It's not about me, it's about HIM

We were so happy to hear from Sister Whitehead, Emma's mission mom, a couple of days ago.  She assured us all is well and Hermana LeSueur is already hard at work.  They are using Emma's piano skills, they already had her play at a mission fireside last Saturday!  Her companion looks so cute and sweet, I loved that they were both wearing their medallions- they must be soul sisters!  


¡FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!

Colorful casas. Bottled water. Insane drivers. Independence Day fireworks. Questionable meat. Delish enchiladas. Public transportation. Speed walking 24/7. Tons of people. Barking dogs. Crazy smells constantly. Constantly lost. "Soy Catolica." Broken English. Special K. Jello. Mo-Tab. Sweet ´lil kids. Un-refrigerated milk. Constant kisses on the cheek. "No ´holas.´" "LeSueur" "LeSoor" "LeSewer" "LeSewewer" "Lesughh." English lessons. "Together Forever." Chilly mornings. 8 pesos. McDonald´s, Carl´s Jr., Burger King, Costco, Walmart, Subway, Starbucks, IHOP, Applebee´s, California Pizza Kitchen all within 30 mins. Rules. Rules. Rules. Baptisms. Baptisms. BAPTISMS. 

No, seriously. It is KNOWN as "la gran mision" - the strictest mission with the highest standard of obedience and apparently the highest baptism rate in the world. Jajajajaja. If I would have come a little over a year ago things would have been a lot more intense. The mish prez before Whitehead was pretty strict, aka, Hermanas and Elderes couldnt smile at each other when shaking hands, they had to fast every Sunday, they couldn´t email anyone of the opposite sex (which actually was just changed a month ago!). These days it´s still comparatively strict, only Mo-Tab allowed (except on P-day when they just recently decided EFY music is okay). Lots of other little rules such as you have to do nightly planning and studying with your shoes on and no eating, you have to wake up at 6:25instead of 6:30, never ever are zone activities allowed, no watching the distribution center movies for longer than thirty minutes at a time, you have to be always standing RIGHT next to your companion facing the same direction and participating in the same conversation, etc. And you know what, I think it´s a great thing. Really! One of the funnier things that´s happened though was that one of the APs started criticizing the missionaries from "The District," saying "You know, they´re good missionaries. But we are the Gran Mision. We don´t eat cereal while we study." 

Fam, I LIVE IN MEXICO NOW! I´ve been asked quite a few times if it´s like I imagined it would be...the answer is YES! I have a companion who is from Chihuahua, Mexico, and this is her last six weeks! She doesn´t speak English, which is pretty rough, but I´d heard before that this might happen so I was at least somewhat mentally prepared. Hermana Salinas and I are the first sister missionaries allowed in this area for almost 10 years, I´m not sure why! It´s called Lomas Verdes, and we have one half while Elder White and Hansen have the other half. It is HUGE! It´s also one of the wealthier parts of Mexico. We´re about 15 minutes from the city. We live in this little extension of a member´s house, Hermana Gloria. It´s the kind of thing where you wash your clothes by hand and such, and that took up more of today than I thought it would! Since Hermana Salinas is new to this area also, most of this week has been traveling around our area with various members, visiting members´ homes, and STREET CONTACTING. I have so much love for these people, truly. I´m getting better at contacting, I can honestly say I´m not really afraid to approach people and start talking! Everyone is so incredibly nice, in the many many many people we´ve talked to this week I can only think of one or two that have straight up said "no thank you." They don´t know how to say "no" here! They´re all Catholic, of course, but they gladly give us name and address/phone number most every time. We were told they might sometimes be lying, yeah, but goodness they´re so sweet when they do! Jajaja. Everyone we talk to at least has a big smile and spares a minute to talk. What´s crazy is that Hermana Salinas told me that the people here are snooty and aren´t as accepting and nice as in her other areas. Cool moment the other day...tried to say a prayer in English with Hermana Salinas because she´s trying to learn English, and I failed! Spanish words by accident...I guess it´s because I´m immersed in the language! Oh, also, remember that one old lady from Nacho Libre at the part when Nacho goes to the sick guy´s house? That lady is EVERYWHERE. Also, those sticks of corn are all the rage. Goodness gracious, I KNOW that I will love it here. I KNOW this will be some of the most memorable eighteen months of my life. I wrote on Thursday: "I´ve already seen and learned so much. Heavenly Father has blessed me with the ability to continue to move forward with a smile, which hasn´t always been the easiest for me. He has seriously placed a smile on my face. He has given me gumption, He has given me strength to walk for miles and miles, and He has given me an endlessly patient companion and lots of understanding people. I AM THE LUCKIEST IN THE WORLD."

On Friday I wrote:

"Yesterday we contacted a lot because we went to Carlos´ casa for lunch and then needed to stick around and wait to meet him. It was a really cool area (Concordio). Really nice and seemingly interest people. I, yesterday, took it a bit more upon myself to share simple testimony or thought when prompted when contacting. I ended up sharing the reason for my being in Mexico a few times, in hopes it would help the people know how important this is to me, and they seemed gratefulo. I felt I should tell an older lady as we were about to part ways that this gospel is the way to find true happiness in this life. Yesterday, as we walked and talked, I felt the missionary purpose becoming part of me. It´s not about me, it´s about HIM. It´s about THEM. Move your feet, tunnel vision - the Lord and investigator alone. It´s not for glory, it´s what´s RIGHT. I HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO SHARE WHAT I KNOW."

