Things I have learned while being at the MTC

so... not too interesting of a week... i was writing devon back and he asked to hear about how the mtc is and everything that im doing... well, i couldnt really come up with anything exciting to say about it... haha... its the same every day... wake up, early morning sisters only aerobics class, eat and study, study, class, study, eat and study, gym and study at gym while i run, class, study, sleep, then repeat. haha but its fun and it definately keeps me busy!
so, to those that have written me letters... im sorry if i am a few weeks behind in getting back to you... i am trying... it is just super busy and i dont have a ton of time to write back... i get like 5 letters a week (ill send a picture of me and my mess of letters next week) and then i have like 2 hours to write back to all of them and wash clothes and email... haha. its all good though.

so.... here are some things that i have learned while being here at the mtc... learn from my example all of those that will be serving missions... :) (ashley bunting and of course my lil bro...)

> > 1. dont try and study while walking down 5 flights of stairs... you WILL fall.

> > 2. when using the foamy purel hand stuff that they have positioned all over the place here, dont high five someone with a handful of it... it WILL get in your eyes and it DOES hurt.

> > 3. dont stretch by the volleyball courts after running... you WILL get smashed by Preston (elder simper...)

> > 4. dont get a roast beef sandwich... it WILL soak the bun in its nasty blood... and then you WILL go hungry because you dont want to die from poisoning.

> > 5. dont assume that because most elders hold the door open for the sisters that the newbies will... cause they WONT and you WILL end up with a hurt nose from running into the door. (yes its like efy, the boys take your trays and open the doors for you. and stand when you enter a room or sit at the same table)

> > there ya go... learn from me :)

> > so, anyways... we are on the 5th week where we only get to speak portugues in class. you end up with a headache by lunch that doesnt go away until youre asleep that night only to get it again the next day haha. but its all good.

> > my comp and i have also started english fasts two days a week... they are so hard!!! but, its so good! and i can tell that it helps my portugues which desperately needs help!!

> > so... i have some scripture questions....

> > matt. 22:23-30 uh... kinda confusing...

> > also, where do the catholics get their sprinkling with water... we are supposed to follow christs example according to the bible... and it teaches that he was baptized by immersion... confused...

> > when were the temple ordinances on the earth before the restoration... like sealings? we were wondering... found some scriptures that touched on it... but not too much...


> > alright, 5 min left... and i have to tell you the coolest thing from this week... so, you know how there are tons of scriptures about hungering for the word of God? well, ive never really had that experience... and this week... it happened! i started reading the book of mormon with others in mind... and i am recording all scriptures and thoughts that i think could help a future investigator (weird at first, but amazing!!!) and i seriously couldnt stop thinking in class or at dinner how i just wanted to get to my personal study time so i could read the scriptures!!! its amazing!!! i love it! alma 32:42-43... this is how i feel! I have been harvesting the seed (kinda my testimony-ish deal) by doing the things ive been taught like reading my scriptures, praying, attending church... and ive finally found the fruits from that in a great way! i have such a hunger for the scriptures its crazy! I cant get enough... and im at the mtc!!! :)

well, i have to go... but i love this gospel and i am so excited for this opportunity i have to share it with the people of portugal! i know that i made the right decision to serve, no matter what i miss out on, or how hard it is... it will be worth it. thank you for your support and prayers and love!

love,

irma graf

The Lord Will Provide The Way

so... about this week... i dont have much time... but here it is...

we taught our first lesson in portugues at the trc this week... the whole 45 min in portugues!!! uh crazy! i am horrible... luckily my comp is amazing at it... so she did most of the talking! love her. it was way cool though because i was able to feel the spirit in the lesson in a diff. lang!! awesome!

this week for one of my personal studies i read about enos... uh, he is awesome! not because he prayed forever, but because you can learn how to pray and he is such a great example of sincere prayers! i have definately learned to rely on sincere prayers this week!!! i have had a way hard week with the language and how hard it is. i get really discouraged because of the language, but then when im starting to hit bottom, the Lord definately steps in and picks me right back up to an even higher start than before (if that makes any sense).

also, at a meeting someone prayed in spanish and i understood all of it!!! its awesome how similar they are! I cant wait to be able to understand tyler, devon, jarred and gary when i get back... too bad it will be hard for them to understand me... supposedly portugues is harder for them to understand... especially portugal port., but the argentina elders told me that buenos aires would be able to understand me more because they supposedly sh their s's more like I do.

