BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, this week:

I GOT MY VISA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS MEANS I'M LEAVING FOR BRAZIL ON MONDAY MORNING!!!!!!!!! I'm done with the MTC, so I'm going straight to my mission!!!!!!!!

I am seriously so blessed! It was crazy though, because my companion got her visa on the same day, just a couple of hours earlier than me!! (she's going to porto alegre north, where my bro Tyler is at!) SOOOOOO, we're super stoked!

ON Tuesday, guess who came to speak at Devotional? Elder Quentin L. Cook!!!! 3rd apostle here!!! It would have been 4, but the snow prohibited Elder Ballard from coming. Anyways, HE WAS SO AMAZING! I think more than ever, I could feel his apostolic power, and I just KNEW that he is an apostle called of God today. One of my favorite things he said was that most of our spiritual experiences and impressions come when we are trying to bless the lives of others, not ourselves. SO powerful! He also said something that Elder Russell M. Nelson said when he came: when you get to your area, the first thing you should do is make friends with the bishop, ward mission leader, the family history consultant, and earn the trust of the members. SO important if 2 apostles said that within a month of each other, right?!

Ok, yesterday we had this thing called "in-field orientation." WE went to a ton of different classes and had some pretty amazing teachers. (One of my instructors, Sam Anderson, said he knows cousin Derek Asay! super cool- such a small world...) anyways, the best part was when some people did a "play" of what missionaries should do in the field and how they should interact with members. Well, one of the missionary actors was ELDER CHRISTIANSON FROM "THE DISTRICT"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was my favorite missionary in "The District" because he always really thought about what the investigators had to say and asked the most inspired questions! Whenever I think of how we should "teach people, not lessons," I think of him. I'm not kidding! He's like a huge celebrity here, so that was pretty amazing. We didn't get to meet him though :( Oh well.

So, we had to say goodbye to one of our investigators, Silmara, this week, and it was WAY harder than I imagined.  WE walked in to our appointment, and she was so excited because she said she finally found an answer, and that she knew God loved her and cares for her. Well, we talked a little about enduring to the end, and then asked her to be baptized. She said yes and we set a date! Well, then we had to tell her that we were being "transferred" and other missionaries would finish teaching her. Oh my goodness it was so hard. She was almost begging us to stay, and to be there for her and her baptism. We had to explain that although we really wanted to, we couldn't. We talked about how her baptism was to the Lord, and not for us, the missionaries. Oh wow, I could just feel God's love for her so much, it was simply amazing.

Well, I love you all, and I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo way beyond excited to get to Brazil! 

Love,

Sister Eliason

P.S. My dear brothers, I am officially disappointed in you because you didn't send A SINGLE dearelder letter, and now it's too late to do it for free. :(

P.P.S. Tanner how many colleges have you applied to? which ones?

P.P.P.S. LLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE YYYYYYYYYYYOUUUUUU!