Yesterday, I decided to make a little list of tender mercies of the week before we went to church. I want to share them with you, they include a lot of silly details of the week:

-The many members that have tried to speak English with me when I´ve struggled

-That comfy first night in the mission home

-Enchiladas (oh, ps...had my first REAL TACOS TODAY!)

-The man, Javier, I contacted yesterday almost all by myself! I shared everything I wanted to, and gave him a Restoration pamphlet, and when we got on the bus with him he was reading it!

-Even though we couldn´t find Hortencia (a potential who gave us her address), we found a really cute little family near the address she gave that I would love to teach

-Nighttime journal/cereal

-My baby blanket

-Pictures of my MTC district

-CONCORDIA

-Sweet houses, picturesque 

-Carlos paying for our taxi ride home without our knowing

-Mama de Rodrigo helping me with my Spanish

-WALKING

-Ability to remember my studies when contacting

-Special K

-Comfy shoes

-Carlos reminding us to listen when I was getting caught up in doing repetitive contacting

-The 3 cute notes my companion has left for me

-The cute little girl we met in Concordia who practiced her English with me

-Hermana Salinas for running with me even though she hates it

-Mexico´s Walmart, aka FRESKO´S - able to find all my normal stuff

-They provided us with a DVD player to listen to CD´s and watch church movies in casa!

So much more I need to say, so many more details I need to give, but...

GUYS. I´M SUPPOSED TO BE HERE. It´s rough, yeah! But the Lord has helped me push through, and through Him I´ll learn the language, learn how to listen, learn how to better invite these people to come unto Christ. There are moments when I just look at the people we´re contacting and think, "IF ONLY YOU KNEW WHAT THIS MESSAGE MEANS!" I want you all to know that I recognize the urgency of the work, I know of its importance. I know that this church is 100 percent TRUE. Thanks for all your emails this week, I didn´t have time to get through them all but know I love you all with all of my heart and I so so SO appreciate your loving words! I miss you, and I love you, but I´M STAYIN´ RIGHT HERE. 

Beeeeg keeeees lil keeeeeeees,

Hermana LeSueur

MTC PICTURES

Her high school friend Jessica, who is going to Sweden

She was sooo happy to see her cousin and childhood best friend Christian, who is heading to New York

A handshake for Emma's good friend and neighbor Mitch, he's going to the Philippines

FIRST MEXICO PICTURES

Her cutest companion, Sister Salinas

Emma's colorful apartment

She's calling this week number "juan"

SHE'S OFF!

Well, our girl is off to Mexico!  She was able to call Monday from the Atlanta airport while they had a long layover.  We checked all our kids out of school so they could speak to their sister one last time before she left.  It was a tender and sweet conversation with our family.  To hear her little voice say, "I have to go" was really hard to hear.  She asked if she could bear her testimony of the gospel in Spanish before she had to hang up.  Although we couldn't understand her, our hearts could understand her heart and we all wept with joy.  It was very evident to all of us that she has received the gift of tongues and the spirit felt in her words was strong and undeniable.  She sounded confident and happy, ready for the adventure.  We all listened for the "click" of her hanging up, and then we all hugged and cried a little more.  Our collective grief and sacrifice has brought us closer together as a family.  We have already seen much evidence of the blessings promised to families of missionaries.  

Then, yesterday, the phone rang and I saw a strange number on the caller ID.  I normally don't answer those kinds of calls, but I answered.  A cute voice said, "Hi Momma!" Her mission president let her use his cell phone to call and let us know she has arrived safely.  She only had 30 seconds but its so nice to know she is there and all is well.  Please pray for her as she adjust to a new country, new language, and culture.  She is truly in the Lord's Hands now.  --Traci

Emma's MTC District-- they became very close

Week 5: BACK TO THE BEACH, FACE TO THE OCEAN

Buenas tardes, hermanos y hermanas!
My flight plans came, I check out at 4:30am on Monday. We fly to Georgia, we have a five hour layover, then I'm off to Mexico! Hermana Tam. waited too long to get her passport and apply for v and such, so she's going to Reno temporarily, which is super sad for us because Hma Heinz and Leonard and Toone and I are all traveling on the same flight and we were so excited to be together.
Some highlights of this week:
- We finished teaching Maria! I have so much love for her. Our last lesson was relatively mellow, we talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and prophets. It ended in tears for all as we bore our testimonies and even took a picture with her. I walked out of that lesson, ending my first experience with a non-member, with a renewed desire to GET TO WORK. I know that every time Maria progressed as we taught her I felt a joy unlike any other.
- I saw Mitch Head for a few minutes at Devotional, and then today for a minute because I was on Main Campus for a bit! So fun to see him, seriously. Definitely a little piece of home. I also saw Bronson Barben, Amy Shaw, Jenna Ericksen, Jantzen Glover, Christian's friend Jackson A... and a few more I can't remember at the moment.
- SO EXCITED TO SEE CHRISTIAN SCOTT HOLMBERG ON SUNDAY
- Sunday was released as a Sister Training Leader, along with the Zone Leaders. They want our last week to be somewhat relaxing, which I appreciate.
- First and last Fast Sunday Sunday at the MTC! Super cool testimony meeting, which was in English surprisingly. I've seen so many of these Elders and Hermanas visibly change throughout these six weeks.
- My relationship with my District is simply the best, so sad to leave them. I'd like to think I'll see some of them again, but realistically this is it for us! No one else is going to BYU beside Elder Scott. But I have learned so much from every single one of them, and I know for a fact why I was placed in this group.
- Last night my roomies and I had a little candle-lit MTC "Closing Ceremony" in our backyard
- Our last investigators are Ricardo and Travis, and they are Elder Flanary and Nielsen in disguise. This will be our last little project before we leave.
- We will go down in history as the zone of trend-setters - since we've been here, we've instituted on West Campus "District-nics" (District Picnics, I came up with the name OF COURSE), Post-Class District Races, and (as Sister Training Leaders) combined Hermana "Tender Mercy" sharing time/prayer at night. Pretty proud of ourselves.

