Week 6-MTC

Hola y Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!
I love the holidays and even though we are not aloud to play music in the residence halls, I still have Christmas songs going through my head all the time. I love this season so much! This week has been quite the week. I feel like I have so much to share yet I feel like I just wrote you at the same time. It was good to get the updates for Alexa and the family throughout the week. I had a few cliff hangers there though. One of the letters ended with her yelling in pain as she was wheeled out of surgery and then mom said not to worry...I've been praying so much for you all. I'm glad that something is getting done though. Prayers and the Preisthood are pretty powerful stuff. I don't think I ever told you but in like our first or second week here hermana Crane was feeling really sick and so she finally asked Elder Lee to give her a blessing. He got so excited cause he had never given a blessing before and then he got super nervous. He went in the other room to pray and then we all went in there when he felt ready. You could tell they were all super nervous and they got the handbook out to make sure they did it right. Let me tell you. It was such a neat experience to watch those goofball elders give a blessing using the power of the priestood. The spirit was so strong in the room and the blessing was really powerful. Its so neat to have an experience like that to confirm that the power of the priestood is real.

I am now all settled in to my new and hopefully final room. We got to stay with hermana's Loveless and Jones but Hermanas Laughlin and Kofe were moved into a different room and hermanas Beckert and Crane were moved back in with us. I thought that 6 girls would be a lot to share a room with but now I am wishing we had 8! What is even worse though is that hermanas Laughlin and Kofe are leaving on Fri to the Dominican Republic MTC. I really have grown to love them and am so sad to see them go! That leaves us with 4 sisters in our branch once again. Speaking of our branch, I got released as the music coordinator and got called as the coordinating sister. I was kinda sad about that cause all that really means is that I don't get to pick the hymns any more and I get to go to a bunch of meetings. Pero, esta bien!

This week I am learning so much about teaching with the spirit and how much I need my Savior. Moroni 7: 33 says, "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." I have so long to go but my faith in Him is growing so much each day. I have been learning how to ask inspired questions, questions that would help the investigators teach themselves and become their own agents. Hermano Frey shared a quote that said something like, A great leader is one who, when his work is done, those he leads will say they did it themselves. I hope I can become a missionary like this. As always, I have also grown to love the atonement even more. In Mosiah 3:19 it says that the natural man is an enemy to God unless he putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint (more like the Savior) through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is changing my life more every day. I love the story about after the Garden of Gethsemeny, when Peter, who is trying to defend the Savior, cuts off the ear of the guard and Jesus heals it and says, "was I not meant to drink this cup?" Hermano Frey said something that really stuck with me. He said, "When we go through trials, do we say, "was I not meant go through this?" It kinda put a different perspective on my trials and my life.

Speaking of Hermano Frey, he said he added us all on facebook so you should accept him for me k mom?:) then you can see my teacher too. So I'm going to have some big news next week. Word has gotten around and the rumor is that Elder Holland is going to be the speaker tomorrow for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We decided we are going to get front row seats for that one! Also Las hermanas en mi districto have all decided that we are going to do the ultimate language challenge. We are going to speak nothing but Espanol beginning Friday! I am super nervous about this and it's going to be a test of my faith but I know that if the Lord called me to speak Espanol, he will help me speak it if I do all I can do. Don't worry, I will still write my letters in English:). I love you all and pray for you always! Keep me updated! Oh and by the way, Elder Simon is always persnickety, I don't think that will ever change. They all are really but thats what makes them so awesome:)

Les Amo!

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)