9 May 2011

Hey family, and friends,

Oh my, how the time is winding down and how great the finish of the MTC will be. Truly. There's no word on our visas, and we may end up getting reassignments on Wednesday, but we're thrilled with whatever happens. We figure that as long as we're on the Lord's errand and doing his will, we'll go wherever and do whatever is needed of us.

First of all, TODAY IS MAY NINTH AND THAT MEANS MY BEAUTIFUL SISTER IS CELEBRATING HER BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sarah Lehn, I love you so dearly, you're just lovely and oh how I wish I was there to give you a birthday embrace! Nineteen was a pret-ty good year for me, use it well my darling.

Also, mother's day came and went - and I did NOT get to talk to my mom. But I thought of you, and I thought of all the other beautiful mothers in my life, and I am grateful for them. I read several talks from general authorities about their wives and mothers and I'm feeling inspired and incredibly grateful. Mother, I love ya.

And guess what else - I saw Sister Lucy Brimhall at lunch. This was an incredible blessing to me - I just couldn't stop hugging her! She's going to Czech Prague and I feel that I was blessed to have been able to stay in Provo just so I could catch sight of her.

This past week we had some beautiful teaching experiences. Sister Ogletree was having a rougher day, so our teacher told us we were to going to teach her . . . as a missionary, as herself. I'm pretty sure it was a lesson we all needed to hear, about setting a foundation for ourselves as daughters of a heavenly father - not merely as missionaries, or as members of our family, but as ourselves. We also talke a lot about the power of the Holy Ghost - it testifies of the truth of all things and gives us feelings in our heart or ideas in our head that are from our divine creator. I had the chance to be a "member" and an "investigator" at a couple of lessons, and it was interesting that because I wasn't so focused on being the teacher, I was able to pay more attention to the spirit I was feeling, and I noticed that whenever truth was being taught, the spirit was there - he can't HELP himself. That is why we teach the doctrine of the gospel, it puts others at a crossroads and they need to decide whether it's true or not by asking in faith and diligently seeking an answer. We need to help build the faith of our investigators by bringing the spirit into our lesson and allowing it to work on those we're teaching; they're not going to remember our words in most cases, but they will remember how they felt, and that's what matters. That feeling is beautiful and precious and it's something that grows the more you share it. This is what we're meant to be doing here upon the earth - sharing, giving, creating. The saddest thing in this world is the prevailing selfishness (which I won't try and say I wasn't ever a part of) but it takes away and denies our greatest privilege, and the greatest opportunity for feeling happiness in our lives - giving.

Well my friends, I am excited and looking forward to having some real news in the near future. Time is moving along, and I am loving how amazing this work is.

Much Love,

Sister Cornwall

A fountain picture... yeah - we like each other.

Here's the story;
Last week (on Easter) we are walking home
from the temple and this Jew-for-Jesus was there,
just lovin' Jesus. He was pretty funny and of course,
life as a missionary ALWAYS needs funny religious photographs.

An awkward family photo, if you will...