Week 89: Eu amo ver o templo

This week was absolutely and insanely busy but amazing all the same. Jumping right in:

We went to the temple this week! We attended a meeting called Mission Leadership Council or MLC to discuss how the mission is doing spiritually, emotionally, and physically and to set some goals and make some plans to help all the missionaries grow closer to the Lord and more fully dedicate themselves to serving Him. To help aid in preparing the mission leaders for the meeting, we went to the temple and did a session at the temple. A session is where we go through the temple and reflect on the promises we have made with God and we learn how we can better keep and understand those promises (check out this link for more detail: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2019/04/54bednar?lang=eng). It was absolutely amazing and so spiritually uplifting. I am excited to go more often when I return home. I cannot wait for when they finish planning and building one recently announced for Richmond, Virginia.

Speaking of Virginia, I was on the tube the other evening and end up talking to these four people about tube ticket prices and they all turned out to be from Richmond! They were only in London for the weekend, but I made them all promise to go to the open house of the Richmond temple when it opens. Who knows what will happen, but it's always fun to meet someone from your part of the world all the way on the other side of it. 

I don't know if I have talked about this before, but one of my responsibilities is to publish a biweekly report for the mission about the exciting things happening. So basically, I have learned to use photoshop in the last three weeks. It can make things a bit hectic, trying to complete it in time, but it is a blast and I am really grateful I am getting to serve in this way. 

My Portuguese is improving bit by bit. I reflected back to a conversation I had with a sister about a year and a half ago. Myself and another missionary were driving back to Plymouth along with the two sister that served in Plymouth. It was about 8pm in the evening and one of the sisters from Spain kept making mistakes with her pronunciation and grammar in English. Finally, after about 10 minutes she said "uh I give up, when it gets to the night time, I can only speak in Spanish". I sympathized with her then but I empathize with her now. I learned this week that my Portuguese abilities drastically decrease when I am tired. At three different appointments this week, I could not understand anything they were saying. But it's okay. It was a humbling reminder that I still have a lot a work to do :-)

We also went to a place called Enfield. It's on the northern side of London and it is super far from where we live. The funny thing is we end up going there all of the time. We went three different times this week. We were able to do some service for a really great family there and we are going to start teaching them tomorrow! We are so excited.

Food of the Week: kebab spaghetti - it's just what it sounds like. The greatest thing is that some members made it for us. It was great though. 

Portuguese word of the Week: carona - lift

Scripture of the Week: Job 31:6

Companion Comic: So we ended up taking a mission car a some points this week for various assignments and Elder Klocke is a bit of a maniac. He is completely safe, he's just really confident. It may or may not terrify when he whizzes through London but it's a great way to travel. 

I am really loving life and loving the person I am becoming as I put myself in the hands of the Lord. I am so grateful to be here in this amazing city doing the things I love: serving God and serving others. Jesus Christ makes all this possible. I love him and I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Photos:
The temple!
The temple door (I also got a new suit)
A place we were earlier this week 
London at sunset :-) 



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