Familia mele si prieteni mei!

Familia mele si prieteni mei!
Dear family and friends,

I miss you all! This week has been crazy wonderful, like most weeks in the MTC. I don't have a lot of time but I'll at least get down whats been happening.

Well, we all know that I have wanted a companion since day 1 and it has been pretty rough going through different roommates and people but.. its finally happened! Her name is Sora Rivera, she is from Sussex, England, has a killer accent, lots of spunk and we laugh at all the same things. My roommates were all making fun of me the day before yesterday when I was getting ready in the morning and said, "Hmmm guys, if you were about to meet your best friend.. for the first time.. what would you wear??" So I basically consider us best friends, even though we only met yesterday haha!

But funniest thing, my Bestie Stephanie Lofgreen--I mean, SISTER Lofgreen got here yesterday. She is rooming on my floor and I got to find her last night (much screaming and jumping up and down, may or may not have occurred), and her companion that SHE got yesterday is ALSO from England! How funny huh? We both got the gift of a colega (companion) yesterday, the only difference is that I got one six weeks after coming to the MTC haha But I actually think it is working out great.

I love my elders with all my heart and so I've had fun and gotten used to it with them and now Sora Rivera has a companion who knows the ropes around here, which will be especially helpful since, she has a situation that is even weirder than mine. She is a solo sister, in a district with only one other solo elder. Seriously. HAHAHA so basically, its just the two of them. And they will the only Romanians in the whole MTC for three weeks after we leave. Oh yeah, and Elder Crescenti... doesn't speak English. He is from Italia and.. only speaks Italian! He is so funny and is taking it quite well though haha he is always smiling and finds it just as hilarious as we do! After we met him, Sora Rivera turned to me and said, "Okay, I just love him already." I will get pictures with them and show them to you next week. They are so great! I already love them so much!

In other news, Me and my elders are doing great. I'm starting to gain a little confidence with the language. And my spiritual studies are flourishing. I have felt my testimony grow more in the last 6 weeks than in the whole last year. One thing, I really want to share before I go. THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE! I mean... if any of you know me at you, you'd know that being LDS at all came with a leap of faith. Basically just because God told me to and its not like you just ignore promptings like that. And I have found real happiness in my religion. But I've always had so many doubts about Joseph Smith. But Heavenly Father would never tell me to be a religion that wasn't true.

And I've always known that Temples were of God. Because I've always known, deep in my heart that my family really IS sealed for time and all eternity and when I go there, I feel the mantle of His house. It has been enough to intellectually believe that it is true. But I had this moment 3 or 4 weeks ago, when we were watching the Testaments after devotional on Sunday, where it showed Christ healing the sick in Jerusalem and then when he came to the people in the Americas. And I felt it in my heart.. "Wait a second.. this REALLY happened. He really came to them, and ministered His gospel to the people in America." Then my doubts came back in.. all my years of not really trusting Joseph Smith for some reason. But I wanted to believe.

I thought of when the man in the New Testament brought his child to be healed by Christ and he said, "Help thou, mine unbelief." I wanted to believe, because I knew God had sent me for this work! Then I was reading the next day, in the BOM preparing for my lesson, and it was about faith, and how if "ye have only a desire to believe" that your faith will grow into knowledge. Everything that I have read in the Book of Mormon, almost every day, feels so... I don't know, its just deep within me... The Holy Ghost is just teaching me to be more teachable and I feel every word down to my bones. I know that its true!

I've been reading the last books, 3rd Nephi to the end. And Moroni and Mormon make me weep, watching the destruction of a once god-loving people, who had once had faith, beyond anyone else in the world, because Christ could show to them even greater miracles.. I weep for Moroni, wandering alone, wondering if the Lamanites are going to find him and kill him or not. He loved his people so much, and their pride led them to their destruction until he was left by himself, wondering how long the Lord, "would suffer him to live," and then his father was killed.. I just feel him speaking to me.

When I spoke before I left on my mission, I talked about my awe, in standing where I had seen so many stand and bear this beautiful testimonies that I couldn't understand where they would come from. Just like I couldn't understand how people could feel so strongly about Cartea Lui Mormon (BOM). But I could stand there again today and express the same great honor and mercy I feel to be able to stand where they stood and say what they said about the Book of Mormon. It is true, it is the word of God.

I want to bear my testimony in Romanian, (all the symbols won't be right so google translate probably won't work, but you already know my testimony :))
Eu cred in Dumnezeu. El e Tatal Ceresc Eterna. Isus Hristos e salvator meu, si ispasirea lui Hristos este eterna si toate dragoste. El poate ajutor viat noastre si ne da pace si siguranta lui haru. Eu stui ca Cartea lui Mormon este cuvintele lui Dumnezeu si ca Evangelia lui exista pe pamant astazi. Eu cred in Isus Hristos, cu toata inima mea. In numele lui Isus Hristos, Amin.

I love you all, my beautiful family. You are always in my hearts (Kristen, I "always carry you with me" :)). And I pray for you every day. If I haven't had time to write you, its because I really don't have time, not because I don't want to! PLEASE write me. (Kristen, you have no idea how much your letters mean to me, getting them everyday. You the only one who writes me consistently and its meant the world. My sisters talk about their cute missionary mom's and I talk about you. Amy, I am going to try to write you back today, hang in there! You are a hero of a mother, to everyone and to me. Steph looked so happy yesterday and I'll keep an eye on her for you :) Dad/Dennis, I miss you. Write soon. I'm going to write you and Frank today about your big news :) )
Always and always,
Sora Macdonald