Highlights from the Week

Hello everyone! This has been an awesome and crazy week! Natürlich Wie immer :) 

...so highlights of the week: (I will try to make this email shorter because I guess my emails are super long) 

Tuesday we made lasagna for a family from Columbia who are new in our ward!  They only speak Spanish, so we used google translate to write a little note for them :) thank you, Mommy for always making lasagna for dinner so I could try and remember how to recreate that for this Colombian family!  I think it turned out pretty good!

On Wednesday we did another Pokemon ausstellung, and it was more successful than last time, but still not as successful as we were hoping!  So we decided that we are gonna just go back to advertising about Jesus instead of Pikachu and maybe that will work better :)  We also had an appointment with a member family, the Kern's, and had another dessert competition!  We won with our ice cream sandwiches made out of chocolate chip cookies :)  

Thursday we had a couple of old lady appointments and then we went to MLC (Mission Leadership Conference!)  This MLC was seriously so awesome!!  I got to see Sister Fast, and I learned a ton, and it was just very spiritually uplifting, and extremely motivating!  Now all I wanna do is work, work, work!!

 Saturday was transfer calls, and I have been called to train a new missionary again! Woohoo! I wasn't excited at first because training isn't particularly my favorite thing, but now I'm super pumped and I've already filled her desk with notes and treats to start off her mission right!  Maybe second time's the charm and I'll be a better mom this time!  We also had an appointment with our Peruvian family, and Phillip has agreed to start taking the missionary discussions!  They're a family that I can absolutely imagine being sealed in the temple in a couple years :) so please pray for them!

Sunday we went to the Winkworth's for dinner after church. They are a family from Australia and I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.  They remind me so much of my family, so it feels kinda like coming home! It was so fun to be with them :)  We went by a couple other people and had a couple other appointments that day, too.

This week, I have been thinking a lot about the story of Job, and studying it a lot, too!  It is just amazing to me what Job went through, and the positive attitude he kept and his relationship with Heavenly Father. What a great example to all of us!  Heavenly Father has given us all that we have, and when He takes it away we can know that it is because we have better things in store for us :)  I have learned a lot this week about the Atonement, and keeping an eternal perspective, and the importance of acting upon spiritual promptings!  We talked a lot at MLC about how it doesn't matter if it is your own thought or the Holy Ghost, just act!  If it leads to a good thing then move forward and trust in the Lord :)  And I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that the Lord is in the details of our lives and always directs our paths!  He truly cares about even the little things, and I am so grateful that I have been able to develop a better relationship with my Heavenly Father out here on my mission! It's funny how sometimes we have to be sent across the world to learn a new language and have some hardships and struggles to remember and learn more about the Lord.  But that's how it has worked out, and I'm definitely not complaining :) 

Life here is great, and I am truly learning to LOVE everything more and more every single day. I think after nine months of being on a mission your capacity to love just increases so much!!  I mean I still get frustrated with people sometimes, BECAUSE HOLY CRAP JUST ACCEPT THE GOSPEL ALREADY, MAN.  But then I compose myself and love them anyway ;) 

Love you all and have a great week! :)

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Thunell