 A newer Elder said something this week that summed up many of my frustrations exactly. Something to the affect of: "This isn't about reaching a requirement. It's about doing your absolute best." 

We're not working for a grade. THAT is, maybe pathetically, why a mission is so hard. Let's be real. Do we really give our all, ever? Have I ever truly given my all? How do I KNOW I'm doing OK out here? It's not like a report card comes in, and all my slacker moments are forgotten because my spurts of hard-workingness still amounted to an A. It doesn't get better than an "A," does it? So why "step it up?" This is about consistency. This is a situation where the Report Card comes daily, and it ALWAYS SAYS "TRY HARDER." And "better" is always possible, and "better" consists not of having climbed to a higher level of BEING, but of having corrected some small, seemingly insignificant yet completely huge FACET of your being. And that's what's daunting, crazy enough! Our betterment, the process of becoming better...it's like emptying an entire beach of sand into the OCEAN of Atonement, grain by grain. I have an ocean in front of me and a beach of imperfects behind me. I say that, but that's not really how it is, not all the time. Much of the time, my back is TO the ocean. I look out hopelessly at my beach and underneath my feet washes up new grains 10x faster than I can get rid of the old ones. Especially here in the CCM. Realizations of flaws occupy my thoughts all too much, my goal making process often fails me. 

BACK TO THE BEACH, FACE TO THE OCEAN. This is why a mission is hard. What direction I'm facing no longer affects only me. It affects my companions, IT AFFECTS THE SALVATION OF GOD'S OTHER CHILDREN. So, how do I know that I'm doing okay? I recognize one facet that needs helping. I ask about it. I throw it into the ocean, so far out there that it can't possibly wash up again. ONE AT A TIME. Shovels don't exist on this beach, and that's OKAY. If, at every prayer, I know I'm doing this, I can know that I'm doing okay. 

Love you so much momma and dadda, seriously. I have LOVED my time at the MTC, more than words can explain and I'm pretty heartbroken to be leaving. I have made many unlikely life-long friends here and I have learned so very much about myself, about the world, about how to get along with others, about how to TRULY LOVE EVERYONE. I can't believe this time is here! I love you, I love you, I love you. 

Beeeg Keeeeses, Leeeeetle Keeees,

Hermana LeSueur

Week 4: YIELD

Hola all!

My journal-ing has not been fantastic this week, so this will have to be a letter of tidbits!

First...WOW. Am I the luckiest or what?! So many sweet letters this week, with so much awesome advice. THANK YOU, FAMILY/FRIENDS. I read last week's email I sent out, and I feel as if I may have come off sounding a lot more negative than I meant to! It wasn't the easiest week for sure, but I thought I should share the whole of it with you because I seriously learned SO much because of those experiences. This week was fantastic, a LOT of teaching, a lot of mind-blowing moments! Highlights/tidbits include:

- Christian's Farewell - WOW! I heard he did so well, any of my companions slash roomies could tell you that I am SO excited to see him! I've been meaning to mention that I've met three of his friends here who have come up and introduced themselves - Slavens, Whitlock, and one other. KISHE, YOU'LL PROBABLY NEVER READ THIS, BUT I'M SO SUPER PROUD OF YA! 

