RUDOLPH SAYS HI!

Oh hi!
First news: My companion and I have been sick for the past week, so she broke down and decided to try the orange juice. (NEVER FEAR- I stayed true to the advice given to me by every person ever, including Nathan about 182739 times and I haven't tried it.) I just want to let you know that it left this sick kind of stuff on the glass and we just sat staring at it after she was done. Thank you to all who saved me from internalizing such an abomination. Truly.

So Sunday! We had a fireside and the most wonderful couple came to speak to us! I loved it. Probably more than any other speaker we've had minus Elder Bednar. They were so happy! I just couldn't get over it! Everyone who knows me knows that the disgusting, overbearing and fake happy drives me up a wall and half the ceiling but they were genuinely happy. They weren't that loud or told that many jokes or something like that, you could just tell. It radiated off their faces and infected the audience- I swear! It was beautiful. Sister Mills talked about gratitude and how important it is, and Brother Mills (who is in charge of all the foreign MTCs- Preston, England included!) spoke about all of those and showed pictures of each of them. I thought I'd have a heart attack when he got to the MTC in Preston haha but no, Austin wasn't in any of the pictures. I know- sad day. Anyways more than anything they said that struck me, I am now determined to be more like them. In high school (or at least the last two years of it) I was friends with everyone and each day was full of love and laughter. Since that time I've hardened a lot. I became skeptical of people around me, critical, judgemental, always comparing. It's so pointless! Will there always be people who mean to do harm? Well, yes. But is there any point in suspecting it? No, not really. It's not that I want to digress in how much I've grown since high school because I've learned and have become a stronger person in the end, but I know that today if superlatives existed I would never be thought of as "most friendly" as I was then. No worries everyone, I have no intentions of being obnoxious. I'm just done comparing myself to everyone and being bitter. There is so much to be happy about, and I'd like to radiate that. Isn't that what this religion is about anyways? I'm spending the next year and a half telling everyone I can about what has made me happy and full of love in my life! Happiness and peace- the very opposite of contention, judgement, hatred and fear. THAT is what this church, this faith and the knowledge of Heavenly Father are about and why I'm here!

Also this week my district started trying to talk all in Spanish. Way fun! I love it. However, whenever I switch back to English I already notice myself phrasing things funny. The few in the district who aren't quite conversational in Spanish yet have been stocking up on headache medicine, but I know with so much to learn this is really good for us. 

Something Elder Ballif in my district found this week and put on the board that feels like such an answer to prayer: Isaiah 48:10. It says, "Behold, I have refined the... I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Not very long, but it is so applicable. Sometimes I just feel like I'm surrounded by people who don't know hatred or depression like I've felt it before and that somehow it keeps me from being whole. I know that I'm where I'm supposed to be and that I'm trying my best to be good, but I felt tainted somehow. Not bubbly or airheaded or perfect. That verse means so much! I'm here to help people because this gospel has literally saved me from death. I would have ended my life a long time ago had I not had an experience with this gospel and my faith in Christ that stopped me. There are people who don't understand what this church is about. They refuse to see or open their hearts to something that might touch them. Either way, my own personal furnace of affliction has refined me to be more sensitive to similar pains. I would never trade or change my circumstances or what I've gone through- they've made me who I am and they will help me in who I am becoming.

I met an Elder from North Carolina this week! He's actually in my zone and is from the High Point stake. Crazy, right? I thought I recognized him when he got here. We must have gone to some of the same activities or something a few years ago. Who knows. Anyways, his name is Jimmy McDonald and he's great! We spent like 10 minutes talking about things we miss about North Carolina, half of which were types of food and the other half was probably scenery. Silly Utah.

One last thing for the week- we have 3 Spanish books which happen to be red and happen to be varying sizes. We have now designated the smallest one as Charmander, the medium one as Charmelion, and the largest as Charazard. Yes, that just happened. BEST DISTRICT EVER, RIGHT?!

Welp that's all, folks. Peace and blessins.
Hermana Ray