Welcome to the world Ellie (Elizabeth Kay Barron)!!!! I've have been spreading the news to anyone and everyone that I have a BEAUTIFUL new niece!!!! Congrats Jenn! I was a little shocked no one wrote me on Monday but I was so excited to get the letter from Jenn on Tuesday informing me of her birth!
It's been a pretty awesome week overall!
For starters.... I said the closing prayer in Spanish for Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. I was pretty nervous but it went well and the Branch President was impressed with how far my Spanish has come! Every Sunday the Presidency calls up two missionaries at random to give the talk then one of the Branch Presidency members talks along with their wife. That means that every Sunday each missionary in the Branch has to prepare a talk in Spanish on what the Branch Presidency member spoke on the previous week. This week Elder Blauer and Hermana Keanini were the speakers. Thankfully I knew I was giving the prayer on Saturday!
Sunday was a very interesting but great day. The speaker in Relief Society was Sheri Dew. She talked on our heritage and what is passed down to us from our ancestors. She personally talked about how her family has passed down the importance of Integrity to her. She then discussed an issue on which the Church is usually misrepresented. This is that people think the Women of the Church are oppressed and that the LDS church is sexist. She went on to talk about how false this is and why. She made an excellent point in saying, "What other religions allow their women to speak from the pulpit, pray, teach, hold General callings and other such things with out having special training." She also talked about how Joseph Smith helped organize the Relief Society, an organization for women, in a time that didn't allow women to vote or own land or other such rights.
After Relief Society the Mission President's wife asked us to stay in our seats for an announcement. Sister Brown informed us that she has spoken to the Provo Temple President and her husband has called up to church headquarters in Salt Lake to receive an answer to a question. Many girls have been informed when going through the temple that it is allowed to wear your bra under your garments. This obviously confused Sister Brown which is why they found out the answer and told all of the sisters. She informed us that, The Church will no longer dictate how women wear the garments in that matter. She said to pray and do what you think is best. I thought this was very interesting.
Sunday night's fireside was really awesome. Elder Watson, Director of Proselyting Division, spoke to us. He talked about the Book of Mormon and how it should be our Dear DEAR friend. He talked about the musical The Book of Mormon. Apparently about a week ago, one of the actors was interviewed (who is an RM) and said "This show should be rated R because it is disgusting in every way." I'm not sure if that is the exact quote but it was along those lines. Elder Watson said he encourages none of us to ever go see it. When the show opened in NY the church responded with huge jumbotrons in Times Squares with I'm a Mormon ads. They also plastered the Subways and Taxis with the ads. The show is opening in LA next week and he showed us the official PlayBill. The church bought three ad pages. The first one says, "I've read the Book. Have you?" The second says, "The Book is always better." and the last says, "You've seen the play now go read the book." These are all thebookofmormon.org ads and they are awesome!!!! I thought the ads were hilarious and really clever!
On Sunday nights they show several different films and then we choose which one to go to. This Sunday we watched a talk given by Elder Tad Callister called, The Great Apostasy. It was a great talk given in the MTC a few years ago. He outlined 10 points that are evidence that the Great Apostasy occurred. My personal favorite point was... The Bible Ends! This proves that there was The Great Apostasy because if they church had continued on the earth then the Bible wouldn't have ended because there would have been prophets and people to write to the member of the church. His words were so powerful and so profound!
So every Thursday night we go to what is called the TRC (teacher resource center) and I love it. Church members come and volunteer and then we go there and teach them. I really like it because in the mission field we will be teaching members or inactive members not just new investigators. It's fun to have a nice change of lessons too! Last week Hermana Andrews and I decided to share a message about the importance of having sincere vocal prayers. The two members that we talked to were awesome and shared some really neat experiences with us, although I only understood about half of their stories. The Spanish is coming along but when people tell stories they tend to talk faster and I get lost, haha.
Elder Peter Morgan from the ward arrived at the MTC this last week. Hermana Keanini and my Zone Leaders, Elder Killpack and Elder Stephens, are going to his parent's mission in NY NY North so I introduced them all to each other. It was really cool to talk to him and they found out about their mission. They leave for NY on Tuesday. The missionaries in that mission can go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on Preparation Day which they didn't use to be able to do. Also, in their last transfer they get to go to a Broadway Play all together! So fun!
Now that I have headphones I'm able to watch the videos they show during gym. I've watched the Joseph Smith story a couple times now. haha They have changed it a bit since it first came out. They added some things and took out some things. One day I was watching the Mormon Messages that they show. There was this one about this guy that lost his wife and two of his kids in a car accident caused by a drunk teenage driver. The Mormon Message is all about forgiveness and it was incredible. I totally started crying while running on the elliptical. It was a weird experience to be crying while on the elliptical. haha
I got some really awesome letters this week! The letter I got from Kayla was adorable!!! Thanks for sending that Karin. Tell Kayla I say Hello and that I love her! And I'm glad she is liking her new teacher! I got a letter from Grandma as well! That made me really happy. I also received the postcard from China on Tuesday! You guys got back to Utah before the postcard even did!
Super random but I just want to say how grateful I am I was able to get LASIK this year. It has made life so much easier and saves me so much time in the morning. It is so nice to not have to worry about glasses or contacts or anything. The mornings are always crazy and we never have enough time to get ready so it's nice to have one less thing to worry about.
My teacher talked to us about how awesome it is to be serving a mission right now especially since my whole district is serving state side. She talked about how wonderful an opportunity it is because the church is in the news with the Presidental Election and other things. On that note, is it possible for me to vote? What do I need to do so that I can?
Also, I met some Sister's that are going to Italy and apparently in the last few weeks the Italian Government has officially accepted The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints as an official religion in Italy. So that's pretty cool. Also, I heard that within the last week or two the church made some announcement about the church's stance on caffeine..... Do you know anything about this? That's about all I've heard.
I love and miss you all!!
Con Amor,
Hermana Kim Blauer
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