Dear Family,
Tuesday we got soaked- physically and spiritually. So guess who came and spoke to us on Tuesday night?? ELDER NEAL L. ANDERSON!!! The devotional that night was broadcasted to nearly all the MTC in the world!!! His talk was titled " First love, then sacrifice." I thought it was really fitting for missionaries because we love and sacrifice so much. He said, " we love the things we sacrifice and we sacrifice for the things we love". So true!!! The whole Marriott Center felt so awesome with all the missionaries singing and paying attention to an apostle's voice. Really neat!
After we closed the devotional, the security told us we couldn't leave because of lighting and thunder outside, so for another 15 minutes, everyone just sang hymns until we could leave. But it was still pouring when we left. We all knew we would get soaked, and we did. But it was actually fun! And good news, the CTR tie didn't get wet either. :)
Tuesday we also had another service day! I actually look forward to cleaning, believe it or not. This time instead of vacuuming, I cleaned the sinks and counters in the bathrooms-gross! Even elders make a lot of mess with their hair in those sinks. But it was fun to just get out there and work.
Funny thing with everyone's clothes being soaked on Tuesday, when I passed by the dry-cleaning service building the next day, the line was backed up so far. I even think they had to turn some missionaries down unless they were leaving the MTC within a week. But my suit's OK- if it starts smelling, I'll have it dry-cleaned. They recommend having all your suits dry-cleaned before you leave the MTC anyways.
In our district, we challenged each other to bear our testimonies (in Portuguese) to 5 different groups per day, and Elder H and I have been studying and practicing for our lessons. We have 2 new posing investigators now, Bruna and João (John). We teach one of them every other day, so there's a lot of studying that goes in that.
I got your package yesterday! Thank you thank you thank you so much!! I know which of the hundreds of packages are mine because of The Andy Griffith Show pictures- they so make my day! And I still remember the episodes of those pictures. :) Thank you again for the iPod and speaker! I saw that there's pictures on them from the photo shoot a few weeks ago, and they look great! Thank you!!! My companion and I laughed at the Yahtzee game. I'lll see if we can play it in the MTC, I'll look it up in the handbook.
And best of all, thank you so much Dad for your letter. I love reading it, and I'll always treasure and protect it. I'm so grateful for your example to me and your family. I love and miss you so much, and it won't be long before I'm home.
I'm excited to email you tomorrow. I'll try to keep my emails short so you can respond quickly and we can have a conversation.
I love hearing about the exciting things going on at home! Tell Mama & Papa that it was great getting their letter in the package! I miss them a lot too. Have you been keeping up with America's Got Talent? Haha.
I love getting your letters, and I always read one before I go to bed. I think about you often, and I'm so grateful that families can be together forever, and that we all will live together after this life. That's probably my most favorite thing about the gospel.
Thank you for all that you do, everything that you've done for me, your prayers, thoughts, and support throughout all my life.
Love,
Elder Nissinen
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