January 30, 2010
January 26, 2010
....In trouble for not posting "The Blog"....
So... heres the email... ps are you guys updating my blog? http://irmagraf.blogspot.com my friend said that there werent any letters up yet... :)
so... heres the week run down... Ive been sick since last friday (pday) night. its sucked big time. i am still somewhat sick... but alive haha. and have some energy back.
Preston was able to give me a blessing this past week and omg... srsly i love that kid. he has such a strong spirit it is crazy! the blessing was beautiful... he mentioned a ton about things that i have been worrying about lately... (and stressing out about) I am so grateful to have so many preisthood holders so close! :)
Really good talk that i found this week... "the love of god" by uchtdorf. It is awesome and I am really striving to be able to love everyone! I have noticed since i have been set apart though that I have had so much more patience and love for others and I dont ever get mad or annoyed! Its awesome!
So, best gift of tongues story (o dom das linguas) I cant remember if i told you or not... but, last week we were running the track for gym and usually my comp is way behind me and then the last cool down laps i run with her... well, we decided to memorize irregular verb charts and regular conjugations while running the last few cool down laps... usually when we do this i get like 3 or 4 memorized which is alright (shes a pro at it cause she has a background in spanish) but this time we seriously did like 25 or more verbs!! it was AMAZING!! and it was definately a blessing from above because i would not have been able to do that on my own.
another good story... so we have these things called te that you can sign up for and they teach you about specific things... so we went to one and instead of him teaching we taught him the first discussion. at the end we asked for ways to improve and he said it was awesome!! (this is a change from usual... when our teacher critiques us... haha) he loved everything and said that he really felt the spirit and wanted to do the commitments we had given him. it was great.
also, chris sessions is here... i ran into him on his first day! so funny and weird to see him here! he is going to indonesia!
Dallas bateman is here as well... he is going to mexico! I ran into him last sunday ahaha it was awesome!
well, other than that everything is going great... i didnt really do anything but sleep and camp out at the drs office all week... and take drugs... so yeah... nothing to great... but this was the first week that i can honestly say i was homesick! I missed my bed and my mommy :( and i missed not having to stress about missing out on language and learning tons of stuff... that has made it really hard to be sick... and to get better also.
well fam, i love you all and miss you! i hope everything is going well for all of you! write me and tell me about your lives!!! thanks for your prayers and support! muah!
love,
irma graf
e-mail numbero dos!
Oi Familia e amigos (the s is an sh sound in portugal!!) ! :) alright... quick letter... bullet points prob. - so, sundays they have music and the spoken word... we didnt go cause we were already about to fall asleep and decided to do lang study instead... anyways,after the m and the s.w. they have a dev. and so we were going to that and guess what song they were playing? somewhere out there from the fivo goes west movie!!! So funny, I totally thought of ashley! - I saw lindsey m. ... devons lindsey... she works in the caf. every once in a while... she served my comp a salad. it was awkward. the end on that subject. - Sister Dalton the YW general relief society prez came and talked to us and omg she is AMAZING!!! I want to be like her! She is my new role model! Shes super cute and so nice and she srsly glows w the spirit! - The portugese... uh... I have a love hate relationship with it at the moment... some days I do really really well w it and others i basically wish i could kill it. I definately have seen o dom dos linguas (gift of tongues) in my life these past 2 weeks... but you all know me... I just want to see instant results... but, I have been able to learn at such a pace that I know I would not be able to do without some help from Heavenly Father. I am also able to remember stuff from spanish that applies to port. from my frosh yr of hs which is a miracle in and of itself! - everyone is sick here... (i am coming down with a cold/flu type thing but trying to pretend its not here and hoping its going away) a sister in our district (we have 5 sisters and 6 elders... practically unheard of!!) and she was really sick and asked our elders for a blessing one night before we went back to our rooms. (side note in the mtc we have teachers, but they arent w you all the time... they are only here from 10-1 and then 3-6ish... so all the other time is for us to have the motivation to study and teach ourselves... crazy... and ps, try and imagine 19 yr old boys having that motivation...bahaha. yeah rt.) anyways, so it was the coolest experience ever to watch these immature elders (i mean really immature) turn around from laughing about someones nasty fart to consecrating the oil and giving her a blessing. It strengthened my testimony so much of why the missionaries go out when the are 19. I truly believe that one reason is to help them grow up and man up. The priesthood is such a great responsibility and I am so grateful that I was able to have it in my home growning up. - there is this place called the RC, the referral center. where people call in about boms and the dvds and stuff. we get to work in there sometimes and it is such a crazy experience. most of the time you get people yelling at you about how they dont want it or how we are going to hell... you pretty much want to go cry in a corner after an hour of those but then you get one call where they are totally into it and you get to bare your testimony and it makes everything worth it. I love it so much! -One of the elders thought i looked like angela lansbury when she was younger... could you send me a picture of her? I donno who she is... - My straightener has died... a very tradgic death actually... k not really but i need a new one... chi please. or the type that ash gib and kelsey eliason have. ask them please or just send one. sorry, thanks, love you. - last but not least, my testimunho... I know youve been looking fwd to this part :) Eu sei que o livro de Mormon e verdadeiro. Eu sei que Jesus Cristo e o nosso Salvador. Eu sei que Deus restaurou o seu evangelho atraves de Joseph Smith. Eu sei que o evangelho de Jesus Cristo e verdadeiro. Eu estou grata ao meu Pia Celestial por este conhecimento. Em nome de Jesus Cristo, amem. I love you all and of course miss all of your beautiful smiling faces! mom- actually email me back so i feel loved! all others!!! send me dear elders... (sister, you had better write me... im pretty sure i wrote you back i cant remember... if not write me again ahaha!) ciao! Irma Graf
The first e-mail of many....
