Today We Die -- Week 5

This week has been good once again. On Saturday when I had an interview with on of the STLs she said something that is so true. She said, "the days here feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days." It's so true. Time is a weird thing here. I feel like I've been here like 12 months, but at the same time like 3 days.

Okay, so also on Saturday we taught our 2 TRC lessons. That's where you teach members, and they volunteer to come in and let you teach them for 20 min. In our second lesson, we started out by just talking and then they asked us what we will do today. My companion Sister Blake tried to say, "We today will write talks." But instead she used the wrong tone and said, "We today will die." It was so funny. Luckily we talk with our hands to help explain and they corrected us. 

Another funny thing we learned this week is the 4 stages smiling. One of the sisters in our District is from Philippines. She was in pageants prior to the mission. She said there are 4 stages of smiling. 

1. Smizing (only smiling with the eyes)

2. is when you smile with just your top teeth

3. is when you smile with bottom and top teeth

4. is when you open your mouth.

I still haven't mastered the smizing. I will continue to work on it. But I think this could benefit you all. We practice the steps in our class. It's quite fun and funny.

The last funny this was about baptism. At the end of class one day we were to pick a scripture, share, discuss, and then practice inviting to baptism. Then who ever was pretending to be taught was suppose to come up with a reason why they wouldn't, or weren't ready to accept yet. When Sister Blake was invited, she thought and said, "I don't think I'm ready." Sister Law asked, "Why?" Sister Blake continued to reply, "Because I am afraid of water." It was so funny. I probably laughed for like 5 minutes. 

There are a couple of things I learned this week that I loved. First was about the Book of Mormon and answers. Last week in a devotional someone said that if you write down a question and then read the Book of Mormon you will find an answer. I have done it 3 times this week when I have my personal study and it actually works!! I was so grateful for the answers I've received and felt so much peace. 

The second thing I learned this week was about recognizing the spirit. It was a talk by Elder Bednar. He said he's been asked the question so many times, "How do you tell if it's the spirit?" His reply was "Quit worrying about it." He basically said that usually we don't get a distinct prompting. It's usually just something we do, and many times we may never know that it was by the spirit. Especially in that moment. He said that as long as you are a good boy or a good girl, keeping the commandments, keeping your covenants, and pressing forward, your steps will be guided. That you will be at the right place at the right time. God shouldn't have to slap us with a distinct impression to make us do good. We need to press forward. As we do we come closer to Christ and become more like him, and act as he would. So then he trust us to do good.

Anyways sorry this was long. I hope all your weeks were good. Thanks for your emails throughout the week. I love them. Thanks for all your prayers.

Sister Ellie Clegg