Sister Mon finally got her visa and left on Thursday! She was so excited! I helped her pack and good grief she had so much stuff and didn't want to part with any of it. She eventually got rid of a few things and each bag was exactly at 50 lbs. Packing is not fun but I was happy to help her... Thanks Mom for helping me. Tell everyone if they've sent me anything I am working on sending thank you cards and I greatly appreciate their thoughtfulness and love.  I realized I don't have any addresses.....so I might have to mail one big thing of letters to you and you can hand them out.  We are about to start practicing lessons with each other (we get to pretend to be investigators). We were talking about why it's important to see from an investigator's perspective. Then the spirit washed over me and the thought came that it's not just important to see what they're understanding (and making sure the missionaries are teaching clearly) but rather it’s more important that we as missionaries are trying to become like Christ. We are representing him and doing what he would do if he was there himself.  We have made covenants at baptism to mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. We have the responsibility to see from their perspective and sympathize with them. We then need to help them realize that Christ can do much more; he can completely understand them and empathize with them. I just felt really warm at that moment. Speaking of doing what Christ would do if he himself were present, a week or so ago our former district leader has this really cool card and I was hoping you could get me one. It's my missionary commission and has a picture of Christ on the front by Liz Swindle (the quote is from Bruce R McConkie). Anyways I love it and I try to read it every day (I tried to find it on lds.org couldn't find it) I'll send a pic of it to you next week. It's really powerful and I'm really sad right now I don't have a picture of it to send to you.... Last night Sister Sheri Dew spoke, we were sitting really close too. It was awesome she talked about keeping commandments and wrestling to find truth. She talked about how if we do these things we can access heaven.  On Thursday, the sister training leaders asked me to teach Relief Society. I was stressed because they were supposed to let
me know on Monday. It was okay I had luckily prepared a talked on baptism and the Holy Ghost for sacrament meeting and I didn't have to give it. So I decided to use that. I spent a few hours trying to find materials to help add to the talk but couldn't really find anything. So I said a prayer in hopes that the spirit would guide me and that people would participate. And it turned out to be a really good lesson! The spirit was there and people participated. Thoughts and words just came to mind and I was able to discuss each point further than I had planned. The spirit was strong.

 I know Christ has set the ultimate example for us. Even though he was perfect, he was humble and showed us that we need to be humble and recognize our faults and weaknesses. I know that baptism must be performed by one holding the priesthood. Christ traveled far to be baptized by John the Baptist who had the proper authority. I am grateful for baptism and the sacrament and that I know our sinful selves can "die" and we can become new and clean again each week. I know Christ lives and loves us. Much love,

Sister Semones