As the year comes to a close- thoughts from Mariesa's mom

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take just a moment to express my love to all of you. Mariesa has been in the MTC for a full 5 weeks now. I can't believe that 18 months is already down to 17.

Thank you for the thoughtfulness you have shown to Mariesa and to our family during these weeks. I know that so many of you have sent letters, care packages and money and most importantly... prayers.

I have felt a special spirit in our home since Mariesa left. I can honestly say that I now know what it feels like to be held in the "hollow of his hand." I know Hermana Bergin feels it too.

Thank you! Thank you for all you have done. I also wanted to say how much I appreciate, those of you who have told me that you follow this blog. It warms my soul to know that you look forward to her letters and thoughts as much as I do.

...And good thoughts they have been.

Keep writing, keep reading, keep praying!

We love you all.

Have a happy, healthy 2010!

Suzette

So Greg Olsen came this Christmas...

And he shared a story that was actually kind of funny, but I have been thinking about it ever since, and what he truly meant by it when he was speaking. I'm sure you have all seen his painting of Christ holding the little girl in his lap, surrounded by flowers..it's a beautiful painting. When he painted that he used his daughter for the little girl, and they hung it up in her room knowing it would be a comfort to her growing up, and it was.

Well, they had another daughter a couple years later and the two ended up sharing a room. One day in conversation the mother asked the youngest daughter: "Brooke, Do you know that Jesus loves you?" Brooke immediately pointed to the painting and as tears welled up in her eyes, she said "No...He loves Kylie."

When Greg found out about this he felt terrible and wanted to fix it right away. He went to his office and photoshopped the Painting so that Brooke could have an identical one with her own picture in it. When he came home and handed it to her she was delighted. She ran through the house holding the painting in the air yelling, "Jesus loves ME! He loves ME!!!!"

And the thought is...

Is it that easy? Is that all it takes? If we had all grown up with a picture in our minds of Jesus holding us...loving US- not just the people in Bible stories, how might we change? Would we be more apt to maintaining a relationship with him throughout our lives?

In talking to investigators since I've been here, I've heard again and again that the Bible is just a story to them. They express frustration in seeing other people find such peace and joy in religion and scripture, when all they see is a story. It is wonderful to talk to them about the power of prayer, the holy ghost, and how it can become personal for all of us. And that the story of Christ isn't just a story, and it wasn't just meant for the people he healed during his ministry- that his life and atonement was for all of us.

He still lives, and he still loves us, and he will hold us in his arms if we only let him.

Love you.

Come Bring me a Savior- Written by Mariesa

Crisp winter air has again caught my breath (This winter air just caught my breath)
My fingers and nose are now are numb
Children surround a caroling choir (Children cheering carolers as they sing)
Nativity wisemen are whispering "come!" gfcd^

Come see our savior   g f
Remember his birth downd f
Feel of his love g e
Know of its worth c d

Remember the star hung high in the sky g f c
Listen to ^Mary  d
Hear her sacred lullaby e d

Come see your savior
Come meet your king
Join with the choir
Where angels sing

Even this Christmas ( I don't know how, Christmas Found me) gfcd
has again caught my breath
Though this year I’ll be only one ( i thought he had sent ^me alone) g f c
The world is waiting g f
For his message I have c d
The people are pleading "please come" g e c d

Come bring me a savior
Come teach what he's given
Answer my prayers
With a reason for living

I will teach of my savior
I will teach of his birth
I will love with his love and show them their worth

I will give all I have to living his word
to forgetting myself
and to loving the Lord

I love you all,

Mariesa

Funny Stories and More

Happy Tuesday!

Funny stories from this week: My companion and I were late for class, so we were running up the stairs as fast as we could. Just as we reached the landing on the 4th floor I stepped on my skirt and ripped it from my hip to my shin. It was my favorite skirt! Luckily, I was wearing a slip.

A little while ago we were in gym and decided that we would take a break from a routine work-out and go lift some weights. ...Typically only the elders lift weights so we were feeling daring, and proud to be hermanas! But I sat down to change the weight on the lat-pull down bar (which is METAL) and when I pulled out the screw, the whole thing fell down on my head. It was painful, but mostly embarrassing. Lol.

So this week has been kind of rough, but things are still going well. My companion and I have two progressing "investigators" in the TEC, and we just got done teaching a lesson. They never go as planned, but they always go excellent! We are starting to get the hang of teaching. We look forward to appointments instead of fear them. Spanish is also coming along great. We start teaching in spanish next week.

