Diana immediately corrected me and said "concepto."

I was all like "oh okay."

And by the sorry look she was giving me it clicked in my mind what I had just said.

Then I was all like "ohhhhhhhhh oops okay."
Then we all just laughed awkwardly together.

And then Hermana Ahlmer saved the conversation. Bless her. Bless her.

"One by One"

So I had a hard time not telling you guys about this last week but since it happened yesterday I'm allowed to tell you about it Yay! So guess who we had speak at our devotional yesterday... drum roll please.... Elder Bednar!

This was especially special (say "especially special" over and over I just like it) because (Dad you're going to looooove this) he wrote a song and the first time it has ever been sung publicly was by your's truly (and pretty much the entire Provo MTC) last night. But guess who wrote the music? Paul Cardall. 

Yes it was perfect.

Yes I may have stolen the paper handouts of the song we sang. It's so sweet! Look for it in next months new Era!

Besides the song, the talk was exactly what I needed to hear. I don't know why, but yesterday was really hard on me. I'm kind of a worry wort. But I don't worry about things hardly at all like "haha I haven't paid my 10 dollar copay at the doctors and it's been three weeks haha it's fine." So when I do worry, I worry about EVERYTHING and yesterday was one of those days. I just had so many questions I had prayed would be answered in that talk and I was so surprised to find that all of my questions were answered all at once with the same answer.

"Christ knows you as one person. He knows you by name. You are in His hands. You can do this!" It was perfect! And then there was this one part where he said "Let's see what happens" and I almost did a happy dance because that's something I write in my journal all the time to remind myself not to worry about the future but just enjoy time as it comes and goes. 

So basically... I'm just happy.

I feel extremely lucky to be apart of such an important work. We are here not by coincidence, but by inspiration. Every person that I have met from my companion, district, maestros, and from the people I will meet have been simply inspired. It's so exciting to be a missionary because we have the sweet privilege of helping people change their lives for the better by coming unto Christ.

Example.

Our Latest Lesson with Diana

This week we had another lesson with Diana. Hermana Ahlmer and I have been really worried that she isn't really been accepting our invitations or that we haven't been making much of an impact on her life.

Well we were right about the first part.

We invited her to go to church and she told us she would, buuuut she did what all of us want to do and stay home and sleep. We acted super disappointed, but she pinky promised that she would go next week. 

Diana was super late to the lesson, so we only had time to answer one question she had. She noticed that her LDS roomates didn't eat anything on Sunday and so dun dun dun we talked about fasting. It was so cool to talk about it and share our testimonies that we knew that prayers can be answered through fasting.

Then we asked her if any of her prayers have been answered. 

So now we find out we were wrong about the second part I mentioned earlier.

Diana immediately perked up and she told us that she usually loves her math class, but the other nght she had the hardest time doing her homework. She was so frustrated and mad, but she remembered that we had told her that we can ask for help from our Heavenly Father. And so she prayed. And guess what?

She told us it was answered! She immediately felt peace and calm and was able to finish her homework like a breeze. 

You seriously have no idea how badly Hermana Ahlmer and I needed to hear that. I have never felt such a simple joy!

Simply Beautiful

Something that I have come to learn is that everything about the gospel is simple. It's the simple things in life that really add up to something beautiful. Like that one scripture I can't remember where, "By small means, great things come to pass." It's so true.

Just like how 17 questions I had were answered all at one "Don't worry about it, I've got you"- the Spirit. Just how a simple prayer by our investigator was answered made us feel like we were on cloud nine. I just love the simplicity of it all haha. When teaching we keep things simple. I remember a quote from an apostle you said "The gospel is simple. Don't overthink it. Think simply." I just love it. From whatever prospective you have of the gospel, it is just full of so much love. Everything about it. We are just so loved. It's just simply beautiful :)

Entonces, That is pretty much all for this week! I'm excited to share new language fails with you next time which is dun dun dun my last P-day here! Wha the What? Esta loco pero esta bien!

Also BIG shout out to Drew and Sheri and the rest of Penrod fam for the package! My district loved the Baby Ruth's and Twix bars and I may have or may have not eaten half the loaf of homemade bread in one night... What? The food makes me want to cry here SOS.

Also thank you Teresa for the Dear Elders! I read them every night and I die of happiness to read the little notes by Jake and Aiden. I love my nieces and nephews so much and I love to hear from them!

Also Nate, Elder Mccoy in my district is basically you. So I basically have my brother in my same district so I'm basically really stoked about it. 

Tiene una buena semana!

Quotes of the Week

"Hermana Davidson runs like she's dancing." - All of zone 28 during kickball

(When Elder Knickerbocker opened a package full of socks with the Army of Helaman on them)

"Elder, if you wore those socks during gym you would never lose a game of four square!" - 

Elder Hamblin

"My mom is so cute." - Elder Schiess

"Como?" - Hermano Roberts x47 a day and we hate it.

"Gracias mi homies!" - Hermano Parker