- Maria, our TRC Investigator - WOW tambien! My goodness, we've had some crazy, LONG lessons with her this week. She questions EVERYTHING. This week, she had some pretty deep questions about polygamy, skin color, the physical location of the Spirit World vs the Celestial Kingdom, etc. What's frustrating is that she still doesn't want to pray. Actually, I take that back, in our lesson yesterday she said the closing prayer. In TRC, our teachers can watch us from a video camera in the room. I try not to think about it. But our second to last lesson with her prompted them to teach our whole class about how to keep the lesson focused on Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, how to humbly reply when we don't have all the answers, how to bring back the Spirit instead of allowing the lesson to end with a bit of contention or frustration. Our third-to-last lesson with her, though, was something really, really special - a milestone. I prayed so hard to be able to understand her thick Venezuelan accent, and when we got in there and started talking to her about life and how much she loves Divergent and how she watched Brother Bear this weekend etc... I COMPLETELY STOPPED THINKING ABOUT THE LANGUAGE. We transitioned, we began our lesson, and I just TALKED. We just CONVERSED. I felt as if there wasn't even a language barrier. Of course, there WERE words that I didn't know, I couldn't conjugate everything perfectly, but in the moment the Spirit helped me find another way to say what I wanted to, using words I DID know. This isn't to say that I haven't had a conversation with an investigator before. But this time, I enjoyed every minute and did not worry once about the Spanish. It was just so wonderful, and I really feel as if she considers us to be her friends. She DID tell us that we're her favorite missionaries. Yesterday, she straight-up told us that at the beginning of being a TRC investigator she was just acting, and now she's really considering investigating for real, whatever that means;) Maybe a little bit of a diss to us, but I do know that she's felt the Spirit as we've taught - I've seen it - so hearing that was actually really encouraging. After a long round of question-and-answer yesterday, I tried really hard to save us some time to simply bear testimony, and when the three of us did that I think she could really see how important all of this is to us. I'm finally able to better share personal experiences in Spanish, and I told her how I'm a worrier and such and that these are difficult subjects to understand, but because of prayer I know who God is and sometimes that is the only answer I need. So, how do you solve a problem like Maria? Still not sure. But I'm excited to continue to figure it out. 

- A big focus this week in our class was CONVERSION. Beyond testimony. We were asked to draw what we thought conversion might look like, then we shared with another district. I don't think my picture made much sense to anyone else, but the main thing I learned as I drew was that A DESIRE TO CONTINUE TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE pushes our conversion process forward, but it is our ACTIONS - progressively becoming FIRMER, being made with less hesitation - that helps it move UPWARD. Continual action is important in conversion. Being able to proclaim you have a testimony is only the beginning! After we did this, Hermano Rasmussen told us that our assignment that night was to ask Heavenly Father, "Tengo un testimonio?" I did just that. SI, TENGO UN TESTIMONIO. I know that there is a God, I know that we were created by Him for a divine purpose. There is a purpose for us being here on the earth. Our decisions matter.

- Lead, Kindly Light - "The night is dark, and I am far from home. Lead thou me on." These are the words from one of my favorite hymns that came to my head the other night. What do I have to offer my companionship, I wondered? I have so far to go, I thought. I asked Heavenly Father. He said something to the effect of, "You know me. I've shown you so many miracles, you are a witness. Just tell them (Mexico) what you know of me." It was such a cool experience. I encourage you all to read verses two and three of that song. I shared those in class the next day. 

- We got a new District Leader, Elder Nielsen! 

- "Bajar por que" is "turn down for what"

- My district likes to race each other nightly, do the Mockingjay symbol, and have a district cheer every night

- SO MUCH MORE I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR! But, as I've learned over and over again here at the MTC/CCM, seal it with a testimony and all will be well. 

What He wants from us is OUR DESIRE. What He wants is for us to be humble enough to accept a whisper over a yell, willingly and quickly. He wants us to understand that everything that happens is a miracle, is for our good and learning. This life is a test, cliche as that phrase is. We are proving our ability to break down the walls that separate us from total knowledge - for most in this world, the hard part is realizing that there ARE walls, and when we tell them what's on the other side of these "walls" it seems to be beyond anything quantifiable, justifiable even, to them, and it's scary. I am asking people to open their hearts, to dismiss preconceived notions and LISTEN to unfamiliar concepts, and it's scary! But I would definitely not be here if I didn't know without a doubt that on the other side lives a God who loves us and wants nothing more than for us to live with Him in complete happiness for ETERNITY! I love this gospel, I love you all. 

En el nombre de Jesucristo,

Amen

Beeeeeg Keeees Leeeetle Keeeees,

Hermana LeSueur 

Week tres: LOOK UP

HOLA FAMILIA!

SO MUCH TO SAY, SO LITTLE TIME! I only have about 40 minutes left today, so this won't be extremely long! As always, I have learned SO much this week. Every day, it seems, my mind is just blown by something someone said or some crazy experience. Last P-day, I started to feel as if reality had finally hit. Wednesday night (when classes start up again) we taught Guadelupe again, who is actually our teacher Hermano Rasmussen. I started getting nervous, I started worrying about what my teacher was thinking about my Spanish rather than teaching with the Spirit, and remembering my purpose. In a place where every day is full of near-constant embarrassing moments, I just have to remember that all that matters is that when I pray to Heavenly Father I can say truly that I am TRYING MY BEST. He is what exists, He is what is real, He is who I will strive to please. This is a unique opportunity. I'm not trying to "move up" in the world, so to speak, my words don't decide my career, etc... Beyond the reach of social pressures, I have the chance to just BE. I have the chance to become better, to dedicate every second of my life to getting closer to God SO that OTHERS CAN TOO. To be closer to Him, THAT is my goal. As I continually remind myself of what matters, I will speak LOUDER and FIRMER. I will LISTEN during lessons, I will be EXCITED to teach. I will stop WISHING for a different situation, because THE GRASS WILL BE GREEN EVERYWHERE. 

On that last P-day, I wrote in my journal:

'DON'T APOLOGIZE BEYOND TONIGHT'S PRAYER. DON'T THINK OF TODAY AGAIN. JUST LOOK UP, ALWAYS, AS LONG AS YOU'RE HERE, LOOK UP. DO AS YOU DID ON DAY ONE.'