Oi! Como via?! so... I dont have much time to write... but hey peeps! Love ya, and miss you all! So... Lemme tell you about the MTC and all that fabulous stuff I know youre dying to know! It's crazy here! We are supposed to wake up at 6:30 (I wake up at 5:15 for extra language study... I NEED IT) and then its constant things to do until 9:30. Class is awesome... my district is awesome... my companheira is awesome!! She is 25 from WA state and super fun! Hopefully I will be able to attach some pictures today or next week. She is a school teacher and soooo hilarious!!! A mix of rachel (our cuz) and I donno who else... but its great! The food is okay... the language... uh, well, let's say its coming along... It is super hard especially because most of my district has a spanish background (just the lang.) and I barely know anything in spanish. My pronounciation is fine its my knowledge of the rules and stuff that is kicking my trash. But, luckily minha companheira is super smart and knows a ton of spanish and knows how to teach. Anyways, onto the gospel stuff... its awesome! Constantly gospel or lang. but I love it and it feels good to acutally use my brain at something... (el. ed. at unlv is a joke) I dont think I have ever prayed this much in my life or relied on minha pia celestial so much in my life, but it is so good! The spirit is so strong and I have learned so much already! Oooo, yesterday we had our first TRC (ask gary what that is...) and we had to do contacting in a "park" in portuguese... that was a joke... It went okay... then we taught the 1st discussion... it went pretty good for the first time... the coolest part is that the people we were teaching were just volunteers, but the spirit was so strong in the lesson! It is so awesome how you can constantly feel the spirit... love it! um... lets see... Chris Sessions got here this past wed.! I was walking out of the caf. and he was walking down the sidewalk w his luggage! It was so crazy to see him. he is going to indonesia or something... I see preston all the time... he is in my branch. Jeff and I see eachother sometimes... love those boys! :) I mean elders... Ohhh good story... so... We have gym and I run the track and then go to the second floor to do ab stuff... anyways, around the track is all the weight lifting eq.... anyways, I only brought my yoga capris for gym cause I cant wear my running shorts and hate pants... so yeah... a sister in my district was like uh... when you run around the track you kind of distract the boys and i was like uh what are you talking about... she was like your yoga pants attract attention to your butt. I was so embarrassed... but its all good, we gotta keep them on the right track, so I went and bought some nasty boy bball pants haha. um... ash... thanks so much for the present! I srsly love it! Its aweome! You are the bestest sister in the world! and thanks for the dear elder! tell people to dear elder me :) its fun to get mail here haha. and it makes you not feel like a loser. elmer fam! You guys are so awesome! I love you!! and thank you for the letter! Jeff is doing awesome and keeping an eye out for me :) ash g and jessika... muito obrigada (thanks very much, or much thanks) for the package!!!! EVERYONE in my district and at dinner were so jealous of it hahah... and the smiles... YUM!!! thanks to everyone for the letters in ashleys present to me, they really meant a ton to me and they are so much fun to look at! Gary- I am writing you back... and I found the answer to our question from the temple!!!! I was at the temple today and started researching and found it!!! woo hoo you should be so proud! I will write you about it cause im running out of time. Devon- I just wrote you... it will take a million years for you to get it... but I have some funny news for you that I will just tell you later I guess... ps- my teacher, irmao Okazaki is soooooo much like you its crazy! same attitude, clothing style, personality and somewhat similar looking I about died from laughing when he did that weird snapping thing and also did a head twitch thing like you used to do haha. so funny. Anyways, I am going to try and add some pics... so, until next week. I love you all! You are the best... I would speak (type)some protuguese but all I can really do is a prayer and some other random stuff.... but, next week we learn to bare testimony... so until next week! love,Irma Graf
Chaunty at the MTC!
Brother and Sister Graf,
This is Brother Okazaki from the MTC. I'm currently one of your daughters professors there and am teaching her about Preach My Gospel and the Portuguese Language. I'm writing this email to let you know about your daughters new email address. It is: tellegraf@myldsmail.net. They will have a chance to use their E-mail every Friday and only get 30 min to do all their emailing for the week. The district your daughter is in appears particularly bright and i have no doubt they'll all learn the Portuguese language very quickly. I completed my two year mission to Mozambique (Africa) last June and am currently enrolled in College at BYU. I've been teaching at the MTC for a few months now and am loving it. The MTC is really a wonderful place and will be a great blessing in your daughters mission experience.
Your daughter has been adjusting wonderfully to mission life and has been doing very well in the few day's she's been here. Sister Graf has a wonder heart and very quick mind and is humble about all of it. She will be an extraordinary missionary that will bless the lives of many in Lisbon. She keeps class interesting, is kind and friendly to all around her and seems to love her companion very much.
Please, any question you might have about anything don't hesitate to email me. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have regarding the MTC or general mission things.
Sincerely,
Matt Okazaki
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