WEEK 39 (Halfway!)

Eek! While the rest of you folks were celebrating Valentines Day (here they call it Day of Love and Friendship which drove me nuts every time someone said it...way too long of a name) I hit my HALFWAY mark on the mission. There it is, looming on the calendar.

Halfway!!!

I don't like to make it a huge thing on the calendar because I don't want the rest of my mission to be a countdown, but rather to enjoy every moment! 

One thing I really loved this past week was that we had a family home evening with some less actives. we did the fairly well known (in the mission) activity where someone has to do pushups for each time the other people want a piece of candy. it goes on and on even when the people don't want anymore candy. Its to drive home the idea of the Atonement. My favorite kid here, Nadia, volunteered to do the pushups. She was a trooper. The next day, she invited all of us individually and very formally (including her own brother) to a 'beautiful activity'. A few days later we went to the 'beautiful activity'. It was her instructing us to draw shapes and use play doh and a bunch of other stuff on a piece of paper. It didn't make any sense but it was really cute that she wanted to have her own Family Home Evening and she told us 'i waited all day for this'. It was amazing to see how instantly kids catch on to things like that, and just how important things like family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening are. I still remember many Family Home Evenings from when I was a kid.

Nadia and her "Beautiful activity"

This past week we had our interviews with President, as well as a presentation from the assistants while the interviews were going. It spiritually recharged me and was exactly what I needed to hear. The assistants had us bring our mission call and we watched a video of people opening their call, and then read through the whole letter together. We talked about why we are all here, and what our purpose is. It was really profound and has caused me to do a lot of reflecting and I{m so excited to keep going and make the next 9 months really count.

My companion has pushed me to be a much better teacher and have more confidence all around. Im getting sad that shes leaving in a few weeks but as she always tells me just like with transfers in the mission we need to 'close the circles' and enjoy the part of life were in, not looking back or forward too much, but rather learning from the past, and having a hope for the future. 

I love you all!!!