dobreyyyyyyyyyyyyy dennnnnn!!!!!!! hello!!!!!!!
ahhh how great and crazy is it that i have been here a week?! i love every, single thing about this place! like i can't even put into words how wonderful this is. it's wonderful to just BE a missionary. i have never learned so much in my life. every single day i think, "my life has literally just been changed." i'm still very much me. in fact, i think i am the "me-est" that i've ever been. i'm the very best ME i've ever been. this place is incredible. IN.CREDIBLE. it's like i'm constantly feeling Christ's love. I can constantly feel the Spirit. the only times i have cried since being here have been: when i met with my MTC mission president and he asked me how the MTC was going....and i started BAWLING and just being like, "i....just.....lovvvvvvvve....this...sniffle, gasp, sniffle.....place....soooooooo.....sniffle...much." it's true. i can honestly, genuinely tell you that i have never felt so whole, so complete, so wonderful. i've never felt so tested. so humbled. so challenged. so blessed. ever. everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. like every day i'm so excited to wake up and go through the day. i'm so excited all day. that is not to say that there aren't hard things about being here. there are challenges. but the BEST part is that literally every time there is a "down"....i'm always lifted. for instance.....remember how i told you that i heard horror stories of the food and the orange juice? well OBVIOUSLY i was skeptical about all the food and beverages here. i didn't drink any of the juice...but one day i decided i would get a bottled orange juice...because it seems safe, right? well, let me tell it to you straight. i was so nauseaus for like an hour after. i felt SO sick. i was just praying that i could feel better so i could focus! and i puked my brains out for the next hour. and i was literally so happy as i was laying on the tile floor in the bathroom...throwing up. because i felt better! i felt better! and that was what i had wanted. it seems silly, but all my prayers have been answered (but i now don't trust any of the food here...or the people serving it). my MTC president said something along the lines of, "i like to think that God especially listens to the prayers of three groups of people: children, mothers, and missionaries." i believe it. i feel it. it's like everything i've asked for, i've gotten. i ask to be humbled, i'm humbled. i ask to understand the language- and i struggle for a while and then all the sudden this barrier is completely lifted.....and i completely grasp a concept!!!! i'm so grateful to be here!
the language is so amazing! i love learning it! it is so tricky, and hard to pronounce things because they pair letters and sounds together that i've never actually heard in my life. but the language will come! i have already learned so much...and i keep learning more like every hour hahah. but the coolest thing for me to realize, is that i don't need to know the language to communicate. the day i got here and my teachers were only speaking ukrainian...i obviously didn't understand a word they were saying. and i kept thinking to myself, "this is like one giant game of charrades......and i'm GOOD at charrades." because they would point to things and use big motions, movements, and animation to get their points across to us. so it was like this "ah-ha" moment when i was teaching our investigator, tamara, and i realized that i could play charrades with her. so i literally got up and moved around and pointed to things, and used big motions, and movements, and the words that i DID know...to have a conversation with her. my companion was DYING because i really was making a fool out of myself. but Tamara.....ukrainian speaking tamara....understood me. and i was able to understand her. it's amazing. i feel so grateful that i have enthusiasm and that i'm LOUD because it's helping me so much. i'm realizing my talents more and more every day, and realizing my areas of weakness. but i know that through my savior, my weaknesses can become my strengths.
i remember reading something by c.s. lewis once. it says something along the lines of "i don't want so much of your time, and so much of your effort, and so much of your talents. i want YOU. your whole self. give me yourself, and i'll give you something better. i'll give you myself." (meaning the Savior).
i hope can't wait to continue to be humbled. i picture the woman i want to be when i walk off the plane and return home from my mission. she doesn't just magically poof and appear. i have to become that person. i am becoming the woman that i want to be more and more every day. and you know.......i'm really loving it. i'm really loving this whole process. it's the best thing i've ever, ever, ever done. i know that my mission will be the best thing of my life. it already is.
p.s. my companion and i went to choir practice yesterday...thinking...oh yeah we'll sing and it will be fun. it was a FULL ON production. like altos, sopranos, four part melodies....and i'm just like "i don't even SING!" then they had us PERFORM in the devotional....and i was like singing "peas and carrots, peas and carrots" and the jumbo screen like zoomed in on me just like....being a fool. so bad.
i love you all. thank you for ALL you do. send me dear elders so i can hear what's going on with you! i love you to the moon and back. much love from the MTC.
