Malmstrom, Sara

Ladies and gentlemen, WELCOME TO FABULOUS LAS VEGAS!!! I made it! Tuesday was the travel day, we had to check out of the MTC at 4:30am. So we woke up at 3:30. It was a very long day. But it was so worth it to come down the escalators to baggage claim in the Vegas Airport and see President and Sister Rodarte right there to welcome us! It was so special and they are so kind. They drove us up to the Las Vegas temple, which is stunning! President Rodarte shared one of the classic stories from the Book of Mormon, which is Lehi's dream. Lehi was a prophet who lived in Jerusalem who had a dream from God that showed God's love for the world. God's love was symbolically displayed through as a tree, called the Tree of Life. Across the river from the Tree in the vision, there is a great and spacious building filled with the things that distract us and bring us away from God. President Rodarte took us to the temple grounds and shared that story with us, explaining how the Las Vegas tem...

Hello! We're jumping right into where we left off last week, so buckle up. I sent my last email in the morning-ish, so I'm starting this one by finishing up last Pday! Thursday afternoon: We went to the gym and played volleyball and basketball as a district, and then we grabbed lunch. There were a few difficulties getting lunch and it quickly became very chaotic (multiple salads were dropped, soda was spilled, etc) but it tasted delicious and we all sat outside and talked and hung out for a few hours. We ran into a trio of ASL elders, and it was so cool! One of them is deaf, so the other two were translating our conversation and it was incredible! At 3pm we went up to the activity field which is just below the Provo temple and plays spikeball and kickball! Anyone who knows me knows that I have not a single athletic bone in my body. But regardless, it was still a lot of fun to bond as a district and let out some energy in the sun. After that we had dinner and met with the Branch...

Hello, all! I am finally at the Provo Missionary Training Center! My family dropped me off yesterday and I was immediately whisked away into a non-stop whirlwind of finding my companion, meeting up with our district, settling into our dorms, going to orientation devotionals, and running into so many friends from home. I am so happy to be here. Was I an emotional wreck Tuesday night thinking about being here and saying goodbye to my family? Yes, absolutely. But now that I'm here, I am so excited. There's so much to do, and I absolutely love spending time with my district. It's Pday today, so we have some time scheduled to exercise in the gym later today, and hopefully it should be a pretty chill day. My family did have some COVID exposure, so I was pretty stressed about testing positive Wednesday morning, but thankfully I was negative! That was definitely a mini miracle in and of itself. My mom took one for the team and was the one who got sick, which made the Home MT...