September 27th, 2010

Mom is a little slow getting this one on.

Hi Family and friends,
This week we haven't been able to do much missionary work because we have been in lots of conferences, which have been good too. We had a Mission Tour with Elder Zwick, get out your conference Ensign :) (Who also happens to be my mission mom's brother, he didn't ask for our mission to be assigned to him, he said) So we went down to Des Moines for that, it was really good! President and Sister Jergensen both talked to us and then Elder Zwick, we had lunch and he spent until 4 talking to us. Mainly his message was about bearing powerful testimony and being exactly obedient.
My Spanish has been improving a lot! I read back and forth in the Book of Mormon....like this.

And up these write the things of my soul,
y sobre estas escribo las cosas de mi aima.
and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass.
y muchas de las Escrituras que estan grabadas sobre las planchas de bronce.
For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them,
Porque mi alma se deleita en las Escrituras y mi corazon las medita.
and writeth them for the learning and profit of my children.
y las excribo para la instruccion y el beneficio de mis hijos.

This is in 2 Nephi 4:15. I read it yesterday and liked it a lot..,. that whole chapter actually, you should read it. It helps a lot, I used to only be able to do short little phrases. Now I'm, starting to be able to read whole verses and understand what it's talking about. When I do it this way I think I really get a lot out of my scripture study because it makes me focus on the words that are being said. I can think about what that individual sentence means. Hermana McGuire heard somewhere from one of the apostles, she thinks Elder Holland, that if you read the whole Book of Mormon in another language that by the time you're done you'll be fluent. So that's what I'm trying to do. And 2 Nephi 6 is where I'm at. I'm also trying to memorize lots of scriptures...in
English and Spanish. I have D&C 4 almost all of the way memorized in Spanish, I've recited it a lot in our meetings and never really realized what it's saying until I was writing it down in
English on a notecard, it's cool to read it with a missionary mindset. You should read it. I've been making lots of flash cards for that purpose.When I speak in Spanish now, most of the time I don't have to think about what I'm saying, I have a thought and I just say it, and it comes out in Spanish. It's pretty cool. Hermana McGuire described it a good way when she said its kind of like I just grew a new arm...does tht make sense. Its what it really feels like, that I've got this new part of me that wasn't there before and I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. It's cool though.
My loving of animals has helped us find people, one lady we were in her house but about to leave because she was saying she wasn't interested and she had a LOT of cats and so I asked to pet them. She started talking about her cats and then we ended up talking about the church some more and in the end she set up an appointment. Another time we were out walking around and I wanted to pet this dog who had an electric fence and so I was walking to the lawn trying to pet it and the owners came out. They were really nice and we're going to go back and teach them.

Did you go to Genral Relief Society Conference? It was really good, President Jergensen told us to go to it, so we caught a ride with an English member who lives in Iowa City now because none of our members could go. :( We drove to the Stake Center in Ames and had a dinner and watched it. I loved all the talks. I feel like Conference is so different to me now. I definately never appreciated it as much as I should have or do now. We are talking to EVERYONE about it, I like to try to imagine how a nonmember or recent convert would see it.
I love all of you lots
Hermana Hepworth