Love Produces Miracles

Celebrity's 

I'm famous. One night after a devotional when we were going to our classroom me and my companions got stopped by three other missionaries. These guys asked if they could take a picture with me. When we asked them why they said it was because I looked like a famous person. After some guessing we found out they thought I looked like Amanda Seyfried! I was so embarrassed but also flattered. Shout out to these two missionaries, I hope they can trick their friends into thinking I'm her.

Oh also here's me and my companions in our matching dresses!

And here's my new haircut!

Sports

We had a weird volleyball week this week. First of all I've played so much volleyball I've decided I need to go pro when I get back. Second of all we've been playing volleyball with 32 people. At first we were doing teams of 7 that rotate a person on and off. Then we got more people so we did 3 teams of 6 where the losers swapped off after a game to 5 points. Then we had 4 teams of 6-7 that swapped after a game to 5. 

I mean volleyball is fun, but this is too many cooks in the kitchen. On Monday it seemed like all the guys in our district were done playing, they were inside playing basketball and ping pong, but me and my companions decided to go out to volleyball anyways. We were tossing around the volleyball when one of the other districts who played came up and started playing with us.

We were having so much fun and I was actually playing good! Then some of the boys from my district came over to play so we have to do 3 teams of 7 again. It was funny to me that the guys had mentioned wanting a break from Beach Volleyball, but when we started playing it again most of them wanted to join back in.

I was a team captain and ended up picking a team full of people I liked, even if they weren't very good at volleyball. Initially I got a complaint from a team member about how we weren't going to have fun because we weren't going to win/play any games, but I told him that we weren't playing to win, we were playing to have fun together, and I chose a team I could have fun with. 

Jokes on him because we ended up winning 7 games in a row. Even when we finally ended up off the field we still had fun kicking a volleyball around together, playing frisbee, and joking around. Don't pick people because you think they're winners, pick people because you know they can be. That's what God does with us. I was chosen to serve a mission not because I'm perfect or I'm going to bring every person I meet to the gospel, but because God knows I can be perfect, when I do the best I can every day.

Personals

One of my dear sisters Kinney gave me a bag with kitkats and notes for each one before I left for Mexico. I had been gradually opening and appreciating these kitkats, until Saturday when I opened my KitKat with the note for "when you need encouragement." When I opened this kitkat I discovered the note had not been written by my sister, but by my little brother. 

I admit it, I cried when I saw it. Sometimes the strongest words are the simple ones from the heart. Seeing Jimmer's cute messy handwriting telling me I can do hard things made me know of a surety that we can do anything through love. I love my little brother so much and it means so much to me that he loves me too.

This is why the two great commandments are to love god, and to love one another. Because love allows us to do and be anything. We change through love for people and things. When we feel loved we are capable of enduring. When we love others we work miracles. (I loved my volleyball team, which is how the miracle of our 7 wins was possible) 

My challenge for you is to tell people that you love them. I love you all! I love you for reading my words, I love you for caring about me and being the perfect amazing person you are. Tell your siblings, parents, significant others, friends, and family of all kind that you love them. It's the simplest and most meaningful gift you can give them.

Español

Nosotros enseñamos estas niñas en un actividad! Ellas tienen testimonios muy grande y poderoso. Ellas quieren servir misiones en el futuro! Ellas son lindas! 

Aquí es un foto de nosotros!

Spiritual Thought

The promise of the gospel is not that you will never be hurt or abandoned, it's that you have a savior and so those trials can have meaning through him. So many wonder why bad things happen to good people, but I think it's just because things happen to people. Good and bad. That would be the case with or without God. But with God all those struggles and trials have meaning and purpose and become opportunities to help others, change ourselves, and be happier people. 

Temp Mission

I received an email on Monday assigning me to a temporary mission in Houston Texas! This got me worried so I went to reception to talk about it, and they told me they couldn't give me any information until Tuesday when the man in charge of flights and travel would be back in office.

So we went to go talk to him today and he had to call another lady who I talked to and she told me she had no idea what had happened! She had put me on the list of people who had completed all their paperwork and had a visa waiting for them in Argentina, and had even scheduled my flight for Argentina. Somehow I had been put on the list for people who couldn't go. She had no idea how it happened and said she had never seen anything like it before ever while working for the department! 

She had me email the Houston Mission to tell them it was a mistake

Funnies

Elder Storm has been violently ill for days...

Sandcastle during "Beach V" (or Playa V as we call it)

Hermano Lozano forgot the no hand gestures in photos rule

Hermana Jefa signing off, wishing you a buen día!