In essence, BE BRAVE. 

'LOOK UP AND LEFT AND RIGHT, BUT NEVER DOWN. THIS IS MY CHANCE TO BE BRAVE. IT HAS NEVER BEEN SO CRUCIAL THAT I BE BRAVE.'

Thursday was also hard, I was randomly asked to teach the Plan of Salvation in Spanish in 2 minutes by myself. Needless to say, it was ruff. We also taught Guadelupe in the morning, and Hermano Pemberton (Ivan) in the afternoon. Hermana T. started crying in the middle of the lesson with Ivan, and I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't sure what to do and neither did Ivan, so we basically just ended the lesson with testimony. She was just tired and frustrated, as we all were. Before this lesson, I was a little upset with myself as well because I had let myself slip completely into English during my prayer at Branch Council Meeting, plus the PoS debacle. I had a personal prayer before the lesson with Ivan, and I felt I was blessed with a clear, focused mind. I was a bit disappointed we didn't get to finish, but looking back on it I realize that I was only pleased with it because I was speaking the language well and felt like I had a lot of answers. I didn't wait for the Spirit's confirmation before talking, and my companions could feel that something wasn't quite right. How grateful I am for COMPANIONS. 

I ended up fasting the next day for a bit of help. It was a FANTASTIC day of learning, you guys, I can't even tell you how incredible it was. We taught Ivan and I thought it was fantastic, same as the day before. He asked a few questions that I was excited to answer with scripture. Again, my companions didn't think it went well. I suddenly became discouraged, because I felt like we had all the answers and things were great. We had a Companion Inventory after this lesson, and we came to truly understand each other. They really re-focused me, and I came out of that Comp Inventory with the goal to stop focusing on myself, and my needs and my successes and my failures. This is about US, THE INVESTIGATOR, this is about HIM. Yes, self-improvement is required in order for us to be in the right state to truly help people, but THAT WILL COME NATURALLY AS WE FOCUS COMPLETELY ON THE NEEDS OF OTHERS. The other tender mercy of that day, the other answer to my prayers, was a talk given to us by Hermano Rasmussen. That guy scares me. I have such a hard time speaking Spanish freely when he's teaching, I'm not sure why, and every class I have with him I leave frustrated. That day, though, he left the Spanish lessons behind and talked about us being INTELLIGENT MISSIONARIES. He talked about using every moment of our day to learn and serve. I've been focusing on 100% obedience lately, and that's going well, but my day needs to be more than just learning words and eating food and NOT doing anything wrong/against the rules. We need to go the extra mile in everything we do. We can't just NOT do WRONG - we have to DO RIGHT. For example, we can use our meals to speak Spanish, we can use our gym time to boost the confidence of others, we can use our personal study to re-focus, we can pray SINCERELY at every opportunity. 

Also, Donny Osmond did NOT show up at the Sunday devotional, even though all my roommates tried to make everyone think he was, so immediately I started pumped everyone up for MITT ROMNEY next Sunday... :)

Monday and Tuesday were a little crazy, because we were suddenly given a lot more teaching opportunities. Hermana Captain became a new investigator named Estefany. Estefany is Catholic, has a 2-year-old daughter named Kelsey, and cleans a hotel at night (so she's always really tired). As of today, we've only had one lesson with her, and it was basically a "get-to-know-you," since when we got in there she said she actually only had 10 minutes instead of 20. Also, we've started Progressing Investigator TRC! Our investigator is named Maria, and I don't know if she's secretly a member or not, but we're not supposed to speculate so I won't dwell on it. She has a LOT of tough questions. She works as a custodian at BYU, she's young and has only lived in the US for four months now. Talking to her was a wake-up call. I didn't understand it ALL, but in the 40-minute lesson we had I understood enough to cite a few scriptures, bear testimony of a few specific things she was wondering about, teach her how to pray, etc. The Spirit was definitely there, and that's all that matters. Oh, also Monday night was cool as well. We were getting ready to teach the Plan of Salvation to Guadelupe, and Hermana Heinz was struggling a bit because she wants so bad to contribute to the lessons but the Spanish isn't coming. One of the Elders noticed, and offered to give her a blessing. The blessing really brought the Spirit, and even though it made it so we only had 7 minutes to teach, it was AWESOME. Right before we went in to teach, I felt that we should just bear our testimonies to him. I shared this thought with my companions, and they agreed. It was perfect. Words flowed. Hermana Heinz bore a great testimony she had written in Spanish, and Guadelupe/Hermano Rasmussen even shed a few tears along with us. THIS SHIFTED MY PERSPECTIVE ENTIRELY. We've been told that teaching should be the highlight of our day, what we look forward to. I think the last few lessons with him I'd been thinking of teaching as maybe an opportunity to test my Spanish, show my teachers how far I've come, or come closer to being able to tell the rest of the district "GUADELUPE/IVAN IS GETTING BAPTIZED!" 

EVERY LESSON SHOULD BE A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. I can speak slowly, I can sit in silence and wait for the Spirit's confirmation before speaking. It's okay to spend the whole lesson on one thing, if it's important. Disregarding the lesson plan is becoming "the usual" - and that's okay. Bearing testimony is always better than pounding tons of information into peoples' heads, even though they still don't understand the very first topic. Also, they don't need to know everything before they can be baptized. TAKE IT SLOW, PRAY CONTINUOUSLY. 

