Ants on a Log

I’m back! My personality included :)

These last 6 weeks have been the most challenging of my life but I’m grateful for the experiences I was able to have. I know that the Lord gives us more than we can handle on our own – so that we remember to rely on Him. As I took the Christ-like attributes assessment this transfer, I was able to see a lot of personal progress in humility & diligence. However, it still seems that CHARITY & LOVE will be a life-long endeavor! And that’s okay.

I moved apartments…across the hall & two doors down! My new companion is Sister Iglezia from Brazil – she is 27 and very sweet. Her testimony is so strong and she doesn’t let anyone go without sharing it. She is in her 2nd transfer so I feel bad that her second companion hasn’t really been on the square for more than 2 hrs at a time for the last 4.5 months! We’re working things out.

We’ve already taken two Spanish tours & a Portuguese tour! I can introduce myself in Portuguese :) And when we take Spanish tours S. Iglezia will speak in “Portunol” – Portuguese/Spanish – and they understand her! It’s so much fun being her companion.
We took a motorcoach our first night together and it went great! We both spoke & shared testimony & even though no one referred I still felt really good about it. S. Iglezia is a pro-active missionary. We work well together to always be busy & keep to our schedule. She is a wonderful help! She’s teaching me Portuguese & I’m teaching her Spanish – so we have some great bonding moments.

I made biscuits the other morning (Uncle Darrick’s recipe) and she took a bite, “Mmmm dis is delicious! You buy dis at Wal-mart?” Hahahaha she wants to watch me the next time I make them :)

Hysterical story from lunch this week. This is why I love Temple Square: I ate lunch with Scotland, England, Armenia, Brazil & Albania! Isn’t that amazing! The other great thing is that Ants-on-a-Log was the most entertaining thing they had ever seen. NONE of them had ever seen someone put peanut butter on a banana, let alone with raisins on top! I made them all try it – they loved it & I felt very foreign and semi-proud of my typical American kids’ snack. Sis Osmeni from Albania had to practice saying “ants on a log” for 5 minutes – “antsonalone….antsonalon…entzonalot…what is it?” LOVE IT!

Sister Nelson is in New York on her Outbound. I miss her but we already made plans to be ZL’s together when she comes back! I can’t wait to hear about her experiences with those people. This transfer is already going really well. Everything is so different. I love being out of Guest Services – I miss knowing everything but I absolutely love the sunshine & all of the people!!! Every day is a new adventure & more than ever, I know that the Lord has my back. These are His children that we labor to serve and I know that He is very aware of each of His missionaries.

Thank you all for the love & support,

Sister Despain Jr