Jan. 20th

I am sorry I am a little behind in the posts. Needless to say that Rebecca is still growing and learning in the spirit, Dutch language and life lessons. One sad moment for me was, without an address so close to Christmas, when everyone in the district opened presents together, Becky didn't have any to open. Of course she got most of hers before she left, but it still bothered me. She didn't really say anything about it, just told us things about Elder Bednar and others who tried to make Christmas in the MTC nice. Still I have since made up for it in  two packages and soon I will send another. If ever anyone wants to send anything I will be sending packages about once a month. I hear it is a bit more expensive sending them to her mission overseas, so keep that in mind. 


So on with Zuster  Hinchcliff! In her latest letter she tells us of the power of testimonies when there are so missionaries together. The strength of the spirit is amazing!

I loved how Elder Bednar described selflessness as a turning outward when the natural man turns inward. The bible dictionary descibes repentance as a "turning "of the hearts and will to God. My mission isn't about what I want it is about the will of the Father, same with everything in my life. I am grateful for the reminders the Lord gives me to humble myself. As I am sure you can attest to, I can be quite the bratt...sorry about that.
So my goal is to really become selfless. One of my favoite quotes that helps me along is by Elder Richard G. Scott, "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day. I guess a better wording for my goal is to consistently be selfless rather than "really become".

Brother /stephen B. Allen gave a devotional on Christmas. If you ever get to hear him talkhe hold some position with the MTC in Salt Lake.I loved his talk! He is one of those people blessed with the ease of speaking. He would tell tell us a story, have us all laughing and then use his story to illlustrate a spiritual concept. His talk gave me peace, comfort, encouragement, and other fruits of the spirit. He based a lot of his talk off of Alma 26:27-30 to show us how Ammon and his brethren, missionaries who we would like to be like, had thier own struggles too, but look at all the good they did by trusting in the Lord!

Zuster Christensen said she truly believes that one of the reasons she went to a Dutch-speaking mission is because  if she was familiar with the language she'd just keep talking and talking. What do you think? Is Heavenly Father trying to help me be more simple in my speaking to others? haha, I definitely need to learn prudence and frugality with talking.

 Things going on:

• The Elders borrowed my camera so I'm not sure what kind of pictures will be on it when I sen them home. 
• My companion, Zuster Schwab, likes the same movies , TV shows, quotes and both of us are familiar with brown-sugar pop tarts. We also both love whistling!
• In Dutch if you say you know someone you have to be careful which verb you use. "Weten" means to know, like I know I can; 2+2=4 or God is our Heavenly Father. "Kennen" means to know as in be familiar with, like I know/am familiar with a person. If you mix up the two verbs and use "weten" to say you know someone, then you're saying you know them biblical like Adam knew Eve. Soooo glad I learned the difference! Can't you just see me being a total ditz and using weten incorrectly?! Talk about potential embarrassment! hahaha!
• Jonathan McCormick has been at he MTC the past few weeks with me. He just left for Mexico City on Monday. We got a picture together though, so shout-out to the Hope Mills wards and McCormic family!
• We had to leave the MTC and take zuster Schwab to the clinic in Provo. We were psyched to be free only to find out that without all that is going on at the MTC we were resting, bored and tired! By the time we got back we were feeling weird. I guess there is a definite difference between the fatness of the spirit at the MTC and when we are out. 

Finally, I left this analogy out of my farewell talk and I was so excited to share it! So cotton plants are rather small and insignificant and the actual cotton on the plants can be more of a nuisance at times, especially when the thorns are in them. but, collectively cotton can bring about so much good. some really great things like clothes, paper towels, linens, and a whole lost of things I printed off of Wikpikia for my talk. The by-products of cotton would never be without all the individual fluffs coming together similarly all the Small things we do such as reading scriptures, praying, going to church, visiting a bunch of girls after a devotional, etc. may be small and even insignificant, but collectively all these things make something really great. We just have to recognize it. The same is true of us as people too. Individually we have flaws, "thorns" if you will. We may not feel like much sometimes. Thanks to the atonement we can be refined and worked until we're really and truly great.

This is all for tonight. Sorry I jabber too much, even in my writing! hahahI love you all so much!

P.S. I 've started reading parts of the Book of Mormon in Dutch! It is slow, like a few verses an hour, but I can see the help it gives me.