We talked to an RM sister who served in Argentina at the Copy Center. She said that if you strive to have the Spirit with you, not being able to speak the language WILL NOT STOP YOU FROM BEING A SUCCESSFUL MISSIONARY. I know, it seems obvious, but it was just an awesome reminder. She was once told that the only reason a lady had invited her into her house was because she "had the eyes of Jesus Christ." She was a new missionary, and had no IDEA how to speak Spanish. But her Spirit prompted this woman to welcome the missionaries into her home, and this Sister's Argentinian companion took it from there. BOOM. 

Thank you again for all your wonderful support. The letters and emails are just so very kind. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. 

This church is the only true church on the Earth. It's the only COMPLETE church, and it was established by Jesus Christ himself. I love it, and I love you. 

En el nombre de Jesucristo, 

Amen.

Big keeees, leetle keeees

Hermana LeSueur

Emma's district

Her companionship and roomates in the requisite map picture

WEEK DOS: David Archuletta and Donny Osmond

Hola, mi familia y amigos!

Once again, I have no idea where to begin! I'm so sorry I didn't have time to send much more than my mass email last week! I'll try to work faster this time - an hour to email is NOTHING, I've discovered!

This week was muy ecrayzeee!!! First of all, as I suspected, our first investigator (Jesus Benjamin) became our second teacher! His name is Hermano Rasmussen, he's two months home from HIS mission to Mexico, and since our first teaching experience was with HIM, he knows exactly what we need to work on! I love learning with him. I've come so far since he became our teacher!

On Saturday, we observed some Hermanas as they taught their last lesson before they headed to Costa Rica. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized I was actually understanding everything they were saying, and of course I got some awesome tips for teaching our own lessons. However, my mood changed a bit when we suddenly had to teach some of the other elders from our district with these same Hermanas in the room. It was intimidating, the Elders said they didn't believe in God, and we couldn't quite find the right words to say! Not a fantastic day, but definitely an eye-opener, so for that I was grateful. It made me more motivated than ever to expand my motto from "WORK HARDER" to "WORK HARDER, PRAY HARDER, AND LET THE SPIRIT GUIDE." I can't do this alone, guys! I can truly say that I worked hard to prepare myself to come here, I work hard now to prepare my lessons... but there comes a point when you're teaching the lesson when the notes you've written become completely irrelevant. You start thinking, "I don't even know how to answer this question in ENGLISH, clearly!" and you freak out a bit. Sometimes, I freak out and I shut down, or I start repeating myself, or I just start reading straight from my lesson plan. But SOMETIMES, I'm happy to say, I've been able to say a little prayer in my heart right then and there and when I do that the Spirit ALWAYS prompts me to simply bear testimony. Words start to come from my mouth, and the fear melts away. It truly does. I was talking to an Elder who is FROM Mexico yesterday, and he's heading back there to serve his mission in Chihuahua. He's a funny, talkative guy, but I loved when he started to tell my companion and I about his theory, which is in essence, "When in doubt, bear your testimony. People can't question it, they just can't." I couldn't understand him all that well, but I loved that idea, especially for this specific time in my mission. There have been times where we've been so intent on teaching our investigator the lessons that we run out of time and they shoo us out before we bear testimony, I'm embarrassed to say. 

On Sunday, I played piano for sacrament. Oh, also on Sunday, my companions and I got called to be the Sister Training Leaders for our Zone! Basically, we work with the Zone Leaders and are in charge of taking care of all the Hermanas. I'm really excited, obviously! We get four more Hermanas tonight, and we're the ones who welcome them in, get them settled, show them around...CRAZY to think that was me TWO weeks ago!!!

Sunday night's devotional was Jenny Oaks Baker, and as Gma Pam would say, she's a "riot." Jejejeje. Also, I've made it a point to try to spread a rumor of a different famous person coming to speak to us every week, and so I got some of my district to think I'd heard David Archuleta was coming. At Tuesday Devotional yesterday I tried to get them to believe Joe Biden was speaking jejejeje and next week we're starting a "Donny Osmond" craze. Help me think of new people, por favor.

On Monday we taught our first lesson to our second investigator, Ivan! He's just another one of our teachers in disguise, Hermano Pemberton (or Pampertown, as we like to say). Honestly, I'm at the point with Spanish now where I actually begin to ramble when I get nervous, just like in English...I did a bit of that the first lesson, but mostly it went great. He already knows a lot, he's willing to learn. Tuesday we taught him our second lesson, and that was even better! I wrote a lesson for himMonday night and gave it to my comps for reference because I thought I wouldn't be able to teach with them on Tuesday since I was scheduled to go to the Mexican Consulate in the morning. Pampertown let us go first, though, and I was able to participate in the second lesson! We were very straight-forward, we went through the Restoration Pamphlet, we had him follow along with us, we presented him with a Book of Mormon and asked him to read some of the introduction with us, and asked if he would read the "crowning event of the BoM" - 3 Nephi 9 - before the next lesson. We actually also invited him to baptism, and he said he would love that, but he doesn't know WHEN he'll be ready! We're going to keep working on it, ask him to come to church (can't believe we didn't do that the first time), teach him the WoW, more about repentance, 10 Commandments, etc. I'm super excited.

