Sister Jazmyn Card: You are o-FISH-ally the best missionary

Hi everyone!!!

Where can I even begin? The MTC is the greatest place I have ever been in my entire life. I am learning so much each and every single day. I know that this is the Lord's work. I know that there is no place that I would rather be than here. This is the true church. This is HIS church. And we are so blessed to be a part of that. And I'm sure you want to hear about my first week in the MTC, so I'll stop getting distracted!

Okay, so I guess I'll just start with the first day! After Mom, Dad, and Eli dropped me off, I literally had no time to be sad about anything. Cody Harris was my escort in and it was SO cool just to be able to see him and talk to him about being a missionary and really just get me excited to be there! I got my nametag, which is probably my favorite thing ever because I feel so cool wearing it, dropped off my stuff, and went straight to Portuguese class. And, oh boy, was it Portuguese. No English at all. On the first day! But, you'll be glad to hear that I already understood like 90% of everything my teacher said because of my Spanish, which is so amazing! Granted, they were very basic sentences, but still, it was incredible! That night, we taught our first lessons in English. WHAT? Yes. So after the first day, I was pretty much a straight up missionary.

My companion's name is Sister Jensen! We met through Facebook before and had been talking for a few months, so we were beyond pumped to be companions. She is UNREAL, you guys. She is seriously such a sweetheart, such a hard worker, and has such an amazing testimony. I am so blessed to have such a gem as my companion. There are 6 elders and 6 sisters in my district. We are all going to Brazil, but different parts. I am obsessed with all of them. They are from all over the country: New Hampshire, Idaho, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Utah. So it's been really cool just to see how similar and different our lives are. We do everything together. We eat together, study together, pray together, sing together, honestly, everything. We have already gotten so close and it has only been a week. The girls are amazing! We all live in one room. Yeah, six girls in one room gets a little insane. But honestly, it is like a big huge spiritual sleepover always. We have the best talks at night and we already know so much about each other. I know that I will be friends with these girls for a long long time. I really am so blessed to have such an amazing district. We talk about it all the time. We lucked out for sure!

Thursday was amazing. We had all of these teaching workshops and really started to understand what missionary work is about. I always believed that I was here to teach people and that I was here to convert people. NO. So wrong. Honestly, it isn't me at all. It is the Lord. It is the Spirit. We are merely tools in His hands to bring the gospel to His children. If that isn't that coolest thing I have ever heard in my life, I don't know what is. We have had countless talks on obedience and on teaching by the Spirit. They go hand in hand. When we are obedient to the Lord's rules, we are going to be filled with His Spirit. We will be able to do and say what we need to. It is His gospel and we need to teach it in His way. Not our way. His way. I love that so much. Within my first 24 hours of being here, my whole perspective of missionary work changed. I'm not here for me. I'm here because the Lord needs me to bring people the gospel. I'm here for the Lord.

Then, that night, we met with our Branch President and his counselors. We bore our testimonies to the branch and had interviews with the presidency. Turns out, I'm the new Coordinating Sister, or Sister Training Leader. (They just changed the name). I had no idea what that was, but it's like a Zone Leader for Sisters! What? ME? I was beyond excited. So I'm in charge of helping out all the Sisters in our branch, making sure they are feeling okay, and doing everything they need to be doing! It is quite possibly the greatest blessing I could have ever asked for. I'm excited to be a leader, even though it is something that will be so new to me!

On Friday, we taught our FIRST LESSON IN PORTUGUESE. Insane, right? Two days here and we already had our first "investigator" to teach! I loved it. Sister Jensen and I knew absolutely nothing and came out of there feeling like we had SO MUCH to learn. And we do. So we immediately got to work on our next lesson and totally got prepared. Our next lesson was yesterday, on Monday, and we were so prepared and totally taught by the Spirit and taught him everything we felt that we needed to! So yes, I've taught two lessons in Portuguese already! It's crazy. I love the language so much already. It's beautiful. It's insanely hard, because I always want to speak Spanish, but it is coming!

Then this weekend... CONFERENCE WAS THE BOMB. It was so good. There were so many talks about missionary work and about moving the work forward. Wasn't it awesome? Especially being here in the MTC with all these amazing missionaries, I just couldn't get enough of it. It really was perfect!

Yesterday, I learned the most valuable lesson yet. Trust in the Lord. He knows everything that we are going through. He knows who we are, who we need to become, and what we need. He knows it all. I felt that I needed to be doing so much more than I was doing, but there wasn't enough time in the day. 16 hours of work, and there isn't enough time in the day. It sounds impossible, but it's true. There is a lot I need to learn, but I know that if I have patience and if I trust in the Lord with all my heart, I will learn the things that I need to learn in His time. His timing is perfect. He knows it all. REMEMBER THAT. Never forget it. He is perfect and this gospel is perfect.

The MTC is amazing. Everyone always tells me how hard it is to be a missionary, but I honestly haven't even noticed it. I just love this gospel so much, and I've never been happier. So it has been perfect! I love it so much. I love this work, and I am so blessed to learn everything that I'm learning here.

I love you all. I miss you all. I am so busy, but I love everything I am doing. Thank you for all the letters, the packages, everything! Heather Kristine Hemingway. You are the cutest person ever. She sent me a package with Swedish Fish and a big fish balloon saying, "You are o-FISH-ally the best missionary." So cute. I love her. I love you guys. KEEP THE LETTERS COMING. Missionaries love letters, they really do! And CORBIN PETERSEN GOING TO CHILE! I am so excited for you Corb! Missionary work is the best thing. You will love everything about it! I'm so excited for you!

Okay, well I have no more time, but I will write again next week! I can't fit even close to everything I'm learning in these emails, but I'll do my best! I love you all and I pray for all of you every day!

I MISS YOU GUYS, BUT THIS IS ALL SO WORTH IT!

Love, Sister Jazmyn Card

xoxo

One of Jazzy's best friends, Heather Kristine Hemingway, sent her package with Swedish Fish and a big fish balloon saying, "You are o-FISH-ally the best missionary."