"I'm Not Sure if You Know This About Me, But I Like To Talk"

In our classroom with our missionary chapstick:)

District Goals!!!

Hello all you lovely outside-world people!

 

Well, first big news is: WE ARE HALFWAY DONE! We leave 4 weeks from today. :) We haven't gotten any of our travel plans, but we have been told that we will be leaving on Monday, September 17th. I cannot believe that we have been here for half of our time! The first half definitely dragged on, but now I'm feeling stressed that I don't have enough time to learn all I need to learn! Sestra Compare and I are getting down to business and cramming all the language into our brains that we can.

 

Funny Language Moment: We were asked to introduce ourselves in an online course and sadly, that's not something I've really been focusing on. I can teach you the first three lessons EASY, but telling you what my hobbies are is a whole different issue. So the only thing I could think of was a phrase that my teacher had said the other day and so I intoroduced myself by saying, "Ja sam Sestra Giles. Volim dobar dabari." (I am Sestra Giles. I like good beavers). Yes people, I'm going to be one of those missionaries that can't have a normal conversation, it's fine. haha

 

Tuesday was our first SYL day. SYL days aren't required anymore, but they are highly reccommended, so we thought we'd try one! It was HARD. I really had a hard time with it because, I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I like to talk! haha We pretty much had to carry around our dictionaries all day to be able to communicate with each other. We pretty much dismissed talking to other people, they don't even know where Croatia is anyway! haha

 

Also this week I recived the calling to be the coordinating sister of our branch. The Coordinating Sister acts as the sort of "Relief Society President". I'm definitely humbled by the calling, especially since we have 4 new sisters coming in this week! They are going to the Talahassee, FL and Billings, MT missions. Sestra Compare and I have really wanted to connect more with the sisters in our branch because we don't get to really spend time with them besides at meals, and I'm hoping the service I've been called to do will help! It's definitely exciting to have a calling and have an extra opportunity to serve. :)

 

This week I've been thinking a lot about faith and prayer. As I've been able to focus more and more on things here in the MTC I have been able to feel my faith in Jesus Christ growing. As I partake in the Atonement daily and strive to become more like Him, I understand that there is a plan for me. There is a plan for each of us! Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and to turn to Him in every hour of need. As I've been praying and asking questions sometimes I feel redundant, like I'm thanking him for all the same things and asking for the same blessings. I was a little lazy about praying for a bit becuase I felt like a broken record! Then this Sunday as we were sitting in Relief Society, a line from all those years in Young Womens popped into my head: "If it's important to you, it's important to Heavenly Father". No matter what we are praying for, no matter what answers we are seeking, no matter what hardships we are having, He cares. I know that we can pray about anything. ANYTHING! He will comfort us, answer us and guide us as we continue to exercize faith in Him.

 

I love you all. I hope you're having a great week! I think and pray for you often.

 

Love,

Sestra Giles

 

PS:   We are still just working on Croatian right now. They keep giving us little tidbits about Serbian, how they say different words, what the differences in sentence formation are, but no hardcore Cyrillic (sp?) yet!