So, yes, on Tuesday I went with Hermana Leonard (one of my roommates) on splits to the Mexican Consulate. It was CRAZY because we took the Trax that goes RIGHT by our house! I could almost see it! I got to see JHS, our Walmart, Jenson Farm...it was so crazy to think I was SO close to my family! At 2:34 I was looking over the Jenson field at the exact spot our house is at. 

For those of you who didn't know, I'll be leaving for Mexico on September 15th! My Visa's all ready and such!

My Espanol still has a waaaaaays to go, so don't judge...here's my quick testimonio!

Estoy agradecimos por este opportunidad tengo aprendar sobre y ensenar el Evangelio de Jesucristo, cada dia. Creo que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Ultimos Dios es verdad, y yo se que puedo vivir con mi Padre Celestial mediante la Expiacon de mi Hijo, Jesucristo. That's about all I have time for....Love you all so very much, thank you for your sweet emails and letters! Each one is appreciated, even though I don't always have enough time to respond to each individually!

Big keees, leeetle keeees!

Hermana LeSueur

Week JUAN: done and done !!

Hola mi familia y amigos!!

I'M HERE! I'M ON MY MISSION! IT'S MY FIRST P-DAY EVER! I am in the process of writing some actual letters, since I only have an hour to write emails and send pictures, so this one is going to be made up almost entirely of my journal entries since I arrived! 

Today is Friday, August 8, 2014. I have been a missionary, officially, since Tuesday night at around 10pm, and I have been here at the Provo Missionary Training Center (West Campus! since Wednesday at 1:15. After I was dropped off by my family, I received my missionary badge and my language materials. I was put on a bus and taken to Wyview Apartments (super nice!). A fellow Hermana helped me drop off my suitcases, and then I was off to class. Class had already started, and they sat me down by my new companion, Hermana Heinz from St. George. We answered a few "Get-To-Know-Yous" in Spanish, then boarded a  bus to the chapel for a "People and Our Purpose" meeting. This was an incredible time in which we were introduced to real investigators and prompted to ask them questions, get to know them, figure out their concerns, etc. The biggest lesson I learned from this (or re-learned, rather) was the infinite importance of simplicity, and what it means to truly listen. This experience had me smiling ear-to-ear - it was SO exciting. Our last activity of the night was meeting the zone leaders and sister training leaders. We did more get-to-know-yous, met our zones, and didn't make it home until 9:45. No time for journal-ing, just a quick shower and off to bed!

I woke up the next day at 6:00, automatically. It was nice because I was ready in about 20 minutes and had time to unpack and get my things together for the day. After breakfast, we headed to the chapel again for part II of "People and Our Purpose." This was another beneficial meeting where we took notes on "learning about the investigatro." I learned from this that it's important to acknowledge the obvious. We listened to an audio recording of a young woman who obviously had cancer... in my notes, I realized I wrote down everything I noticed about her BUT that she had cancer! That was a great learning experience, because I realized that many of my observations were assumptions. 

After this meeting, we went back to our classroom and joined our district in watching videos about the "Study Cycle." We were told what types of things to do during Personal Study, Companion Study, and Language Study, which we will be doing every day for one our each. Mi Hermana and I used the time we were given to try to learn to pray en espanol. We then changed for gym, but other sisters were playing soccer on the field (we didn't want to be the only sisters in the gym) so we went back to our apartment to do yoga! Jejejejeje... After lunch, it was back tot he classroom for Spanish with Hermana Captain. We watched a video that introduced us to "our investigator," named Jesus Benjamin. We went through a small study cycle, and came up with questions to ask him, and a few other ideas for teaching. 

We had a quick dinner, then we were sent off to a meeting with our Branch Presidency. We first had a small testimony meeting, in which each of us got up and shared a bit about our lives before the mission, why we chose to serve...and our testimonies! I loved hearing why each member of my branch felt they should serve, especially the sisters. I talked about how I've known that Heavenly Father has wanted me to build his kingdom in this way for quite some time, and has confirmed it many times in many ways over the years. After testimonies, we met the Branch President, President Shallenberger. We then listened to some advice from his first counselor, Slingerland, while we took turns meeting with shallenberger individually. He's very friendly, happy, and funny, and he put me at ease immediately. 

We woke up early the next morning for our weekly serve - 6:15! I should mention that as of Friday morning our companionship became a trio. Hermana Tameilau joined Hermana Heinz and I because her companion moved to the 'INtermediate' Spanish class. The 3 of us were in charge of vacuuming classrooms. We did so until 7:30, then got ready for the day. After breakfast, it was time for class with Hermana Captain. I volunteered to pray for the class at the beginning en espanol, best I could! Friday I really started to feel more comfortable with my district, and I learned a lot because I wasn't afraid to ask questions and make mistakes. Gym time consisted of using an elliptical machine on a split with Hermana Leonard, one of our roommates who also likes to run!). We ate lunch with some other Hermanas who invited us into their apartment. I was excited to chat with one of them - Hermana Ellis, who I sang in choir with in high school! Friday afternoon was a memorable one - we taught our FIRST lesson! All in Spanish! For 30 minutes! WE actually were able to use what we knew about Jesus Benjamin from the video in our lesson, which was a blessing. We were scheduled to meet with him at 2:20, but we ended up teaching at about 2:40...the Elders who were supposed to teach first didn't realize that when we went info our afternoon class, Jesus was already waiting in one of the back rooms! We all sat, waiting, for him to show, for some 20 minutes when he was there the whole time! jejejeje doyyyy

