Our Savior

Elise's letters just keep getting more and more excited about her mission! It's wonderful and we are just so excited for her and her experiences already taking place! Here's her latest letter, a little shorter but still as meaningful:

"As I was deciding what to write, I realized the only thing I want you all to know is that Jesus Christ did all that He said He did, and that I really love my Savior and Redeemer. Watch the Mormon Message: His Sacred Name - An Easter Declaration. Please, watch it, ponder it, write down your feelings about.

"This is my LAST WEEK IN THE MTC WOOOOO! And we started visitor training. We got to go to temple square a few days ago, and i felt like i was walking through the garden of Eden."

Elise encouraged each of us to visit Temple Square if we get a chance. If you can make it happy, "GO TO TEMPLE SQUARE" because "BOOM BABY THATS WHERE I'M GONNA BE FOR THE NEXT 18 MONTHS". Hahaha, oh Sister Osorio is just so happy! She's ready for her mission and is so happy for each and every one of us.

Much love from Elise! And I just want to say a special thank you to all who have written her and sent her packages. She appreciates them, loves them and calls them Gold! God bless you all!

A True Conversion

"I want to write everything, so i took notes."

Elise is working hard and learning lots in the MTC. She wants to remember everything and, just like she told us, take notes. But her notes aren't the only thing she has on her paper.
"A bird pooped on my notes the other day! GROSS, but we all cracked up!" She still makes us laugh, even while she's in the MTC.

"So our district comprises of boys going to long beach california, and Iowa. There are four of us Sister missionaries and we are all going to temple square! IT IS WONDERFUL. We live together, too, along with two sisters headed for finland next week. Our elders also leave next week, so this is it! This is our third week!!! We gotta finish this one and then next week we start visitor center training. So right now, we are learning the fundamentals of teaching and we teach our "investigators" sometimes up to 4 times a day! It was scary in the beginning. But patience and confidence in the Lord is key.

"I went and played basketball, became four-square king, and went running and now, i love the MTC! I guess its just about finding the simple things that you love about it. I LOVE singing in the choir, and in the end, this isn't about me. THIS WORK IS NOT ABOUT ME. And i love that. We sang redeemer of Israel during our Sunday fireside and it was wonderful. Then a member of the 70 spoke to us about how missionary work is ALSO about finding those who are already struggling and inviting and helping them come unto Christ. Sister Lee is one of my fellow temple square missionaries, she is of korean heritage and both of us are working on trying out to sing a special musical number: where can i turn for peace?

"FAMILY, i am happy! my companion and i get along so well, and our relationship grows more and more each day. Sometimes i worry if i am too direct, and straightforward... but she said she likes that about me! Some of the elders may not... hehehe. No worries, i am trying to be like my Savior and there is a lot of love in our district. we get along.

"I wanted to share my experiences... Some people call this place spirit prison, which cracks me up because its kinda true, we just sit and study the gospel of Jesus Christ all day!!! It's such a blessing i promise.

"Two highlights: this past week, i realized that i missed praying out loud. Its hard to find a time and place where you can pray out loud, personally to your Heavenly Father. In fact its impossible! AND BOY WAS I MISSING IT. Pray out loud because you can and you must build this relationship with our Father in heaven!

"I learned in a devotional this week (we watched a  past recorded talk by David A. Bednar about the character of Christ. one of the best talks ever.) He said that having a testimony is fine and good, but it is not enough. SAY WHAT?! nope, we need to be converted unto the Lord. A conversion is living consistently to what you know. SO i thought deeply. what do i know? oooo. scary question. And then i thought, i know that Jesus Christ did all that He said He did. SO lets start there. I know that, and so i think right now thats my favorite thing to study, the miracles of Christ. They're amazing! They are beautiful, and they teach us of the true character of Christ. I am grateful for faith, and that i can say, Lord heal though my unbelief, like the father in Mark said. A true conversion is consistently living what you know. I know Christ did what he said he did. live by that knowledge.

"I am learning to love the MTC! I do love it. I love working hard. Diligence is my favorite !!! Diligence paid off in one of my lessons. it was one on one with this younger elder, and the first two lessons just weren't clicking. But in the third lesson, the spirit came and i know it came because i was taking every opportunity i could to obtain and treasure up the word, so Heavenly Father blessed me. We read the end of the Joseph Smith history, there is a footnote there, its Oliver Cowdery's account of receiving the proper priesthood authority to baptize. Its in small print, but it is so powerful, and remains one of my favorite scriptural accounts ever since i discovered it when i was like 15 years old at efy!

I LOVE YOU ALL,  and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your support and great works, its been such a blessing to have you all in my life. I love you.

love,
Elise

I Tell You What, I Love...

Elise started her first email home by saying, "Estoy bien animada," or in other words, she is very excited! She followed by saying, "i thank... everyone for their letters and their support. I have gotten so many letters, and I AM SO THANKFUL.. LETTERS ARE GOLD." She continued the rest of her email, revealing her growing testimony and love for the mission.

"I tell you what, I love Joseph Smith.

I feel like a pudgy kid belly flopping into a pool lane next to Michael Phelps. (I am a belly flop champion so perhaps its fitting._ But honestly thats what the MTC can feel like. Its a lot to take in and i feel so many different things all the time. I feel the spirit during my scripture study and during my lessons, awesome teachers. I feel happy and silly and love making a fool of myself so that we can get some laughter going. I feel impatient with myself, and I am also learning about humility and faith and a lot.