love always,
sister (jasmine) wallace
ahhh how great and crazy is it that i have been here a week?! i love every, single thing about this place! like i can't even put into words how wonderful this is. it's wonderful to just BE a missionary. i have never learned so much in my life. every single day i think, "my life has literally just been changed." i'm still very much me. in fact, i think i am the "me-est" that i've ever been. i'm the very best ME i've ever been. this place is incredible. IN.CREDIBLE. it's like i'm constantly feeling Christ's love. I can constantly feel the Spirit. the only times i have cried since being here have been: when i met with my MTC mission president and he asked me how the MTC was going....and i started BAWLING and just being like, "i....just.....lovvvvvvvve....this...sniffle, gasp, sniffle.....place....soooooooo.....sniffle...much." it's true. i can honestly, genuinely tell you that i have never felt so whole, so complete, so wonderful. i've never felt so tested. so humbled. so challenged. so blessed. ever. everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. like every day i'm so excited to wake up and go through the day. i'm so excited all day. that is not to say that there aren't hard things about being here. there are challenges. but the BEST part is that literally every time there is a "down"....i'm always lifted. for instance.....remember how i told you that i heard horror stories of the food and the orange juice? well OBVIOUSLY i was skeptical about all the food and beverages here. i didn't drink any of the juice...but one day i decided i would get a bottled orange juice...because it seems safe, right? well, let me tell it to you straight. i was so nauseaus for like an hour after. i felt SO sick. i was just praying that i could feel better so i could focus! and i puked my brains out for the next hour. and i was literally so happy as i was laying on the tile floor in the bathroom...throwing up. because i felt better! i felt better! and that was what i had wanted. it seems silly, but all my prayers have been answered (but i now don't trust any of the food here...or the people serving it). my MTC president said something along the lines of, "i like to think that God especially listens to the prayers of three groups of people: children, mothers, and missionaries." i believe it. i feel it. it's like everything i've asked for, i've gotten. i ask to be humbled, i'm humbled. i ask to understand the language- and i struggle for a while and then all the sudden this barrier is completely lifted.....and i completely grasp a concept!!!! i'm so grateful to be here!
the language is so amazing! i love learning it! it is so tricky, and hard to pronounce things because they pair letters and sounds together that i've never actually heard in my life. but the language will come! i have already learned so much...and i keep learning more like every hour hahah. but the coolest thing for me to realize, is that i don't need to know the language to communicate. the day i got here and my teachers were only speaking ukrainian...i obviously didn't understand a word they were saying. and i kept thinking to myself, "this is like one giant game of charrades......and i'm GOOD at charrades." because they would point to things and use big motions, movements, and animation to get their points across to us. so it was like this "ah-ha" moment when i was teaching our investigator, tamara, and i realized that i could play charrades with her. so i literally got up and moved around and pointed to things, and used big motions, and movements, and the words that i DID know...to have a conversation with her. my companion was DYING because i really was making a fool out of myself. but Tamara.....ukrainian speaking tamara....understood me. and i was able to understand her. it's amazing. i feel so grateful that i have enthusiasm and that i'm LOUD because it's helping me so much. i'm realizing my talents more and more every day, and realizing my areas of weakness. but i know that through my savior, my weaknesses can become my strengths.
i remember reading something by c.s. lewis once. it says something along the lines of "i don't want so much of your time, and so much of your effort, and so much of your talents. i want YOU. your whole self. give me yourself, and i'll give you something better. i'll give you myself." (meaning the Savior).
i hope can't wait to continue to be humbled. i picture the woman i want to be when i walk off the plane and return home from my mission. she doesn't just magically poof and appear. i have to become that person. i am becoming the woman that i want to be more and more every day. and you know.......i'm really loving it. i'm really loving this whole process. it's the best thing i've ever, ever, ever done. i know that my mission will be the best thing of my life. it already is.
p.s. my companion and i went to choir practice yesterday...thinking...oh yeah we'll sing and it will be fun. it was a FULL ON production. like altos, sopranos, four part melodies....and i'm just like "i don't even SING!" then they had us PERFORM in the devotional....and i was like singing "peas and carrots, peas and carrots" and the jumbo screen like zoomed in on me just like....being a fool. so bad.
i love you all. thank you for ALL you do. send me dear elders so i can hear what's going on with you! i love you to the moon and back. much love from the MTC.
love always,
sister (jasmine) wallace
1-happy easter!!!! thanks for the eastaaaa basket!!!!
2-me and my friend sestra kelly. another girl in our district.
3-our district today at the temple. so amazing being a missionary at the temple. loved. it
4-thanks for the d.c. lifesaveeeeeeeeeeer
5-our district on sunday during our temple walk
6-me and my companion
7-me and laurel!!!! we see each other at almost every meal...and make laps around the cafeteria...because we're allowed to leave companions in the cafeteria for a moment.
8-all of us girls in our district. love them. so cute.
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