Sister Tantillo: Letter #4: LOVE YOU!

I love this place so much I could live here for the rest of my life and be totally content. Seriously though I am just always so happy and loving life and its because the spirit here is so strong and there is so much love. The days are starting to blur together and the weeks are going faster. We’re starting week 5 here! But they number it weird cause we're actually hitting four weeks in the mtc tomorrow. And then Saturday is my month mark! Like WHAT HOW DID THAT HAPPEN I GOT HERE YESTERDAY. I ONLY have 17 months left I’m going to cry. jk but time is flying and its craziness.

Tuesday:

This was the day that I got a dearelder from my dear sister Katie about the new Harry Potter movie and I DIED. This is the best news of LIFE!!!! My district FREAKED out about it cause we all love harry potter of course and oh my goodness Katie thank you for sending that. We had devotional that night at the Marriott center. Walking up there all together is always such a cool experience. Missionary mass its great. Also at devotional I saw Sorella ALLISON YOST!!!! we made faces at each other from across the building for like thirty minutes cause that’s just what we do. And then I ran up and hugged here and it was like a scene out of a cheesy love movie and I cried because I always do when I see her because I love her. Okay best quote from devo was "every day on your mission you will think about home. But when you get home, every day for the rest of your life you will think about your mission." this hit me so hard! It’s SO important to make the most of my time here serving the Lord. I ONLY have a year and a half to serve. And I want to be proud of the service I give.

Wednesday:

I saw Alli again! Ahhh God loves me. I actually saw her 4 TIMES this week! Crazy. She was walking to the temple and then we saw each other again at the next devo. I spotted her from across the auditorium. My companion was freaked out and was like you two can like sense each other from across the room how do you do that?!? Hehe. Also on Wednesday our whole district got sick cause when one person gets sick everyone does cause we spend all day in an itty-bitty living space together. That night we taught Paulo and he committed to baptism!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOO! That was AWESOME. I can’t even tell you Sister Davis and I walked out that lesson like YES CHURCH IS TRUE I LOVE LIFE AND BEING A MISSIONARY!!

Thursday:

Today we found out that we'll for sure most definitely be singing at the relief society session of general conference!!!!!! There was a bit of a selection process so not all of the sisters get to go. So it’s a blessing and I’m so excited!! Me and Sister Kimbrell and Sargent get to go but Sister Davis doesn’t and that makes me sad :( ill probs be next to Sister Sargent so look for a really tall blonde sister and ill be the short one next to her. So yah on Saturday they’ll load us all onto the buses and take us into Salt Lake City! I’m so stoked I miss that place!! We practice every morning this week for 1.5 hr. to get ready for it so we have to miss some class and had to miss going to the temple this morning. But that’s okay. Mom I hope this makes you happy!! I wish the camera worked the other way around so I could see you too. Ohh and LISTEN TO THE LYRICS!!!! Seriously they are so powerful I cry every time we sing them. My favorite is when we sing "more faith in my Savior. More sense of His care. More joy in His service. More purpose in prayer." all of the lyrics are wonderful so listen for their meaning

Friday:

We had choir practice just like every other day and the entire general relief society presidency came to listen to us sing!! So cool. They are so beautiful and such amazing woman and I love them. Also today during gym time Sister Whittney tricked me into running 2.5 miles with her and it was rude and I died. I realize that this is probably not a big deal for most people but it was for me. Ahhh minha vida (my life) I don’t think this is even proper Portuguese but we say it anyways cause nothing we say is really proper anyways

Saturday:

In the morning we paired up with another district and taught each other a lesson. This was really encouraging to see how much we could say with zero warning or practice. Oh and also our whole district got Brazil shirts today! Matchy matchy :) we're so cute. We’ve been waiting FOREVER for them to get a shipment in of them because the Brazil shirts always run out the fastest. Okay funniest investigator story so far. I’ve said this before but actually this one wins for all time. So Sister Forsyth was teaching her investigator about keeping our bodies clean and sacred. So she goes to read him a scripture in 1 Corinthians but accidentally read from the wrong chapter cause it was in Portuguese and we don’t know Portuguese. And so she ends up reading him a scripture about how circumcision is a commandment and then continues to talk about treating our bodies like temples without even realizing what she just read. hahaahha and our teacher/their gator was like WHAT SO CONFUSED HAHAAH.