All of the Hermanas in our district have been pretty sick this week. We think it may have something to do with the fact that the fire alarm went off at 1:00 in the morning in the middle of a snowy night and we all had to go outside in our pajamas and barefeet for a half hour while they figured out what was going on. Luckily, we were able to go back and sleep in our dorms. We never did hear what was up. It's just a nasty cold I think, but we are hoping to be better before next week. One of our Elder's dislocated his shoulder during gym the other day and has been to and from the hospital all week as they've tried to figure out what they're going to do. He goes in for surgery this afternoon. We wont know until tonight if they are going to let him stay or send him home to recover. :(

The BYU men's chorus came and sang to us last night. It was soooo nice to hear Christmas music! We loved it. I was hoping to see some familiar faces in the choir, but I think they are all on missions too.

We also found out that our district gets to do ushering for the Christmas devotional. We are super excited about this because it means we get front row seats, and it will most definitely be an apostle!

I will write more soon. and a letter is coming, I promise! Quick thought: If you haven't sent my package yet and you have a chance to pick up some things for my companion, or even just change some of my things to hers. I don't think she'll be getting anything from her fam for christmas cause it takes so long for letters to come from canada. hermana chartrand. .. thanks

love you all!
-bye

You learn something new every day....

So apparently I am not an expert when it comes to technology. I had one of the biggest most embarrassing "Awe-ha" moments of my life this week. Oh man! So whenever someone from the seventy or the quorum of the twelve comes to speak you would imagine that we are on high securtiy right? Well, I think we should be, yes. However, I was a little suprised to find out that even in the MTC they have to put up shields for the speakers. Yes, those little clear plastic screens that they put on either side of the mic and a big one in the middle. MY ENTIRE LIFE I have thought that those were to protect people from bullets. ...lol. Thankfully I figured out that they were teleprompters on my own. But my companion died laughing when I told her and then told my district.Personally, I'm a little relieved....

Random Facts from the MTC

In Canada....
Mountain Dew is not caffeinated! and...
All exit signs are red!

We sang "Armies of Helaman the other day, all 2500 missionaries. and they changed the words from "We will be the Lord's missionaries," to "we are now the Lord's missionaries." So powerul. I loved it.

Christmas lights at the MTC are multicolored....So not a fan. Nor is my companion. I think we may have a seizure walking to class sometime. Super distracting. BUT it does break up the monotony of the MTC, so I guess in that sense it is okay.

This week has been kind of rough, the lessons we've taught have not gone so great, and my companion gets really down on herself sometimes. But together, we are learning a ton, and every time we teach it gets better. As tough as some of those teaching moments have been, they help us so much in our next lesson. I love my companion. :)

I told some of you I recieved travel itenerary to leave on the 8th of december. I was secretly hoping that it was not a mistake. But alas, it was. Still not leaving until the 19th :) Good though! because it means we have more time to learn spanish. Which is coming along incredibly well by the way. Teaching is what's hard, not the language.

Anyway I have to go, but I love you all. The letters have been wonderful! Thank you so much. And Aunt sue, thank you for the cookies! I shared them with my district, we loved them. Actually, we are still loving them haha. That was a lot of cookies! Thanks so much again. I miss you all. Write often! Your letters are ALWAYS appreciated. :)

More excerpts

....We are still waiting for snow here in Provo. No luck yet. Thanksgiving was excellent! Elder Holland came and spoke to us in the morning. He is an amazing speaker. I wish that I could have had a tape recorder to record everything he said, it was that good. I was writing as fast as I could, but still couldn't keep up. We were able to send in question in advance which he addressed in his talk. He gave very good answers. I love how straight forward of a speaker he is. It is reassuring to see somebody speak with such confidence and still be recieved and understood so well. I wish I had more time to type so that I could send you all of it. Maybe I will add some notes from it in a written letter home soon. Anyway, he is probably my favorite speaker right now.
OH! I wanted to share with you a poem that his wife wrote. Sort of a poem I guess. Very thought provoking though.

The spirit, standing at the edge of a cliff, called to me:
"Come to the edge" he said
To which I replied:
"I can't, I will fall."
A second time, he repeated;
"Come to the edge."
Again, I refused.
A third time he asked me;
"Come to the edge"
Finally, I came.
He pushed me.
And I flew.


Elder Oaks came on Tuesday night as well. His talk was also good, but was more directed to the younger missionaries trying to transition from high school.

The rest of Thanksgiving was...good. haha. They fed us A LOT of food, all of the regular Thanksgiving treats were there. It wasn't quite as good as a homecooked Thanksgiving meal...we described it earlier as Processed Turkey and Powdered Mashed potatoes. Lol, we didn't really enjoy it to be honest, but the rest of the day was good. We did a humanitarian project where we put together relief/first aid packets that the church hands out when responding to disasters. They include basic hygiene, first aid materials, as well as books and learning materials for children. They were very nice. We made 8,000 I believe....