My testimony is growing so much here and i love it! I am continuing to LOVE the scriptures... i now understand why Gary would get so giddy when we would go to institute or we would find something new in the scriptures... they are so amazing and such a help to our lives if we use them. the difficulty of the language has turned me to the Lord more than I have ever turned before and I am so grateful for that experience however hard it is during. i know that it will turn out okay, its just hard while youre in the middle... i know that the lord will provide a way just as it says in nephi 3:7 and also john 14:26-27 "... bring all things to remembrance and not let your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid." I know that if i do all that i can now to prepare, when i need His help He will be there guiding and directing me.

also, thanks for the answers on the questions last week! those were really helpful!!!

um... im sure that I am missing something... but I am running out of time... :/ sad day... thanks so much for the prayers and letters (im trying to get caught up on responding :) )

"Elle Woods" at the MTC....

Feasting on the Words of Christ

hey fam!!! hows it goin?! so... not too interesting of a week... i was writing devon back and he asked to hear about how the mtc is and everything that im doing... well, i couldnt really come up with anything exciting to say about it... haha... its the same every day... wake up, early morning sisters only aerobics class, eat and study, study, class, study, eat and study, gym and study at gym while i run, class, study, sleep, then repeat. haha but its fun and it definately keeps me busy! so, to those that have written me letters... im sorry if i am a few weeks behind in getting back to you... i am trying... it is just super busy and i dont have a ton of time to write back... i get like 5 letters a week (ill send a picture of me and my mess of letters next week) and then i have like 2 hours to write back to all of them and wash clothes and email... haha. its all good though. so.... here are some things that i have learned while being here at the mtc... learn from my example all of those that will be serving missions... :) (ashley bunting and of course my lil bro...) 1. dont try and study while walking down 5 flights of stairs... you WILL fall. 2. when using the foamy purel hand stuff that they have positioned all over the place here, dont high five someone with a handful of it... it WILL get in your eyes and it DOES hurt. 3. dont stretch by the volleyball courts after running... you WILL get smashed by Preston (elder simper...) 4. dont get a roast beef sandwich... it WILL soak the bun in its nasty blood... and then you WILL go hungry because you dont want to die from poisoning. 5. dont assume that because most elders hold the door open for the sisters that the newbies will... cause they WONT and you WILL end up with a hurt nose from running into the door. (yes its like efy, the boys take your trays and open the doors for you. and stand when you enter a room or sit at the same table) there ya go... learn from me :) so, anyways... we are on the 5th week where we only get to speak portugues in class. you end up with a headache by lunch that doesnt go away until youre asleep that night only to get it again the next day haha. but its all good. my comp and i have also started english fasts two days a week... they are so hard!!! but, its so good! and i can tell that it helps my portugues which desperately needs help!! so... i have some scripture questions.... matt. 22:23-30 uh... kinda confusing... also, where do the catholics get their sprinkling with water... we are supposed to follow christs example according to the bible... and it teaches that he was baptized by immersion... confused... when were the temple ordinances on the earth before the restoration... like sealings? we were wondering... found some scriptures that touched on it... but not too much... alright, 5 min left... and i have to tell you the coolest thing from this week... so, you know how there are tons of scriptures about hungering for the word of God? well, ive never really had that experience... and this week... it happened! i started reading the book of mormon with others in mind... and i am recording all scriptures and thoughts that i think could help a future investigator (weird at first, but amazing!!!) and i seriously couldnt stop thinking in class or at dinner how i just wanted to get to my personal study time so i could read the scriptures!!! its amazing!!! i love it! alma 32:42-43... this is how i feel! I have been harvesting the seed (kinda my testimony-ish deal) by doing the things ive been taught like reading my scriptures, praying, attending church... and ive finally found the fruits from that in a great way! i have such a hunger for the scriptures its crazy! I cant get enough... and im at the mtc!!! :) well, i have to go... but i love this gospel and i am so excited for this opportunity i have to share it with the people of portugal! i know that i made the right decision to serve, no matter what i miss out on, or how hard it is... it will be worth it. thank you for your support and prayers and love! love, irma graf

....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