To Have Faith

Personals 

My dearest friend and old BYU roommate (and hopefully future BYU roommate) Hermana Leonard got here last Tuesday and it's been great! I have loved running into her occasionally and it just feels so good knowing she's here. It takes all I can to not look for her every time we go outside.

Sports

We have been playing volleyball nonstop - seriously, we play every day. It's too much volleyball for any person. I'm getting kind of good though, so that's a miracle.

There's usually about 18 of us who play sand volleyball every day, so we end up doing 3 teams of 6, and the team that wins the game gets to stay on the court. We picked the most athletic guys as team captains and they then picked their teams in the classic high school style where all the athletic people get picked first and leave us nerds as leftovers.

I was picked second to last of course, but I was surprised to end up on a team of mostly girls. Elder Grant had picked two other elders then 4 girls to be on his team (and one of the elders wasn't even athletic, he was the nerd picked after me (we were kind of a package deal as the worst players on the field)). All the other teams were all elders with like one token girl.

At first we were losing kind of bad, we got 5-0 in our second game. Then we started winning! It was crazy, we came back with a 4-5 win, then we started winning significantly with 1-5 and 2-5! We were doing really well and I was playing well! I hit the ball a bunch and even hit it over the net a couple times. I served the ball that won us a game and it was crazy. 

I really respect that elder Grant saw a bunch of people the other elders didn't see potential in and knew we could be a great team. Sports aren't just about athleticism, they're also about unity and trying your best. 

Oh and check this out, one of the elders launched himself into the mud trying to save a volleyball this week. 

Elder Mud?

Español

Mi y mis compañeras empezamos solo español esta semana. Solo español es un nota de su etiqueta de misionero. Cuando la nota esta puesta, solo puedo hablar español. Es muy difícil porque tengo muchas cosas quiero hablar. Pero en clases es muy bien porque estudio bien cuando yo hablo solo español. 

Hermana Umaña dibuja nuestros notas. Aquí es un foto! 

Religion

Would you have planted if you did not believe you would gather? Would you have asked if you did not believe you would receive? Would you have walked if you did not believe your legs would carry you? Are ye not dependent on your faith in all things?

This is a quote from Joseph Smith according to one of the elders, and I was struck by the nature of it. Faith is a core tenant of being human, we do it all the time, we just don't realize it. If we didn't have faith every moment of our lives would be miserable and we would be incapable of functioning.

As humans we often think of ourselves as beings of logic and reason, but at our cores we are beings of faith, and belief, and trust. The most godlike thing we can do is have faith, in ourselves, the people around us, and in all the little things God has given us.

Pandemics

Both the other Hermanas got sick today and we were incapable of going to the temple today, so we just stayed home. Hermana LeBaron slept most of the morning and Hermana Umaña and I went to the tienda to scrounge for food for us. Hermana Umaña is seriously sick, she's lost 13 pounds since we got here! The infirmary gave her some stuff to help her, but she hasn't gained any weight back so we're just gonna pray and hope for the best right now.

Funnies

Eternal Companions: On the first day we got here we had a devotional where we were all told that you would not be finding your eternal companion here at the CCM. They told the elders that just because an Hermana was nice to them did not mean they would be getting married. Some of the elders clearly did not remember this because we've been making eternal companion jokes all week after one of the elders went up behind Hermana Umaña as she was filling up her water bottle and said,

"Taking all the water?" Then later this week as Hermana LeBaron was filling up her wayer bottle the same elder came and told Hermana Umaña, "taking all the water again?" She wasn't even filling up her water bottle! She was just standing there! Lock your heart elder!

Elder Swensen can play any song he listens to on the piano, check out Hermana LeBarons surprised reaction to this news...

The comodor had Gansitos and Elder Eldredge stole like a million

Can someone tell me what kind of spider this is?

Hermana Jefa signing off, wishing you a buen día!

Miracles in the MTC/CCM

Editor's note: The other sections in this newsletter may be short as most of the editor's (me) time was devoted to being sick and writing about this weeks miracle. 

Fashion

Me and my companions bought matching dresses and we wore them on Sunday! We got lots of compliments and we looked pretty dang cute if I may say so. 

We forgot to take a picture, but when we wear them again I'll add one in.

Hair

Someone talk me out of cutting my hair. I grew it out for a while and I was planning to grow it out more on the mission, but I'm seriously considering going back to a bob. Next thing you know I'm going to want bangs too. I always used to say people made the worst hair decisions on their mission and I think I'm next!

Goodbyes

In the CCM you have latino/as and Americans. All the native speakers (latins) only stay at the CCM in person for one week, while the rest of us stay about 4 weeks. The sad part is, when you befriend some latinos, they're destined to leave well before you are. 

