Sister Macy England: The Gift of Tongues Is So Real

"Reunited and it feels so good!"

Hey FAM!

So It's been a pretty good week! Thanks for all the emails and love! Hearing from you guys makes my day! AND I got your package with all the letters from you guys! It was soo good to hear from each one of you individually! Send more of those! :) And thank you so much Mom and Dad for sending us some stuff from your Ireland trip! I loved everything! Sister Martinez and I especially love the rings! They are so cool! She said it was the second most special gift she has ever received! So thank you so much! You guys are amazing!

So this last week was good. We did lots of service at the YMCA shoveling poop so that was....pretty dang exciting. (Nacho) haha But seriously it was pretty fun because alot of us missionaries went and did it together. Who-da-thunk shoveling poo would be fun. My face got a bit red and my farmers tan is coming along nicely...I'm lookin good these days guys!

This week I was asked to do the district meeting training AGAIN! I was like WHAT??? haha We got a new district leader and he asked me right off the bat. I told him..."I actually just did a training but I can definelty do it again" (secretly hoping he would say...OH I didn't know you just did it, I'll ask someone else) But no...he was like...cool...and we sat there in silence for a moment. haha! Awkward. But I gladly took the assignment and got going. Clearly Heavenly Father knows I have much to learn! haha So this time my topic was Mighty Prayer. I used Enos ALOT! Actually most of the training was based out of Enos. That is such a good chapter! Actually such a good book in the Book of Mormon. Well I guess it is a good chapter because it's only a chapter long, yet still a good book...okay...ya okay you guys get it.... :l ....So anyway I learned alot from studying Enos more. As missionaries we say a million prayers a day!..In the morming, before each study, before each appointment, basically if we haven't said a prayer and it's been over 5 min we say another one for fun...just kidding...but we say ALOT of prayers! So I focused my training on how each and everyone one of those prayers can be mighty. It was fun look into that a little deeper. Secrectly I actually really like doing the trainings...well I like preparing for the trainings haha And actually this time I made it fun and threw some dorkey object lessons in there. Cheesy but fun...I'm turning into Mom! It was awesome too because I shared one of the emails in Ti Voglio Bene. It was so powerful. I'm so glad I have that. It's been fun to share snippets of it with other missionaries. But I love reading it mostly because it empowers me as a missionary. Riley's story is so empowering. It makes me feel like I can become the missionary I want to be. And even though I didn't know Riley super well when he was here I feel a closeness with him now. It's pretty cool. Like I said last week I feel the help of all of our family members that have passed on in this work! It's remarkale!

So we have this women we visit named Maria Bilon. She knows the church is true but she has a hard time acting on her faith because she doesn't want to leave the Cathlic church because of her family and everything. She's kind of a crazy lady! haha But we have hope for her. So every once in a while she will want to offer the closing prayer so we let her...but man her prayers are crazy! hahah Every time sister Marinez and I almost crack up. First of all she starts her prayer by saying...Mi tata Dios....which is super weird! I think for Mexican's tata is like saying daddy, so ya It's weird. Then she thanks him for us and for several things but it is so funny because she says it so dramatically and loud and repeats the word gracias a million times...rolling her r's alot! hahah It's like...grrrrracias Senorrrrrrrr grrrrrrraccccciassss Grrrrrracis GRRRRRACIAS! And she does this weird thing with her mouth. hahah I can't explain it in an email...I'll have to send a video of sister Martines and I imitating her because we are pretty dang good at it! hahaha OH Maria...she's only one of our Maria's....we have about a million...everyones name is Maria!

Anyway, alot of you asked how my spanish is coming. Well...It's coming. haha It is amazing how much I have learned since I've been in Colorado! I still don't understand alot but I understand enough. The Lord has a way of giving us what we need. I was talking to one of the other Sisters about this. I was telling her how the language is probably my greatest struggle on my mission...but I know why Heavenly father sent me Spanish speaking. When we go into lessons I can not do it on my own....I know that. I can not fully understand eveything they are saying nor can I put my words together perfectly. But because I know that, it gives me the opportunity to completely rely on the spirit. If I don't fully understand what someone said or asked I open my mouth with faith and answer in the best way I can. And maybe it had nothing to do with what they said sometimes. Maybe I make a fool of myself sometimes. But if I have faith then it does't matter. If I have faith that the spirit can work through me then maybe they need to hear my answer that didn't really make sence more that the actually answer to their question. haha It sounds silly but I believe in it....And sometimes I can understand so I'm not completely talking in jiberish. haha The gift of tongues is so real! But so competely different than I thought it would be. Before my mission I thought the gift of tongues was this thing that you automatically got when you were set apart as a missionary. And it made you super smart and made it super easy to learn what ever language you were learning. But I soon learned that I was so wrong. It's better than that. The gift of tongues is Heavenly Father helping you through the struggle of learning. The gift of tongues is the power to let the spirit be the teacher, let the spirit talk...not you. I am not the teacher the spirit is. If I was the teacher the people of Colorado would be doomed! haha The spirit will teach what it needs to teach regardless of your language abilities. I just have to remember to have enough faith to let it work through me.

Well keep being amazing you guys! I miss you all dearly! It sounds like you guys had an awesome Labor Day and Dad killed it in the LOTOJA!...hehe my dad's cool! And Mom is going to be awesome in the stake YW too! You guys all inspire me. "I love our family" (incredibles)

Sorry this email was super scatter brained! haha I'm workin on it!

LOVE YOU ALL! I'll write you all letters soon!

Love, Hermana England