Last Day in the Missionary Training Center

July 23!  Last day in the Missionary Training Center

AHHHHHH so today is technically our Pday so we can do laundry and stuff before we leave!  We're taking a little break from packing just to say a quick hello!

I ALSO WANTED TO SAY IT IS  SOOOO COOOOOL TO ALL THOSE MISSION CALLS!!! I'M SO EXCITED FOR EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!!! Germany, Florida, Colombia, and the Keely's Mystery site ... LOL ... Alum Rock Ward is covering all corners of the world--Literally!!!  Watch out world, here we come! I'm so excited for all of you! As I end my MTC experience, I honestly am torn! I loved it here so much and the connections and spiritual growth are unimaginable. The people you will meet, the teachers you will learn from, its unlike anything else! ... and I am soooo SOOOOOO excited for every single one of you to come and experience it for yourselves. I won't be getting dear elders anymore, but its okay cause i can just email now! :) so email me their entering dates!  I can't wait!!!

Last night we had our last class with Irmao Hodson, one of our teachers. It was the best class ever. I honestly love my teachers. especialy Irmao Hodson. He probably doesn't even know what a huge impact he's had on all of us. He just returned home from brazil about 6 months ago. I just loooooove him so much because you can literally just SEE how much he loved his mission and what an amaaazing missionary he was. He bore his testimony to us one last time and kinda did his goodbyes like that last night and we were all sniffling.... or crying... hahaha.but it was so amazing. just seeing him send off his missionaries out to do what he did. and you can tell he misses his mission so much. He told us a buncha stories and pics and stuff about his mission--for our practice investigators, he played the part of his actual investigators out in the field-- so we got to see those we were teaching all month and hear their stories and how they ended up. it was amazing. realizing that our role plays were actual people. and seeing the faces with the names and the stories. it was quite an experience. AHHH and now we'll be going out to the field to do this for REALS! It's so weird. but yeah the point of the story is the teachers here are amazing and I am so grateful for them and seriously all we learn from them and their testimony--even from what they don't teach, we learn just from their spirit and their strength in the gospel.

I don't have time to really go into it, but you shuld all definitely watch Recognizing the Spirit by David A. Bednar--------actually... sorry, I think its juts an MTC thing. LOL OOPS! but yeah. it was an amazing talk that basically answered the question of: How do I know if its the spirit prompting me or just my own thoughts?

The answer? DONT worry about it! Just get over yourself and do it! If its good, its from God. If you are following the Commandments, keeping your covenants, doing what's right, and just being a good boy or good girl, then it will all work out.  Sometimes God knows that if we're doing what's right, He won't NEED to prompt us. and if we are doing what is right, and keeping in mind what we should be doing, then the promptings will make sense and we'll just do it. then he quoted a scripture in D&C saying if we are doing what is right, and all that, then it doesn't matter if we go east, west, north or south, we cannot go amiss..... we CANNOT go amiss. because God will guide our footsteps through our righteous actions and we might not even know it. in fact, we won't know it most of the time until later. he shared a story of him giving Elder Packer a 20 mark note in Germany and how it saved his wife from the German police.  It's a cool story. See if you can find it. If not I'll write it out next p day. anyway..... the point of this was that this seriously gave me all the confidence I needed to leave the MTC and be ready to start in the real world. I wassooooo nervous! I did NOT/ still don't feel ready to be trusted with the souls of real people!!! Yet when I heard this talk I realized that it doesn't matter, my own ability is so limited, yet it doesnt matter. cause I can rely on the ability of God which is infinite. and a finite plus an infinite sum is always infinite.  I know that if I commit right now to be perfectly obedient and always do what I know is right.  It will all work out. God is aware of His missionaries and I cannot go amiss if I am doing what I know I should be.  And that gives me so much comfort and so much hope, because I know that THAT is something I CAN do.

I look at Travis and Keilyn and Irmao Hodson and Jeremy and even Mom and Dad, and I can see how much the mission has impacted your lives and how you all refer to it so often and I know theres not a day that goes by where you don't think about what you've learned and experienced.  I want to be like that tooo!!!   I want to be able to look back and say I did my best, and I did good. So I will definitely be thinking of you all as I start out this next step of my mission!!!! yayyyy!!!

I'M SO PUMPED THAT I AM GOING TO VEGAS!!!! AHHHH!!!! I got to see the boundaries!! So weird! hahhaha. but yeah,sooooooooo basicallyyyyyy if I dont get my visa--------I COULD END UP GOING TO THE FAMILY REUNION ANYWAYYY!!! HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA JK!!! but forreals........ I was thinking about that. what would I do if you were all there in Feb and Iwas like hiiiiiii dinner????? :D

hahahhaha jk. omgggg though I'm so excited to be going state side. I might actually be able to communicate what I want to say now that I'm not stumbling through 3rd grade portuguese haha. but yeahhhh...I'm excited! !!! ! !

Theres only 4 sisters and 3 elders left in the two districts leaving.. so sad!!! but im super excited! we are literally going our separate ways and covering the US --and one in brazil :)-- and will meet up in Brazil hopefully soon!! I cant wait to see them all again and see how we've all grown and changed even more than what we've witnessed in the MTC. i cant believe how close i've gotten to all of them. I'm so happy they will mostly all be in BYU when we're back :)))) yayyyy!!

Love you allllllll!!!! and I'll talk to you soon!!! BRIGHT AN EARLY TOMORROW!!!!! :DDDD

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I'll call Trav too!! after! if I have time! :)

Love you!!

-Sister Yoshimoto

ps. I don't have time to email my friends): Please let them know what's up! and send them my looooove!!! thanks!!!!

PPSPSSSS:::: OMGGGG THE BERTAGNOLLI'S SENT ME A BIRTHDAY PACKAGE!!! OMG SOOOCUTEEE! I got toys and candy and spiritual thougths and all these amazing cute fun things I was seriuosly soooooooo happpyyyyyyyyyyy omg!!!!! It was the cuuuutest thing I ever got! thank them sooooooo much for me!!! I will def be writing a letter to them soon!!! Once I get setttled in. They are amazing hahaha. I love their comic strips and uplifting, encouraging thoughts every now and then.

They always make my day--and my birthday too!! thanks!!!!! SO OOO MUCH!!! LOVE YOU ALL

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NOTE FROM LAUREN'S DAD:

Sister Lauren Yoshimoto called from the Salt Lake City Airport on Wednesday morning at about 6:30 am Pacific.  She had been up since before 4 am.  The security line at the airport was much longer than she had expected and she only had a short time to talk.  There were a lot of missionaries heading out to their missions, too, so the line for the phones was long.  Our next chance to actually speak to Lauren may be when she flies out to Brazil, possibly, and then on Christmas day.  She appreciates all the uplifting letters.  It helps her keep her focus on the important work she is doing.