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T MINUS 5 DAYS!

Hoi van de MTC! 

This week was pretty dang cool. I ship out for Suriname on Tuesday at 3 am! Woohoo. I'm so excited to use my Dutch to tell people about the great news of the gospel. I'll be traveling to a little island called Curacao first (On which they apparently speak 4 languages-Dutch, Spanish, Papimento, and Sranan Tongo), but I'm not sure if I'll stay there to train or fly to Suriname in the morning. We will see...but my next email will be from somewhere in the Caribbean/South America. I don't have much time, so I'm just gonna outline the highlights from this week. 

-I taught two lessons by myself this week! That was pretty hard. I know now that going out to teach the gospel with a companion is inspired...whenever I didn't know what to say, I was completely on my own! It was a great learning experience though, and I feel like a better teacher for it. 
-Sister McKinney and I made a mug cake and ate it with hangars because we didn't have utensils. Unsanitary? Probably. Genius? No question. We are so domestic. 
-I met someone from North Carolina who kissed his cousin. Southerners, am I right? (shakes head disapprovingly). (Just so you know, I'm joking. I like Southerners.)
-I sat next to a Chinese Senior Missionary during Tuesday Devotional. She was learning her third language--Spanish. I was amazed. She made my day. 
-The food is still wrecking me. Whyyyyy, MTC, whyyy? Haha I'm totally fine though. I think Heavenly Father is just preparing me for the diarrhea to come in Suriname. Rice and beans baby.
-I love being a missionary! 

This week, President and Sister Teixiera spoke to us. They shared about things that will make our missions joyful. Missions are hard sometimes, and life is hard sometimes! Everything is not sunshine and rainbows--if it was, this wouldn't be Heavenly Father's plan. We will go through heartbreak, sorrow, exhaustion, and despair. BUT, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can learn to dance in the rain. 2 Nephi 2:25 says, "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." Because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain..." (Revelation 21:4). Notice that with God there are still tears; He merely wipes them away. I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for wiping my tears away. We can have faith in the fact that because Jesus died and lives again, we will live again, spiritually and physically. I felt the comfort of this in my life. I know this gospel is the only way to lasting and true happiness. Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, the creators of the Universe, know and love you personally. How amazing is that?

I love you all! I hope you have a great week.
Zuster Mergenthaler
P.S. sorry for no pictures....I need to buy a transfer cord. I look pretty much the same. My companion has brown hair. That is all.




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