My flight plans.
And…takeoff!!!
Just in case you didn't know, it's right there. =P
Our Portuguese teacher,
Brother Lemperle had a birthday.
So we made him a piñata!
Brother Lemperle had a birthday.
So we made him a piñata!
On our way to class!
This Elder was in my ward at BYU!
Fun to see him there!
We met some foreign Elders. One from the Netherlands and one from Haiti. They are so nice and have an awesome passion for this work! The church is true all over the world! (and it was super fun to speak Port. with the Haitian elder)
Our CREW…LOL!
All are leaving to Portugal tomorrow!
My letter home:
Wow. This is my last day before I get on a plane to fly out to Portugal. Everything has worked out so well. I actually got my visa without a hitch! There was a worry for a while that I wouldn't get my visa in time to go out with my district. There were three missionaries in my zone who didn't get their visas. Each of them were reassigned to somewhere in the US while they wait. Elder Tobler in my district got reassigned to Montana, and two other missionaries were reassigned to Chicago and PROVO. Wow. I'm so glad that we were able to get things done for mine. Just send me to my country pleassssse :)
Our last Sunday here was amazing. There are a ton of missionaries leaving the MTC right now. Me and all the Portugal missionaries sang in church. We sang "God be with you till we meet again". I was fine the first two verses, but the third verse we sang A Capella in Portuguese and I lost it. I was crying in front of everyone, haha so embarrassing. But the spirit was so strong. We are going out to do the Lord's work and we will be blessed with the ability to speak this language. It is amazing to me. The translation of the song into Portuguese is really interesting too. It has a totally different message "with power, with power, with power we find in Jesus."
My teacher, Brother Lemperle, had a birthday this week. We all love him so much. He is such a spiritual power, he is so inspiring. We wanted to do something awesome for his birthday. We put together a "pinata". Basically it was a box full of all the candy and snacks we didn't want and we decorated it with all the random things girls stick on their residence hall doors. It was so funny. He is really an awesome guy. He told us a lot about the country this week, and it got us so pumped to go there. It sounds different than I imagined! But still so amazing. Miracles are on the horizon, I can almost taste it!
As we get ready to head out me and Sister Dixon are getting ready to part ways. When I get there I will be assigned to a new companion who will train me in the language and the area we will be in. I hear a lot of newbies get assigned to be trained by native Brazilian missionaries so they are kinda forced to learn the language faster. It sounds a bit scary, and potentially lonely, but I honestly hope that I do get assigned to a native portuguese speaker. They say you learn the language like twice as fast.
I don't want to think about leaving Sister Dixon. I love her so much! She has taught me so much spiritually. She is truly a ray of sunshine. (That was how my Branch President described us when he was releasing us from our Sister Training Leader duties. "You two were a ray of sunshine to this branch." It was so awesome to get to serve in that capacity. Now some other sister will get the chance to be leaders! And we will be at the bottom of the totem pole once again haha:)) I cannot wait until the day when at the end of our missions we meet up again and we are BOTH completely fluent in Portuguese! Wow, it will be awesome and soooososososososos much fun!
This gospel is so amazing. A scripture I have been reading a lot lately is Alma 32:28. It talks a lot about how faith is like a little seed, and when we plant it in our hearts we can be rewarded. I know that by the fruits of our faith we can receive the greatest gift of all: eternal life with our Father in Heaven! That sounds like the most wonderful gift we can ever receive. And guess what? it is!!! This is Briggs' favorite scripture "And if you keep my commandments and endure to the end, ye shall have eternal life. Which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God" (D&C 14:7) THAT is the goal. THAT is the reason I went on a mission. THAT is what I want to give to everyone I teach, everyone I know, and everyone i meet. I hope you all meditate on this fact this week. Do you want eternal life? What would you do to have eternal life? Do you want to live with God forever after this life? I can tell you how! And so can any other Mormon missionary! =D
Thanks you all! I love you and really appreciate all the love and support ya'll send my way. <3 My mailing address will be changed now that I am going to Portugal! I can't remember what it is at the moment but I posted it on Facebook a while back, so feel free to go look it up if you want. Letters are worth their weight in gold to a missionary! Thanks also for all the emails. I read each and every one!
Muito Amor!
Sister Barron