ALSO MY PACKAGE CAME FROM MY AMAZING LITTLE SISTER AND MOM!!!! Thank you!!! I love you both and my district is obsessed with you! You are too good to me. All of the sister feasted on them that night.

Sunday:

I brought the elders their cookies and they loved you also because they ate them for breakfast and thought that that was the best thing of life. haha elder nixon told sister kimbrell that i was the new district leader and she believed him all morning. but elder lott is the actual new district leader. okay DAD GET READY TO BE PROUD. so our district had to do a musical number during sacrament meeting so i rearranged that army of helaman piece that you love so much so that it would work with a violin and people singing. so i played the piano and sister whittney played violin and my district sang! So yah thanks for putting me in piano lessons.

For MTC choir that night we sang "nearer my god to thee" and I got chillsssssss. Go look at the lyrics they’re beautiful! The choir director told us the story behind the song and it’s about Jacob in the bible and how he had to leave home and as he lied to sleep on a stone that night he had a vision of heaven. I’m not doing the story justice but the song does so yah go look at it :)

Monday:

We had our BEST LESSON EVER! We taught Dalmiro about the word of wisdom because he is an alcoholic. He’s a father and his whole family are members. So I told him about the influence a father has on his family and bore testimony of how my own father's obedience blesses our family. And I saw it click in his eyes and it was amazing!!!! I got your letter that day too mom and it was so inspiring and such a perfect thing to hear. I loved that it said EVERYONE has the light of Christ. SO TRUE. It was the perfect thing to end my day with THANK YOU!!!!!!

Olivia Mayer: CONGRATULATIONS on passing your tests I’m SOOOOOO PROUD OF YOU!! Also for your letter it was beautiful and I wrote you back and hopefully you get that soon I love you

RACHEL: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I almost cried when I saw that I had a package from the chocolate and I KNEW it was from you because that’s our place and I love you and that was the most glorious thing you could have possibly ever sent me and my roommates were jealous but sorry for them cause I didn’t even share heeheh ahhhh you’re the best!! I was impressed by your considerateness ;)

Nan: you are the most brilliant woman I have ever met. Seriously who thinks of that?? hahah sending a letter on a harry potter cover! Ahhh I loved it! Also so did my district I brought it in to show it to them because I knew they would appreciate it and they did and we took turns holding it because we all miss harry potter and holding the cover was as close as we're gonna get. I’m writing you back soon so that’s all ill say about that now! Love you :)

Katie: your letter was hilarious and I am also writing you back as soon as I possibly can. You’re beautiful and I want to be just like you when I grow up

Aunt carol: that story you shared with me gave me Goosebumps and I read it to all of my roommates and we loved it thank you! It’s always so great to hear from you

Aunt Julie: thank you for writing me! Its good to hear that Carrie and trey are doing well. I hope matt is loving ASU! Tell him I love him and that I need an update on his life so he should send me a letter please :) love you all!

Michael monster: the day after the byu game my teacher told us he would wear either a blue or red tie depending on who one. And guess what color he wore?!? RED :( sad day. Miss you goober!!

dad: the elders in my district have started singing Christmas songs and it reminded me of you and how much you would disapprove of that. hahah I love you! Also remember how I played the piano in church like you told me to? Yah me too :) k love you!

EMS: I MISS YOU EVERY DAY AND I LOVE YOU WITH ALL OF MY HEART. I want to hear about how being at the naval base is going! CAPOTE :)

John, Heidi, and J.D.: thank you so much for the beautiful journal and pen! That was so perfect and I love it! You are so sweet to think of me and that made my day so thank you!

My teacher always tells us "God is in the details." Find God in the details of your life. And then give thanks to Him! He is always there for you. Sometimes we forget to look.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

<3 Sister Tantillo