This week has been super busy, and let me tell you, I have never
been this tired. Holy holy. I am exhausted! I think there are a lot of
things factoring into this: one, I'm training...two, we are on
bikes...three...
IT IS SO HOT.
OKAY?!?!?!?! DO YOU GET THAT?!? It is SO HOT. So incredibly hot.
My
family knows that I like to sleep in an oven. I'd sneak out and turn
the heat up to like 90 before we'd fall asleep. (Just kidding, not 90,
don't worry.) (It was 91.) Anyway, if even a part of me is cold, it's so
hard to fall asleep. Well, last night I woke up at midnight
sweating like a pig, and I didn't even have the covers on. So I jumped
up, turned on the fan, changed my pajamas to the coolest I possibly
could, and lied on top of my blankets until I could fall asleep. That is
how hot it is, ladies and gentlemen. I WAS DYING.
The day time is quite the scorcher, as well. Biking
anywhere between 3-5 miles at a time in the blazing hot sun, you'd think
it would start to show, right? Like...a tan, or a burn, or a sun rash, I
don't know...well, everyone can just take a short little laugh because I
might as well be serving in the north pole by how white my skin still
is.
Can we just discuss this for a moment? I literally
have seen nothing but sun for 10 and a half months. The closest thing I
had to winter was when I first got to Chile, and that lasted about 3
weeks, and it was not even hot enough to wear my huge winter coat. YOU
SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE IT BY NOW.
...I take it back. I have the sickest below-the-knee skirt-tan right now. At least they'll know I was obedient.
Also,
Gatorade has become my hero. Gimme those electrolytes, man, I don't
know what they do, but they're doing something. Oh my word, my mother
would be horrified by my eating habits this last week. Pretty much I
either ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream (milk and cookies flavor, quite
delicious) or Gatorade or I starved. I actually did eat a package of mac
and cheese. Don't worry, I've already begun the repentance process and
I'm going to be a lot better. But I am not promising much will change
with the Ben and Jerry's.
Actually, I like the heat, though. It makes me feel
like a legit missionary. Sometimes when we were in the car, I'd come
home and feel like I didn't work as hard as I thought I did because I
had so much energy still! But the other day while I was biking, I
thought of Elder Holland's quote, which basically says, "when you get
off the plane at the end of your mission, I want them to pick you up in
an ambulance." I get it, now. When Hermana Johnson and I get home, we
are wiped out! But it's such a cool feeling!
Also, biking gives you a lot of time to think. I've
had some really cool insights and ideas in the last week during the time
I've been biking myself down 48th Street.
TRAINING IS STILL AWESOME. I really love it! President Toone told us in
the beginning that we were about to see a lot of our own strengths and
weaknesses really come out as we trained our own greenies, and I've
definitely seen that. For example, I still need to work on my
organization and goal-setting. That has become an even more magnified
flaw as I've been helping another missionary along! But I've always
loved giving advice, and I feel like I'm pretty good at relating to
people, and I've definitely seen those attributes be so effective!
Hermana Johnson is so awesome. She is learning
Spanish so well, and like I said the last week, she is a total trooper!
(And, as some of you have discovered, she is related to a few people in
Springville.) We get along really well, we laugh pretty hard, and we are
still wrestling with those darn bikes daily.
We move this week into our new apartment! I am so
relieved. I'll finally get to kind of settle in...and my companion, as
well! (Watch. I'll get transferred.) But that's okay, because the Lord's
hand is in everything!
So something we've been talking about as a
companionship is...talents! As missionaries, we have faith that we have
been called to our areas because God needs us here. "Needs" us here. But
why? What does He "need" us for? We've discussed that He "needs" us
here for what He's already given us...our talents and abilities! He
knows that those attributes that we possess can be such a blessing to
the people who live in this area, and He is trusting that we will find
ways to put them to use in inviting others to come unto Christ.
So my invitation to you all is to MAKE A LIST of
your talents...and another list of things that might be a little harder
for you. But make sure the talent list is bigger. Then go through each
talent and write some ways that you can apply that talent to help and
serve the people around you...and ultimately invite others to come unto
Christ as well! Then with your weaknesses, look for opportunities the
Lord has already (or will) give you to convert those weaknesses into
strengths!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. Happy graduation to my little sis, Esadurb. You'll always be a durb to me
ALSO PLEASE BOMBARD MY MOM WITH TEXTS AND HUGS AND WISHES OF LOVE ON HER TWENTY NINTH BIRTHDAY COMING UP THIS WEEK PLEASE.
READ PRAY EAT SLEEP LOVE GO TO CHURCH
Looooooooooooooooooooooooooove Hermana Thomas
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