Being very inexperienced Spanish speakers, we decided to teach Jesus about God's love. We thought he would respond to the topic because, from his introduction video, we knew that he believed in God but didn't know much about him. The lesson went just about as well as it could have gone, taking into account it was only our second full day and in an unfamiliar language., There were a few too many long pauses, and he caught us off-guard when he asked us how to pray (silly me, did not think to prepare for that). Luckily, Hermana T. remembered how to explain the steps (all I could remember was "first, address Heavenly Father"), to some extent! I tried to think positively afterward, but it was, of course, discouraging overall. I just had to keep reminding myself that I did well for only 2 days of training, and there WERE times in the lesson where Heavenly Father put words in my mouth that I hadn't studied much before. All in all, a great learning experience.

However, I became really uptight afterward and wanted to get started on our next lesson right away. My companions saw through my semi-fake smile and took me on a walk and let me know that it's okay (and necessary, in fact) to take a break if you need one. We learned a lot about each other on that walk. They definitely came to better understand that I'm somewhat of a stress case and perfectionist, that I'm working on fixing that, and I came to be more grateful for these two, who are my complete opposites, but are, at the same time, PERFECT for me. They keep me sane, they are brutally honest, and I thank the Lord for that. 

The rest of Friday was Study cycle and we used it to plan and translate our next lesson for Jesus. It was a long day, but our experience teaching earlier made for a great planning session. We decided to introduce to him yet again God's love, and this time lead it into the Plan of salvation. We taught on Saturday night, after a day of stressing and practicing. It went so well! We were able to get him to commit to reading 2 Nephi 2 and when I bore my testimony of God's love in Spanish i just about teared up. We did well ad ad-libbing, and weren't as timid as before. It was a great stepping stone, and led into our necxt lesson about the plan of salvation well. That about gets me to today: Sunday. Oh, waht a day! We got some breakfast foods at the creamery Saturday nigh so we could have a little more time in the morning to finish some things. Our day started with a district meeting led by the branch president himself. He told us about plenty of mission experiences where he didn't handle problems with his companions very well. He gave us a process to use when bringing up an issue and advised us to apply the process to every aspect of our lives. We then headed to Relief Society, where we listened to music and the Spoken Word and then listened to a sister Rose speak to us about George Albert Smith's mother and what we can learn from her courage and strength. sacrament was next, and the way it works here is that we all write a talk in Spanish and bring it with us every Sunday then they'll call on us randomly to speak in the middle of the meeting. Luckily, i didn't get called on, but i did have my talk written just in case! That night's devotional on main campus was incredible, and I don't have enough time here to explain it all, so i encourage you all to look up "the Character of Christ" by Bednar. Possibly one of THE MOST INCREDIBLE, LIFE CHANGING THINGS I'VE EVER HEARD. I cried for the first time that night, since getting into the MTC, just realizing how lucky i was to be there. 

I haven't caught up in my journal for Monday and Tuesday (and actually, most of Sunday!), so I won't get to go into too much detail. Monday was wonderful, we taught our investigator about the Atonement and it went super well. I tried to write less notes and teach by the Spirit, and i stumbled a lot, but I was truly trying to listen to him and think before i spoke, and i think he could tell. The Spirit was definitely there! Highlight of Tuesday was singing in the Tues. night devotional - we showed up because we wanted to join the choir and then got put on the second row and we barely knew the song because we didn't go to the practice Sunday! I think we caught on well, though. Great devotional about repentance and how as missionaries we need to get on that ASAP. 

Okay, so that's a basic run-down of what's been going on here...now some thoughts! Wow, people. I seriously have no words to describe what this past week has been like. I've felt a million different emotions, and not all of them have been great, but i can truly and honestly say that every single thing that has happened, good and bad, has done nothing but confirm to me that THIS WAS THE RIGHT CHOICE. I LOVE IT HERE. I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT. I love it here because I do love this Gospel, and I am completely surrounded by it. I'm the luckiest girl there ever was! I am full of energy, I can sleep at night and wake up in the morning, my roommates/companions are SO funny and perfect for me, oh, and did i mention that I've seen just about a billion people i know?! First of all, my friend Andrew Scott from BYU is my district leader, my old YW leader Brittany's little brother (Lavery) is in my zone, I've seen Mckay Demars a quatrillion times, I've seen Jamee Bonner a ton, Mckayla Johnstone, Lauren Gull, Stephen Buma...I know there have been tons more but I'm totally blanking! Oh, and a few of Christian's friends have recognized me and introduced themselves, and Mitch Morris from high school came up to me also. I love life, and I love this church, and THANK YOU ALL for your letters and emails and your love and your prayers! Can't wait to tell you all about my new adventures next week!

Love you all!

Hermana LeSueur

She got her tag!!!

Emma's "trio"