August 15, 2009 - Saturday

What an amazing week!

A highlight for me was working with my language tutors as they helped me to memorize my testimony in Italian (so that I might participate in the special testimony meeting last night for all Senior Missionaries who are learning another language). Five couples attended the meeting and shared their testimonies in Spanish, Mongolian, German, Italian and Tagalog. As I stood behind the portable podium to share my testimony, I was overcome with emotion. When your ability to communicate is limited, your testimony is distilled into it's simplest, purist form. Each word - though unfamiliar to the tongue and spoken between halting pauses - feels pregnant with truth. I felt the power of the Holy Ghost as I wept through each word.

Another highlight was the concluding meeting on Friday with our young "return missionary" trainers. We'd had a week packed with training in Preach My Gospel, felt the trepidation of teaching actual lessons to volunteer investigators, we'd felt the Spirit in abundance each day and now we were given the opportunity to share our thoughts from first entering the MTC to now - five days later. I am a witness to the individual growth of 20 senior missionary couples who grew in their confidence to actually become missionaries! To hear their faith to continue on when they were scared to death and to feel their love and appreciation for the amazing young adults who had taught us all week was a powerful thing. There were few, if any dry eyes.

I am so grateful for this time set apart to be a missionary full time.

With affection,

Mom, Claudette, Grandma :)