This week was another great one. It is my final week here at the CTM! That is crazy. It feels like I have been here forever, but then not at all at the same time. It is fun being the oldest group though! It makes me feel good about my Portuguese ;) It is really cool to be able to give the newer missionaries advice too. I know I always loved to talk with the older groups! The construction on the usual girls' floor here is finished now so they aren't putting any new sisters on my floor. That makes my Sister Treinadora role much easier. It doesn't take nearly as long to get ten sisters in their rooms with the lights off and quiet! So that means a little bit more sleep for me :)
So there is one other American district that came in at the same time as us. We are all really good friends. So last p-day we bought them a bunch of candy and left it with a note in their classroom. Then on Friday, their p-day, they surprised us with a cake, pastry thing! It was basically the best night ever. So we have this whole nice-prank thing going between our two districts. One of the Elders in my district bought Sister Su'a this bag of little plastic babies as a joke for her birthday. So we then took all of these little (slightly creepy) babies and hid them all throughout their room. Their class is directly across the courtyard from us so we can watch each other through the windows. We were waiting in anticipation for them to find the babies all day! It was so funny when they finally did! I am really going to miss all of these friends that I have made here at the CTM. Especially my district and our companion district! We have had so much fun together.
I also had one of my life-long dreams come true this week.... I started an a capella group!! Every night we eat dinner really fast now and then use the rest of our meal time to go to a classroom and sing. It is so much fun! We are pretty good too. It is just me (soprano) Sis Su'a (alto) and then two guys from another district. It is so fun to sing with them all. They are really good too. We just take hymns and sing them a capella and then sometimes mix them up and add descants and new harmonies... I love it! Sis Swenson walked by the other say when we were singing and stopped in. We all thought we were going to get in trouble! But instead she said we were really good and asked if we would sing in an upcoming devotional. Unfortunately, we will be gone by then. But she is really musically talented so that was a huge compliment coming from her!
This past Sunday as we were trying to decide on goals for the week as a district, I asked everyone what kind of missionary they wanted to be. As we talked about our ideal and the kind of people we wanted to become, the spirit was so strong. It was amazing to see everyone's testimony through their desire to serve the Lord. We came up with the best goals yet through that. With what we wanted to become in mind, we were really able to focus in on what we needed to do to get there. That made the hard goals seem worth it too. I think this final week is going to amazing. We definitely are cracking down. Not that we weren't working hard before, but now our focus and determination is even stronger. I know that I have a lot more to learn before I am ready! Yet at the same time, I am anxious to get out there. I feel like I have reached the point where I know enough to realize how little I actually know. Which I guess is good. I think that I am ready to leave the CTM. Not because I know the language perfectly or all of the doctrine inside and out, but because I know enough to be able to serve the Lord. I don't think there is much more I could learn just from actors or sitting in classrooms all day. It is time to brave the real world and start into the work the Lord has prepared for me!
I will be leaving the CTM some time on Tuesday. I know I won't get to write again from here, but writing from the field next week just depends on my president. SO I may not get to write home next week- so don't worry if you don't hear from me!
I love you all!
Sister Emma Maxwell
Awesome!!
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