Miraculous Chat

It was so good to hear from all of you. I love getting the updates on what is going on with everyone. I'm glad to hear that the wedding plans are going well and are moving forward. I can't believe that Jen gets married so soon! Crazy! And, to think, I'll only be about 20 minutes away. I'll be in the temple that day though, so I'll be with you all in spirit.

This week has, yet again, been a week of a lot of change for my district. We love being in a classroom with a window, but we don't really know if we'll be staying there. The TEC took Jen back, so my district is, yet again, without teachers. At least this time we only have two and a half weeks left. For this we are all grateful. Hopefully the MTC figures out what they are going to do with us.

On Sunday I was in my PEC meeting and the branch president told me that they were working on my leaving on Tuesday (like three days ago). That news completely surprised me because I thought that I was pretty much just here for the duration. So I went to the travel office on Monday to see if everything was in line and they told me, yet again, that I had not been advanced. I needed to be advanced to be able to get my visa. Clearly, this was a problem. So I talked with Irmao Harmon and he called Irmao Christoffersson, and then on Tuesday night I was finally advanced, but I won't be getting my visa for a couple of weeks, which, fortunately, is when my district leaves. At this point I'm really hoping that my visa comes in time to leave with my district. I know that everything will work out alright though. The two elders in the zone that spoke Portuguese left this week for the field, so I'm finding that my patience is growing with each day. I miss being able to work with them on the lessons, that was a great blessing for me.

Well we've had some leadership changes in the branch. I'm no longer the coordinating sister, now Sister Skinn is. We also have new zone leaders, Elders Merrill and Walker, who are in my district. They are doing a great job, but I don't think they quite realized how demanding that calling is. It is a great opportunity for them to grow and develop leadership skills that they will use for the rest of their lives.

We also got a new district in this week. There were only supposed to be 3 come in, but the US is having visa problems going to Brazil, so we have 9 visa waiters here. Five got their visas and will be leaving on Tuesday (which includes the two sisters. Sad!) It's fun to have some missionaries going to Brasil. Some of them are going to be really fun to have around.

This past Wednesday was probably the best day I've had at the MTC so far. It was just a nice day to begin with (the weather is really starting to warm up here. There's no more snow on the ground!!!) and we were going to the Referral Center, which is where people call when they see a commercial from the Church and want a free Book of Mormon or Bible or Lamb of God video, etc. So we go there every Wednesday to work there and this week we were lucky enough to get a chat. Sister Skinn and I chatted with this woman named Marie. She was incredible! I was so incredibly impressed with her. She wants so badly to know that the Book of Mormon is true and I think that she knows it, she just doesn't recognize the answer that Heavenly Father has already given her. Sister Skinn and I committed her to do some reading and she was so excited to read what we assigned her. I understand now why we give people committments: it's because they want to do what is God's will and they want to come closer to Christ, they just don't know how on their own, so we help them get there. We set up a return appointment with her next week and I'm SOOOO excited! She really is incredible and I feel so blessed to have been able to help her. I can't wait to get to Portugal and meet more people and invite them to come unto Christ.

I am doing really well. I'm loving life as a missionary. I know that this is God's work and that we can all come unto Him if we repent and have faith in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. I love you all!!

Love,
Irma Laura