Hello!

Thanks so much for the pictures! I love seeing them :) Andrew looks great, and how the heck did he get such a cute date??? Oh yeah- I helped him ask her! Haha :) And I'm so happy for Parker that he is doing so well in track! Sounds like he's having the same experience I had- I thought I would die if I ran more than like a hundred yards, and it turned out I was way better than I thought :) So proud of him! Tell the girls I say hi- I'm glad they are doing so good as well- Mom keeps me posted with the Dear Elders :)

Well this week has been excellent! Yesterday during gym time, Sister Herrick found a worm in the grass and Sister Johnson said she would get her a drink from the vending machine if she put it on her tongue for 15 seconds. She did and it was awesome. Yes, we are so mature. We nearly died laughing. Sister Roos, Johnson, Herrick and I nearly die laughing often. It's great!

Our teacher Brother Pinho left earlier this week :( He went back to Brazil to get married to his fiance and we won't see him again before we leave! It was surprisingly sad to say goodbye to him. If it was that sad to say goodbye to one Brazilian, I can't imagine how hard it will be to say goodbye to them all at the end of 18 months! But it's ok- Sister Johnson, Roos, Herrick and I decided that post-mission, we would just live in the Amazon. So you all may never see me again ;) ...and I'm not even down there yet! :P

Big News..... We get our re-assignments either tomorrow or Thursday!! I'm so excited- how lucky am I to be able to serve two missions in one?? :D It will be great. I'm really looking forward to practice applying these teaching and contacting things we've learned in the actual field in English. I'll get to Brazil when the Lord needs me there :) Oh and Mom and Dad, I won't be able to call you after I get my reassignments, but because the semester ended last week at BYU, all the schedules have changed to accomidate the teachers they need, so now our new technical P-Day is Friday, so apparently I'll be able to email you then, and they gave us permission to still write you today :)

Last week, we had a Portuguese lesson that was really difficult for me to grasp. Like crazy difficult. Normally during class, I can pick up the grammar lesson really well, and from there on out, I just need to practice it. But for this lesson, for whatever reason, I could not get it for the life of me. Brother Pinho took some one-on-one time to help me work through it and I did a pretty good job keeping my cool until he went up to the blackboard to draw or write something that would help explain it better. I had that few-second window to just look down at my book alone, and the frustration just started to build up and I started to get so upset with myself, and I started to tear up, and I heard this clear voice in my head say something along the lines of, "You can't do this, you suck at Portuguese, why are you even here..."  and the second I heard that, I knew exactly what it was. I toughened up and just thought, "Satan you get the heck out of here." ...Something along those lines :P The feelings of anger and frustration towards myself were gone, and in a matter of like 30 seconds, I understood the lesson. That was my first experience being frustrated here. And it kind of freaked me out- I'm usually pretty good at being calm, so why am I getting so upset with myself for not understanding? Satan knows what it is that I am doing and to say the least, he's not terribly happy about it. Perfect. That's exactly what I want. Feelings of anger and frustration come from Satan, prevent you receiving help from the Spirit, and a huge thing while on the mission is making sure that you always have the Spirit with you. I was grateful for that small experience to really recognize that.

Last night for class, we practiced doing contacts with a couple other Portuguese classes. Except these classes were Portugal Portuguese, which kinda throws you off for the first little bit of your conversation. We did a bunch of different exercises and I was surprised and so happy at how much I understood, even with the different accent. It made me really happy :)

Since I've been here at the MTC, I've read the scriptures a ton. I read Esther and Job last night and this morning, finished the Book of Mormon Sunday night (started it the Friday after I got here), and have been reading the New Testament in my spare time. It's awesome. There is so much I love about all these scriptures, but mostly that they testify of God and Jesus Christ. And one thing that I've noticed is that the more you learn about Jesus Christ, the more Christ-like you become, whether you realize it or not. I had a pretty difficult experience this past week where I had to be so patient, kind, and for lack of a better term, Christ-like to someone who treated my companion and I really badly. But I was so surprised with myself just because of the way I personally handled and reacted to the situation. It wasn't like I would've thought how I would handle the situation, and it wasn't like I normally would've handled it. But I found myself being more willing to love and be Christ-like to those who treated me wrongly. And even having more love towards everyone!  I'm not trying to advertise to the world that I'm super Christ-like. I'm actually far from it, but this experience taught me that the more you learn of and love Christ, the more you will want to be and act like him, and the more love you will have for those around you. I loved it, it was a really tough but wonderful experience for me to have :)

To those of you going on missions- Dylan Spear, Claire, Andrew, and many many others, I want to say- When you are on your mission, BE ON YOUR MISSION. This is the Lord's time, not yours. By signing the acceptance letter to the prophet of God saying you will serve this mission for the Lord, you are signing away the next 18 months/2 years of your life and saying The Lord's will, not mine, be done. This is His work and His time. You are cheating Him out of it when you are not obedient, and when you allow things or people from your previous life to be a distraction. If you are struggling with homesickness, Work. If you miss your boyfriend/girlfriend, Work. (or even better than that, don't have lovey-dovey relationships before you leave). If you miss Lake Powell (guilty), Work. In the Diligence section of Preach My Gospel, there is a quote in a little red box that talks about if you work on your mission, you will be blessed. I promise you, you will be blessed if you work. Work as hard as you can, be as obedient as you can, and it is wonderful. I love it. The work becomes fun and meaningful on your mission because it is the Lord's work and the Lord's children that you are working for. It is amazing. And I can't imagine how much better it will be when I get in the field IN A WEEK!!! :D

I love it here, I love and miss my family and my dog :) Hope all continues to go well with you all!! You will probably hear from me again Friday with my new assignment :)

Much love!

Romans 8:37-39 (I think that's what it is, my scriptures aren't in front of me now :P)

-Sister Hayley Walton