The scriptures, the spirit, and Apostles of the Lord!

Date: Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 12:44 PM

Familie!

Um, I haven't gotten your letter yet mom, but I am looking forward to it! I did get the package from you and Candace though and that was so exciting! I showed pretty much everyone I came in contact with the pictures of my brand new niece Analee! It was so much fun. The Elders in my District said that those butterscotch cookies need to come on a regular basis from now on. I have to admit, those were some really good cookies, I enjoyed them very much. It's so fun to hear about all the news! Wow, I have a great family. Before I forget, does Evan know an Angela Dexeheimer? She was one of my roommates (she just left for Frankfurt on Monday) and she is from Grantsville. Anyway, yeah there are so many connections here in the MTC. It is so funny. So how are things at home? How is everyone? I hope things are going well.

Things are going really well here. It's funny how things can totally change on you. Before my mission I wasn't nervous about the language at all (a little bit but not really), but teaching just scared me to death. And now I can handle teaching that's not too scary, but speaking German is a little nerve wracking. It's coming though. My compaion said that I am coming along really well, and she has seen a lot of improvement in me. That made me feel better. Also I was reading in 1st Nephi this morning auf Deutsch (in German) and I could understand what I was reading! It was the coolest thing ever. I was just reading along and was picking uot words I new trying to understand the grammar and the vocab and I got through a verse and realized I had understood it all! It was so exciting! Miracles happen. On Sunday I was talking with some other sisters and one of them was from Spain. She didn't speak English before she came to the MTC and when she got here she had to learn French in an English class. So she speaks Spanish gets to the MTC is placed in a class where they will teach her French in English. I don't know how to say it but you get the point. :) Her English is really good, and her French is to and she has been here for as long as I have. I was jsut so grateful I'm learning German and I have an English teacher. That is a huge blessing for me. Let's see, our Branch or Zone got doubled yesterday. 21 Elders came in and 6 new sisters. One of the sisters is from Finland and I was wondering if you could find out where John's wife Sonna is from, well which part of Finland she is from. It's fun to make connections.

Anyway, Elder Holland came and spoke to us on Tuesday and it was amazing. Pretty much he told us "for Pete's sake, be a missionary!" He, with the spirit said we needed to be doing all we could be doing and stop wasting time thinking about things that did not pertain to saving the souls of mankind. He said by the time we come home from our missions we should have given all our strength and energy to this work that we will have to give our homecoming talk from a stretcher. :) All our strength having been given to the Lord. It was really inspiring. Also he said an analogy, He asked us, "would you rather have Elder Russel M. Nelson operate on your mothers heart or M. Russel Ballard? Now, I love both these men, but if you know anything about their professions you would choose Elder Nelson, why? because he's been in there 10,000 times! He knows all about it. You need get in the scriptures, you need to know how to operate!" Meaning we need to know how to cure and heal every spiritual ailment. We are the doctors to spiritual sickness. We need to be ready for whatever comes at us behind the doors we knock on. Wow, study the scriptures! They are the cure to our natural man sickness! :) He also said concerning the scriptures, "the best blood that ever lived went into these scriptures. The least you can do is study it." It was pretty pointed, but we all got the hint. We cannot be lazy about scripture study. People died to give us the words of God! Salvation of our souls and of mankind are contained in them, the least we can do is study them. It was so good. The spirit was so strong! I love this work! It is so Wunderbar (Wonderful)!

Well I have to go, but I'll write a letter too. I never can fit everything I want to say with the time I have.

I love you!

Sister Fitzgerald