seester mickkgrat here

  Hey! Long time no talk! I feel like a billion things happen between pdays and all week I'm just so focused and out in the jungle and then I resurface here in the computer shop and have no idea how to summarize it all. I apologize for my letters, no matter how good or detailed or long they will be you're still only getting slivers of my life! I'll be sure to hold a journal reading for you guys when I come home so you can get the full she-bang. Maybe we can even act it out for fun- like Matt can play all the drunk guys and our dog can be our food (whats our dogs name? nerfy? rinley? oh ya its rigby. I totally forgot) 

   This week we did a service project and cleaned the Goa church. That thing is huge! The members are so lucky here. Anyways it was real big but we did some good scrubbing and shining and it was so sparkly! (ps I'm so grateful for all of the chores I was forced to do growing up and every Saturday that we cleaned the church so early in the morning. I'm such a talented cleaner now and I even LIKE it. What the? Anyways it sure taught me some good skills and "character" like the dad of calvin in calvin and hobbes always says. Remember back in the day when you had to chain me up with the dog leash to the kitchen cupbords to wash the dishes? haha sorry I was such a stubborn one) point is I've got no problem unclogging a black juiced sink that reeks or grabbing maggot covered garbage bags. #tuffstuff. I always like to say when I clean "dont get sad....get GLAD!!!'. its fun.

Ok so moving on to other things than my boring cleaning the church story.... sis g was sick for a day so that wasn't good, I got lots of letter writing done to my batch. I wrote sister t from the mtc a tagalog/kiribati letter cause I found a kiribati dictionary. haha I hope she's doing good.

   OOH a cool story!! ok so we went to teach this guy, we were planning on L2 principles 1-3 but as we taught him he asked us to keep going, him and his wife were like on the edge of their seats and all of their questions were exactly the next principle in Preach My Gospel. It was so cool! oh my gosh! the spirit was so strong and I felt myself being guided what to say and where to turn in the scriptures. They asked ALOOOTT of questions but we were able to answer all of them and use the Book of Mormon and Bible to find references. I can't describe how cool it was! They are very religious Christians in their own church thing and they were so surprised to hear we believed in everything in the plan of salvation. As we would talk the wife would elbow her husband and say stuff like "ya! ya that's right!" or we could just see it clicking in their heads. I love how everything we teach is straight from the Bible and Book of Mormon- no one just made it up but all of our beliefs have a solid foundation. It was like an hour long lesson- super long and intense, we were on the edge of our seats too. After the lesson we walked out and took a deep breath and I felt like jumping and frolicking we were so happy! Lessons like that take hard work, no wonder missionaries are exhausted all the time. It's hard work to listen to every thing they say and understand where they are coming from and ask Heavenly Father what you should say to them and listen closely to the still small voice and then find the actual language to speak it and everything! whoow its WORK! but i love love love it! It's so hard! It's so wonderful! Anyways after the lesson sis g said she didn't feel like I was American in there cause everything was so fluid in our teaching and the words came out and it was like, the perfectest unity ever. AHH probably the best lesson I've ever had on my mish! 

  After district meeting we ate some kinalas and one elder ordered pig brain to put in his. They were all tantalizing me with the brain and making such a huge deal about it and daring me to eat it and all. In the midst of all their noise and drama I just grabbed a bite and ate it and then went back to my own food. Haha I'm such a kill joy with dares- its no big deal man. just a brain. I didn't even blink, they were all so shocked. Everyone judges me on my skin and thinks I'm this uptight fancy feast American....haha ohhh no no no. "little they know...little they seeee". name that ref.

   a lot more stuff happened, but i will just write one more high light thing.  So yesterday in snacrament, I mean sacrament, one of our less active brothers went up. He's the one with the daco kids we are teaching that are kinda crazy, anyways he went up and shared about how the example of parents is so important for their kids, then he shared a scripture about the stripling warriors and their mothers. Then he started crying so hard and said that his wife left him 5 years ago for another man, and left him with the 4 kids. Ahh his life is so hard! He works all day so long and hard just to have something to eat, they don't have electricity and on top of all that he does all the things the mother usually does like the laundry. He cried and said how grateful he was for the church and for the help the gospel has given him. Then he said thank you to the missionares who still come to his house even though its so far away and dark. It was the sweetest thing! I was crying during the whole thing but especially when he said thank you. I think its one of the first times I've heard thank you, its weird right? Like every missionaries job is probably one of the most "thank you deserving" but it probably rarely happens. Anyways it was just so neat to see how the gospel has changed his life and how he is so strong even though its so hard. It made me love them even more and want to serve them even harder! 

I LOVE these people!! I love the spirit we feel when we teach by the light of a candle in a bamboo shack. I love talking about the most simple truths of the gospel, the most simple words can be the most life changing. Ya its hard and not perfect and sometimes bugs crawl on me that are larger than I would like, but it is so. worth it. I love it here, I love the people, I love this culture, I love this place!! I can't believe I get to be a part of it! I really am the luckiest person in the world.

  
Well thats all for my sappy stuff, I've gotta go now! thanks for the emails and the prayers and everything! I love you famil-ee! 

love sister mcgrath