Letter #5 Life in Spanish Antarctica

welps.. this week has been a bluuuurrrr... or a buuurrr... not exactly sure which one. ha!!

so. much. spanish... so. much. spirit... so. much. cold... but... so. much. to. be. grateful. for!! ah!! i'm not even in the field yet && i love missionary work so much!! ah!!! except it was definitely 1 degree the other morning: NOT. A. FAN. my new conclusion: provo is the antarctica of utah. && i'm living in the spanish training part. ha ha. i'm definitely still hawaiianized and not use to this type of temperatures. ha ha.

first of all i need to start off with the highlight of my week... devotional:

thanks mom for the little piece of heaven in the middle of this arctic tundra!! ha ha

so there i am listening to this wonderful speaker. and there is these two elders sitting in front of us. and for some reason i was strangely intrigued by them! first of all, there were extremely touchy with each other. and then they took off their suit coats when they were just told not to. acca-awkward. ha ha. but yeah. anyways. funny elders. so yeah. as the meeting ends i overhear them speaking and i notice their language is crazy nuts awesome! so as they are walking away i ask, " elders! where are you from!?" and they turn around and look at me with a perplexed look, then one replies, "albania." oh my goodness. you won't even imagine how excited i got! i immediately asked them if they knew motra forte! then the one elder looks at me and my tag and says, "oh! are you the sister of sister forte in tirana!?" ha ha ha ha ha. i died. anyways.... long story short they had just gotten there the day before. so it was 4 in the morning their time. so they were exhausted, to say the least! BUT... they had just seen shaun a couple days before!! nuts huh!? i felt like i got a little piece of my sister!! ah!! then they he said some strange story in broken english about how sister forte said he should look for me so that sister forte doesn't kill him?? uh.... i was a little confused. but i was so happy i didn't care that his story made completely no sense. ha! maybe its an albanian humor i'm not familiar with? ha ha. anywho. i was bummed i didn't have a camera with me to take a picture with these two elders. but i had them write down their names for me in my notebook:

-Rinorld Zeqiri (Rei)

-Kristi Coka (Choka)

our all-sisters district freezing our butts off in the cold!! woohoo!! :)

oh man. so yeah! they say hello shaun!! ha ha. and mom & dad. no worries! they reassured me that she is doing amazing and is safe and sound!! ha!! anyway... totally and completely made my day! actually no.. my week!! i mean what are the odds? and why else would i feel so intrigued by them!? no doubt it was the spirit! i needed the boost from my sister all the way in albania! ah!! i love you so much shaun!! :)

but yes. the tuesday night devotional was suppose to be elder ballard... so i was so stoked like all day! but then of course the first snow of the winter happened that day... and... Elder Ballard couldn't make it due to weather conditions. BUM-MER right? but then... the speaker: Bruce C. Hafen who was a emeritus general authority spoke to us... && wow. real talk. no doubt in my mind he was inspired to speak to us. he was so completely AMAZING!!!! everything that came out of his mouth i need to hear i swear!! it was awesome!!

my favorite quote from him: "this is HIS work. its visionary work! its personal work!" and the more i got to thinking about it... duh!! this work is so amazing!! ah!! its indeed so visionary and personal!! and i have no doubt in my mind that the Lord has a personal work for me to do! i know that there will be people in argentina that i will be able to touch, that no one else can!! ah!! i seriously can't wait. 10 days people. 10 DAY!!! ah!!! then i'll be on a plane headed to argentina... hopefully!! still haven't received my travel plans... but i'm hopeful!! (fingers crossed!!)

but yeah. long story short... this week was great! we got to host this wednesday! which was so much fun! basically a host is when we pick up the new incoming missionaries and 'host' them or just help them get to where they need to be and stuff on their first new day at the mtc!! it was AWESOME!! i got to host the cutest girl from el salvador. but has lived in cali for the passed couple of years.. she seriously was the cutest girl i think i have ever met in my life. no joke!! she made me so happy!! and it was so fun to see how excited i got when she asked me question about the mtc... cuz i really do love it here!! but sometime i get caught up in my own thoughts and forget...but i always ask for forgiveness when i do! because i'm so immensely grateful to be here and for all the amazing experiences i'm having here! :)

i love my zone. i love my zone president. i love my district. and i love my companion. like real talk. the lord has seriously blessed me so much through this whole experience!! i have all the perfect 'cushion' and support to help get me through these troubling days of learning spanish!!

i love you all!! and i'm so entirely grateful for all your love and support!! it definitely gets me through the hard times... spanish is hard. but i know that with the lord on my side. i can conquer this language!! i know that i will learn on the lord's time... this is HIS work. and i'm on HIS time right now. and i'm so grateful for this opportunity to be HIS instrument and bring the light of the gospel to those in argentina!! hope you all are staying warm and drinking lots of hot chocolate!! :)

love you all always and forever!!

all my love,

from your missionary,

hermana jordan ashley forte