Sestra Erin Rhodes: March 12, 2015-pics. 'feast yur eiyes.'

Oh what a beautiful week it was. And when I say beautiful, you could also replace that with 'frustrating, rewarding, bumpy and or remove the adjective.' We had our first trc (supposed to just be a member lesson) over skype. That's right. We chatted it up with a Slovene, freshly baptized convert. We learned very quickly, these people are a people of bluntness. And she's already a member, what are the other Slovene's going to think when we try to tell them about God? Basically, it went really rough and there was a lot of correction and words of 'no one will believe this.' However, I can take correction in the language. I can make mistakes and be corrected vsak dan cel dan. . . every day, all day. What was a little frustrating to me was that this sweet member didn't understand our role completely. If we signed up to learn Slovene and CONVINCE people the church was true, this mtc stay would be a lot longer than 9 weeks and the amount of missionaries would drop drastically. We try to speak the language yes. But what we are trying to speak is THE LANGUAGE OF THE SPIRIT. Not fluent in that either but we can just go ahead and call the holy ghost a translator. I'm ready to go to Slovenia tomorrow, not because I feel awesome with sentence structure and past participle placement, but because I know God will prepare someone for me and the holy ghost will teach people. EVEN IF IT IS ONLY ONE PERSON, I'm ready for the next 16 months.

Cool thing of the week: Elder Cook came to the mtc this week! Woohoo! I love all our devotionals, but is it so much to ask for a 9 1/2 weeker to ask for an apostle? I was starting to get a little worried. But it was SO AWESOME! It's not even that I got some amazing doctrinal principal or anything, but just being in the presence of an apostle and hearing HIS witness of Jesus Christ strengthens my testimony every time. Without a doubt, my favorite part of the lessons is teaching that just as Christ had apostles when He was on the earth, WE HAVE THEM TODAY! These men truly have Bozji pooblastilo. God's authority. (Minus an accent over the z that I don't know how to do on this . . . or any computer.)

My other favorite part of every week: Well, usually bed time. BUT ALSO, walking out of the temple in the morning. We have a fairly early temple time so we walk out when the fountains are on and the air is still crisp (definitely not classroom air) and we can see the whole valley. Then I remember, there is life beyond these brick walls. OH MAN IT'S GOING TO BE SO BEAUTIFUL IN SLOVENIA. Minor freak out. Sorry.

Anywho, truly not much new happened this week. Language learned. Prayers sent. Testimony built. Apostle seen. Auditions accomplished. (Two this week.)

One quick insight. (Well quick depending on how fast you read really.) I have tried studying Lehi's vision many times, but this week. . . . it was so different. I found so many new things, but here is just one that I notice that I feel applies especially to us. We talk of the meanings behind the tree, river, building, all of the above. But I have never noticed, the dream does not actually start with Lehi at the tree. Lehi, the prophet, started in a terrible darkness. Before he speaks of anything he tells how he was in this darkness for multiple hours before he plead to be let out. Similarly, once he was at the tree he looked for His family and Nephi, Sam and their mother all stood, looking as if they knew not where to go. I'm confident that before we even see the path let alone step foot on it, there are many times we honestly don't know where to go. Let it be an hour, let it be a day, month, sometimes years. How are we supposed to know the beauty of the tree and of the Atonement of Jesus Christ if we can't compare it with something and plead with God to make it better? The good knew? No matter how long we think it takes to get an answer, God hears our prayers immediately. He'll come.

"I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you."

I thank you all for your emails and dear elders and what not! I LOVE hearing from you and throughout the week when something happens, my first thought is always, "I've got to write that down to tell my family!" I love you all so much and hope all is well. I pray for you guys, rather fervently. Elder Cook also promised us all on Tuesday that our families are being blessed right now. Which was rather comforting this week considering I really wanted to face time or just talk on the phone. Stay safe! Love you will all my heart!

Sestra Rhodes