February 12, 2010

so i just wrote a whole e-mail and the program deleted it so i'm going to have to hurry and then just write you a letter for the rest. Thank you SO much for the treats! it totally made my week. you always know when i'm having a hard day because that is always the days i get a letter and in this case the package from you. this week has been another really crazy week just like the rest. right now with meetings and appointments we miss on average 3 hours of study time a day which includes personal and comp time but not language because that was the time she (her companion is struggling a bit and has lots of doctors appointments) felt she needed the most which was difficult for me because i felt like thats what i needed the least. so i figured out how to solve that problem and relieve a lot of stress in my life. i switched my language and personal time. we were told when we got here that we should focus on the gospel and learn the doctrine and the language would come naturally. i have definitely been blessed in that because on average i only spend 1 hour a week on the language and everyone else has 8 or more. i haven't even noticed though. i have been able to learn very quickly and the lord has blessed me so much. we are also teaching in all spanish right now which isn't easy but i love it! its been a great challenge. i just have a hard time remembering all of the irregulars in all of their tenses but its coming. something else that really helped me this week was my meeting with a member of the branch presidency. i have met with the branch president and he gave good council but i just didn't want to hear it at the time and it just didn't seem to help, but this week i met with the 1st counselor and it was SO much better. he was much more understanding of my feelings and opinion of how things are going. he told me that my aggressiveness and desire to learn and set goals is a blessing from my heavenly father and that i should be grateful for it. everyone else has said that it is a problem in my companionship and i need to slow down. Brother robinson said the lord would never give me that blessing and then expect me to stop my progression because of other people. he told me to focus it in areas where no one would see and he recommended using it in my prayers to improve them. he told me to pray to know what to pray for and then wait for the answers and that would make huge difference in how things go. he was so right! i can't believe the difference it has made in my attitude and reactions to the way things are going right now. He told me "blessed are the flexible". thats something i've really been trying to work on this week. The lord blesses me so much. I can't believe the power of the gift of tongues and my ability to learn the language without being able to study it. The lord is so mindful of each one of us and our individual needs. love you tons!
hermana hendrix
Amanda-the young womens program is an inspired program that helps us come unto christ. it teaches us the importance of our worth and our abilities in this life. it reminds us of the love our heavenly father has for us and prepares us for our futures as mothers and leaders in zion. God knows us each individually and wants us to know that. He wants us to know that we are of divine worth.