Week 5

HEYYY!! This week flew by! Wednesday night I had a really awesome spiritual experience. Our teacher had us all write down a question we wanted the Lord to answer. I asked..."How can I constantly be repenting and how can I learn more about repentance?" We then read from the Book of Mormon in Alma 11 and 12. Those chapters talked about how Christ can save us from our sins but not in our sins which is why we need to repent. It gave me a strong confirmation that I need to study more about the joy of repentance. Then I opened my English scriptures and read a highlighted section from those chapters that said "he knows all thy thoughts". I felt so strongly that that was our Heavenly Father's way of telling me He knows the questions I have and how to answer them. So cool! I love our Heavenly Father so much. I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the relationship we can share with Him. I can't wait to bring this message of joy to the people of California!! 5 more days!!! Thursday I ran into Sumner Mahaffey which was way awesome! I had no idea he teachers here in the MTC. So nice to see a familiar face! We taught Diana in the afternoon about the joy of repentance and how she can feel the burden of sin lifted off of her whenever she prays! I love her so much. Every time we teach her I can feel her coming unto Christ. Amazing. We also taught Jaime (Hermano Cook), a less active member of the church. It was AWESOME! We felt so guided by the spirit. I could feel it radiating throughout the room! Hermana McGlinchy and I were so in tune to the spirit that we both kept saying things or asking questions the other was literally about to say. So cool. I love this church! That night in the bathroom Hermana Monk and I started talking to a Sister we hadn't met before. Turns out she's been a member of our church for a year, is already on a mission, and was baptized by one of Hermana Monk's best friends who's been a member for two years and is now on a mission as well. SO COOL!! We love her!! Friday we taught Diana for the last time. SO SAD. We invited her to be baptized again and she said yes!!!!!!!! And then she asked for our emails so she could send us pictures of her baptism in 3 weeks! WHAT! Some of the TRC investigators are members of the church and some aren't but a lot of people have told us that she's a real investigator. If she is and really does get baptized that'd be amazing!!!!!!! Either way I love her so much and am so happy we had the opportunity to teach her!! We also taught Jaime which didn't go too well. The lesson was fine but Hermano Cook said Jaime just felt like a project. I was so upset with myself for making him feel that way. It was a good lesson to learn though. We need to focus on teaching people, not lessons!! At dinner I got another letter from my "secret admirer" SOOOO FUNNY! It even had a "promise ring" (a Spanish CTR ring) in it haha. I also started to lose my voice. No bueno. That night we got our flight plans in the mail and hit one month!! AHHH SO CRAZY!!! I felt so sad though because it's already going so fast and we only have 17 or 23 months left. I love being a missionary!! We're leaving for California October 25th at 3:30 in the morning! We have a layover in San Francisco. I'm so excited!! Can't wait to meet everyone in California but also so sad to leave our district. Esta bien. Saturday was great! We played sand volleyball outside in the morning and our feet froze!! Haha still way fun though! We had study time during the night and I wrote a poem about the sounds of the gospel. Who knew? Sunday was amazing!! I woke up still sick and with basically no voice. Elder Simpson and Elder Jenkins gave me a blessing of healing so that my voice would improve enough for me to perform in our musical number if I needed to. And it did!! It was amazing!! As I was singing I could feel the power of the priesthood pulsing through my body and making me whole. Such an awesome experience! So so so grateful for the priesthood. Such a blessing in our lives! During Relief Society we talked about how God loves us enough to hurt us. Uchtdorf's words shared in the General Women's Session of Conference were constantly going through my head. "How lucky we are that God does not answer our prayers in the way that we want" oh how grateful I am that He has a plan for me. One much greater than I could ever plan for myself. He loves us so much. During our temple walk I got to see some of my BYU besties! Love you guys! I feel so privledged to have the friends I have and be surrounded by the people I am now. I've met so many amazing individuals throughout my life. Love you all!! Our devotional was from Vai Sikahema, a retired pro football player. He talked about the power of our personal influence and shared many heart warming stories with us. It is truly amazing when we can see snipits of Gods plan unfold before us. There are no coincidences. We watched "The Prophet, Joseph Smith" after devotional and it reminded me of how grateful I am for him and the sacrifices he made to restore this church. On Monday we started learning about Present Subjunctive's and they're kicking our butts haha. Spanish is going really well overall though! El don de lenguas es real. Yesterday Hermana McGlinchy and I had a really good heart to heart. Love her!! We also taught an older couple from Argentina through Skype. So cool!! We were able to understand each other and feel the spirit strongly! Gave us both a lot of confidence in our Spanish. Our devotional was all about developing Christlike attributes and setting goals. Something I really need to work on. Today we went to the temple for the last time as a district. Muy triste. Love them all so much! Hermana McGlinchy, Monk, Schoff, y yo all ate a homemade salad for lunch today that Hermana McGlinchy's mom sent her. We couldn't find bowls so we used plastic bags haha. So yummy!

Here are some spiritual thoughts I've had throughout the week....

• "Obediencia traer bendiciones, obediencia con exactamente traer milagras" aka "Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles" Hermano Cook always says that and I love it
• Sooner of later everyone has to sit down to a banquet of consequences. Usually when we hear the word consequence we assume it's something bad, but they can be good! Our eternal banquet is up to us. Might as well make it sweet! No one wants to be eating brussell sprouts for eternity!! Eat cake!
• "The price to know God, is a priveledge to pay" how beautiful and true
• D&C 31:3
• We can choose to love others. 
• God will stop everything to help us. He knows and loves each of us individually. We are SO loved!
• "We are called in our weakness, but qualified in His work"
• "be not weary in well doing"
• "A man filled with love for God will be anxious to share His message with others" 

Life is crazy but life is good! I absolutely love the MTC and am so sad to leave it behind. But I'm also so excited to go to California!!! AHHHHHH 5 days!!! Thank you for your letters of encouragement and support! Mucho amor!!

Hermana Pfeil