first off, hermana smith and i get along so well. seriously. today, i walked into the bathroom and she was behind one of the shower curtains. she said "hermana reeve? is that you?" I said "yeah.. how did you know?" she said, "I don't know. I heard you breathing." we were quiet for a couple seconds and I said "umm.. creepy?" we both laughed so hard for like 5 minutes! we already have inside jokes and hand motions and we kinda communicate telepathically. this week, we are writing an arrangement of Savior, Redeemer of My Soul because we both compose music by ear! haha a match made in heaven :)
I just wanna take a sec and say that Elder Bleak is literally the most incredible district leader I could have asked for. he has a huge heart... when I asked him if he was able to give me a blessing, he looked me straight in the eyes and said "that is our duty as priesthood holders. of course I will give you a blessing." I love him and E Chamberlain. They balance each other out quite well, and it helps that Elder Chamberlain longboards and makes Harry Potter jokes. We just get along really well (well, as well as missionaries can get along. haha :)) Elder bleak & chamberlain are now our zone leaders! Speaking of leadership positions... they made me a Sister Training Leader! which I guess is kinda like a zone leader, but it's a girl and her main job is to check up with the sisters in the zone. I think. I'm still learning about it haha :) but for only being here for 2 weeks, I was a little surprised, not gonna lie! But I am grateful for the opportunity to grow :)
Sunday was really nerve racking because I got up and shared my testimony in testimony meeting. IN SPANISH. Granted, it was just our zone there, but still... getting up and sharing it in another language was so odd to me. But at the same time, it made me excited to know I could actually make sense in spanish :)
JaQuavious has been such a huge blessing here at the CCM. He is a never ending source of laughter. We sat across from each other at dinner, and I had been having a rough day, and all of a sudden he just said "HERMANA REEVE?!" (pronounced HER-MAN-UH). I just started cracking up, and then he laughed at my laugh (because I snorted), and then we were both laughing for like 10 mins! I was crying by the time we could control ourselves! the other day, we were watching a devotional on TV by david a. bednar, and elder bednar was being really blunt. JaQ was in back of me and leaned forward and said "oh my goodness, it's like mormon judge judy in the house! preach it, brotha!" hahaha I have a quote book that I started for the mission, and most of the quotes in it are from him!
Overall, I think I've been doing alright adjusting to the mission life. I still catch myself saying "crap" "dude" and other things, but I always catch myself like halfway through the word. Elder Bleak's motto for me is "never give up, hermana reeve" usually followed by a laugh. I'm trying guys, I'm trying :)
On sunday, we had the incredible opportunity to sing with the UVU choir. so imagine a ton of missionaries in the missionary choir, and a way good choir together....? what do you get? CHILLS. especially when the song is "praise to the man". Oh man it was incredible :) I have come to cherish choir twice a week since that's like the only music I listen to here on the mission right now!
On thursday, I was feeling really overwhelmed with the language, and to be honest I kinda missed being friends with boys. we were in our room studying and these two elders from another district came in and said in slow and broken spanglish: "hola hermanas! por favor testimonio en espanol?" so they practiced shared their testimonies with us in the best spanish they could. we began to chat with them and the one elder that looked like he was an islander introduced himself. He came to the US and is required to learn english AND spanish for his mission. he is learning TWO languages. He had been at the mtc for 2 days, and he still had the courage to share his testimony and converse with two people who he barely understood. It gave me courage and determination to know that I'VE TOTALLY GOT THIS! well, technically God does, but yea ;)
side note for everyone: SEND MORE PICTURES! You have no idea how much I love getting pictures! I don't even care if they're selfies! haha I love seeing faces from back at home :)
For all of my seminary people out there from my class.... ELDER BLEAK KNOWS THE MOSIAH CHAPTER 3 VERSE 19 SCRIPTURE MASTERY SONG! I HAVE NEVER FELT SO HAPPY! Matt & Ellen & Sister Topham especially.... you guys will appreciate this. We were studying and Elder Chamberlain popped his head up and was like "hey what scripture talks about becoming as a child?" and I yelled "I'VE GOT THIS!" and proceeded to sing the song so that I could get to the reference at the end. And I wasn't the only one that knew it. It was great :)
I was playing volleyball with all the elders, and I kinda got a little too competitive and hurt my wrist. Not badly, but the swelling kinda popped up... so today elder bleak is gonna give me a priesthood blessing. so i'll be totally fine :D
overall, this week was the bomb. I'm super blessed to be getting letters almost every day from my mama and a couple friends, and i feel pretty popular ;) letters from home make my week, and I love hearing what's going on in everyone's life!
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: this week, we studied the attributes of Christ and were asked to pick one. I began to read through them and was hit like a ton of bricks when I read "hope." Hope is so important. I don't have my PMG on me for the actual quote, but it basically said that hope helps you press on with optimism, confidence, and something else... can't remember what :( BUT! I realized that I had a lot of hope before I got to the CCM, but now that I'm here, it has kinda been something that I'm not focusing on. I had lost my enthusiasm, my energetic personality, all that good stuff... because i was soooo focused on everything else. but since I began studying hope, I have been able to fix that :) I have laughed a lot more, and I feel more confident. I would encourage and invite you all to study the attribute of hope :)
I love you all so much! As always, I love being a missionary. to quote nacho libre, "IT'S THE BEEESSSST! I LOOOVE IT!"
-love,
hermana reeve :)
No comments:
Post a Comment