1 in 132,000

Alo!

Familia, thanks so much for the package! It brightened my day. Reese's Puffs! You know me all too well. Hermana Shelley and I really appreciated the pez as well. You are the greatest! Not a lot of time today but here are some updates:

Statistic of the Week: (see subject line) What do you think that represents? I will tell you. 1 missionary to every 132,000 people in the world. Whoa. I better get to work! We heard that statistic from our teacher, Hermano Marlor. I'm thinking that we might need some help with the missionary stuff. So keep doing all you can!

Song of the Week: Israel, Israel, God is Calling. We sang that the other day and it made me think of when dad would pound it out on the piano. I hope you keep practicing it, daddy-o!

Joke of the Week: Cual es la differencia entre una pera y una novia de un missionaro? Una pera es pera, pero una novia no espera. Jajajajaja! (excuse any spanish errors)

Quote of the Week: "You don't need to be perfect in everything, but you can be perfect in some things" --Cecil O. Samuelson

Word of the Week: "Infatigablamente" which means "unwearyingness." I love it. I was in the temple the other week and I was really tired. I randomly opened the Book of Mormon before our session and began reading Helaman 10. In v. 4-5 it talks about how great of a missionary Nephi was because of his unwearyingness. I decided to look up the word in Spanish when I got back to the MTC. And it is a pretty fun word to say! Whenever I am tired I think of it and I get a little boost.

Some cool things....Sister Hosking came into the MTC yesterday! It was so good to see her. Also, yesterday Elder Oakes pointed out that we have 25 DAYS until we head to Argentina. ARGENTINA, people. To SHARE THE GOSPEL. This is a big deal.

As far as Spanish goes, all is well. Most of the time I feel like I'm in a "Spanish straightjacket" as our teacher Hermano Leishman puts it. But I know with time it will come and I will be able to say the things that I want to. But for now I have to work on teaching with the spirit so even if my investigator can't understand my words, the will still be able to feel and recognize the spirit--the source of all truth.

Something I have thought a little about this week is how God sent ME on this mission. He sent me because of my unique personality and testimony and background. A lot of times I feel like I had to have gone through some huge trial or hardship that I had to overcome and have a crazy story I can tell to people about how I know the gospel is true. But I realized that I can instead strengthen myself a little bit everyday. Even though Alma had a huge conversion experience, he still needed to receive a testimony little by little for himself. Read Alma 5:45-46 to see how he gained his testimony. It's pretty interesting considering what he had been through earlier in his life. Sorry if I'm not explaining myself very well but there are some Elders speaking chinese or something really loudly and I'm really struggling to concentrate.

I love YOU. Yes, you.

Hermana Hil