The MTC has been great. The other day i was super confident because i realized, (with tears) that the atonement really is a gift, and if Jesus Christ really was in my shoes, and really has done what i have done, and knows exactly what i am going through, then He is here with me every step of the way. I can be confident! My Savior is going to help carry me through my whole mission! When i remember that, i don't worry, i don't get afraid to teach investigators, i become so confident that the Lord is on my side and is guiding me with the work. A modern day translator can translate one page of the Book of Mormon from english to another language in one day. Joseph Smith in one day translated SEVEN pages of the Book of Mormon BECAUSE HE HAD DIVINE LIGHT. If I can learn how to be close to my Savior like that, I can get 7 times the work done...perhaps! I'm working on faith too.

My companion is named Sister Cash, she has also moved around a lot and her family currently lives in Australia. I like her! We are quite different, but thats just fine. she is solemn i guess. wahoo! So in some ways we balance each other out. We get along great though!!

Um so yeah, classes pretty much all day long. On tuesdays and sundays we get devotionals and firesides. I got to sing in the choir. I sang alto because i like harmony.

I think thats one of the things i miss the most. MUSIC. i really miss me some singing. I sing hymns yeah, but concert choir...its just beautiful. But i am soooo happy to be here, where i am, and grateful that i get to wear a name tag. Boy do i love my name tag, i don't like taking it off!

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father answers prayers. When i pray, i get answers, like, "can i please find a free shower this morning" and voila. That was a little tender mercy for me this week.

I am also grateful that there are so many familiar faces here in the MTC. Ive seen MY AWESOME COUSIN SEAN, he is DOING AWESOME. boy do i love him. He shared his testimony on faith to me in italian. and one time i was staring at this peach pie in the cafeteria, i was lookin at it all googly eyed and then i look up at this elder all googly eyed and luckily it happened to be Elder Wortham (cousin). We both just laughed and laughed.

I want you to know that i love you guys. I miss you too. I also love my Savior Jesus Christ, and I am so grateful that our God has made a plan to come back to Him and dwell in His presence. That plan was RESTORED by Joseph Smith, this is not just another religion, this is JESUS CHRIST'S gospel. And I have a strong strong testimony of the restoration and the sacrifices Joseph Smith has made. You want to know if this Church is Gods true church? You want to know ANYTHING? You study Joseph Smith and the restoration and the Book of Mormon that came out of that, and I testify you feel something moving, and life hanging. I hope we strive to feel that.

LOVE SISTER OSORIO"

I Just Feel So Much!

It was beautiful to watch Elise's excitement grow. Her spirit was glowing and her tears showed her perfect joy as she picked up her backpack and held her scriptures close to her. Elise is now Sister Osorio, a full-time missionary! She entered the MTC just moments ago. However, her journey to become a sister missionary began long before today.

Elise at the Provo temple, minutes before entering the MTC.

Elise Raycel Osorio was born December 1, 1990. She grew up, revealing an outgoing and adorable spirit. She's sensitive yet honest and is constantly finding new ways to strengthen her undeniable testimony. She attended three years at Brigham Young University and learned so much, participating in EFY as a counselor and in her different wards with many callings such as relief society president. Her desire to serve a mission grew to be so much during this past year that she chose to send in her papers, without telling anyone except for our parents!

Elise as an EFY counselor in Virginia with close friend, Christina

One morning, in March, my mother woke Jeshua and me up around 5:00am and said, "Elise is on skype. She has exciting news for you!" I remember thinking to myself, What on earth could be so important that she needs to wake me up this early? I wobbled over to the computer with Jeshua to see Elise on the screen, holding up a large envelope.  It was addressed to none other than Sister Elise Racyel Osorio! She then continued to open it up and read to us that she had received a mission call to the Salt Lake City Temple Square mission. We were so shocked and so happy for her! Her face lit up as she told us that she knew this was a truly inspired decision. "I just felt that I would be going to a visitor center." What's more is that I remember Elise telling me multiple times while growing up that she would love to go to that very mission.

The day finally came when we, her family, accompanied her to the stake center, where she was set apart as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Excellent council was given directly to Elise by all four of the high priests there and she left the building, with nothing else on her mind but her mission. We celebrated this wonderful occasion by taking her to the Cheesecake Factory and spending time with her. It was excellent (both the food and our time with her).

This morning, Sister Osorio woke up early, reorganized her bags and said final words of love and encouragement to us. After receiving a blessing, we ate and drove off to the Provo temple for pictures. As we walked across the lawn, we were surrounded by many other families dropping their young men and women off for their own missions. 

It was beautiful to watch Elise's excitement grow. Her spirit was glowing and her tears showed her perfect joy as she picked up her backpack and held her scriptures close to her. Elise had made it to the MTC! Her tears were not due to sadness but to the fact that she was at the MTC! She kept repeating, "I just feel so much right now. I just feel so much!" We gave her hugs and said our goodbyes. She walked off into the MTC, a smile on her face and a hand waving in the air!  

Sister Osorio is ready and happy to serve her Maker and bring others to the knowledge of the truth! Off she goes into the mission field, embarking on a journey she'll never forget.