Our beloved latinas left today to go to their missions and it was tragic. It was so fun trying to talk with each other in Spanish and together we joked about the poor quality of the food at every meal.

I can only hope my Spanish sounds as good as theirs at the end of my mission

Sports

I played volleyball and I was actually kind of good!!! I hit the ball a couple of times, I served the ball, and I even managed to get my team a point! It was so fun! We played volleyball as a district and were having so much fun that other people joined our game swapping in and out. At first we played 5 on 5, then to save time swapping people we played 8 on 8 since so many joined.

Most of the week I was feeling too sick to exercise so not many updates on sports. I played ultimate frisbee with some of the district and realized there is way too much running in frisbee and ergo it should be abolished.

Leaving the Country

We went to the temple today and it felt like leaving the country. The CCM has a massive gate and security so we have to stop before leaving to go. Once you get outside the gate it feels like a different country.

Inside the CCM are fields of grass and trees and nice paved paths and maintained buildings, but once you leave you're just in the heart of the city. It's all packed traffic, graffitied buildings, big advertisements. Reading them gives us a great opportunity to practice our non religious Spanish though!

Miracles

I experienced a personal miracle this week. On Wednesday I started feeling sick. I had a sore throat and was a little congested, but it wasn't very bad. Then on Thursday I woke up and I felt worse. It was hard to even swallow and the only thing that felt good was drinking water so I ended up leaving class like every five minutes to refill my water bottle. I bought a gatorade because I was so sick of the taste of water.

Then on Friday I felt really sick. My throat hurt and my nose was stuffy and I couldn't speak because I felt so tired. My companions took me to the infirmary after our morning classes and they gave me some kind of medication that I took right away. 

It helped for a while, and I felt really good and talkative at lunch, and didn't drink a gallon of water. But once we sat down at dinner everything changed.

It was like an out of body experience. I was eating food, but the hands putting the food into my mouth didn't feel like my own. It was hard to think and to put things into focus, or hold onto a thought for long. I heard people talking around me but they were all loud and yet far away. It was like I was hearing all the conversations at once. I told one of my companions, but reassured her it was nothing to worry about.

Right before our evening class after dinner I started crying and I didn't know why. One of my companions asked if we should go home, but I insisted I didn't want to miss class so they asked if we should get one of the elders to bless me instead. We went to the classroom with some other Hermanas who heard my struggle and asked Elders Eldredge and Egbert to bless me.

All the elders were in the class and they were freaked out to see me like that and asking for a blessing. They put a chair in the middle of the room and Elder Witter hurriedly pulled up the words to a priesthood blessing as Elders Eldredge and Egbert crowded around him to see how to do it. It was kind of funny as they laid their hands upon my head with Witter standing aside holding up the phone to them. It was scary how quiet everyone was, and how serious the Elders were. It made me scared that I had underplayed my illness, and I was afraid for what would happen.

But I hadn't needed to fear at all. As Elder Eldredge spoke words from God as directed by the spirit he said, "God knows you. And he knows your struggles. When you wake tomorrow you will be well." 

It felt important, that he felt prompted to bless me that God knew I was struggling before blessing me with health. It was a testimony to me that no matter what life challenges me with physically, as long as I trust in Christ, and I have faith in the God who sees me and knows me, I will be okay. 

I knew I would be okay because Christ trusted in me, and he knew I would be able to endure my trials and emerge stronger in the end. And I was okay. When our teacher walked in after the blessing he had us check in the infirmary to hear a doctors advice. He told me to rest in our apartment and return in the morning if I was still sick.

I wasn't. Aside from a runny nose I was perfectly well. My mind was clear, I taught a lesson in Spanish that day, I played volleyball, I drank very little water, and I did Duolingo. I was well in all the ways I could be, physically, mentally, and even stronger spiritually. 

It was a miracle that I was healed. It was a miracle that I went from (in the words of my teacher) "looking like Hermana Voss was going to die" to being stronger and healthier today. Every single time I served the volleyball it went over the net. I've never been more athletic in my life.

In my evening class as we prayed to end the class together the teacher asked if we could thank the lord for "salud de Hermana Voss" and I really liked that. I'll be thanking him for my health every day that I'm alive, but not for my physical health, but rather my spiritual health. I feel blessed to have experiences like this that strengthen not only my testimony, but the testimony of others. Thank you for this miracle nuestro amoroso padre celestial.

The Funnies

Well in lighter news... (seriously guys, I'm fine now) 

Elder Eldrege looks AI generated in this picture

Turns out Elder Solomon can play Journey??? He literally can't play any other song and can't read music. This is the only thing he can do on the piano

Hermana Jefa signing off, wishing you a buen día!