Great Prayer???

Hey y'all! I am going to send out Sarah's Christmas Package in two weeks, so that it will be in Portugal when she gets there for Christmas. If you would like to put a letter to her inside there is plenty of room for many of those - I am also sending her a tape for her to listen to and you are more than welcome to do the same and send it with my package... It really is fairly relaiable mail-wise over there.... Just let me know!!! Enjoy the latest update posted below from our amazing missionary!!!

"November 15, 2008

Well, I have officially made it half way through the MTC. We are considering throwing a party. The sad part is that as of today we no longer speak English...at all. From yesterday on all of our classes, appointments, and pretty much every thing else is in Portuguese. It will make life a little interesting. I am actually excited about it because I understand pretty well, but it is going to be quite frustrating for the rest of my district. It is kinda strange to think that in a month I'll be in Portugal. Sister Earley got her flight plans this week, and she leaves in 10 days. I don't know what that is going to mean for me as far as a companion goes, but we will find out.
So the question of the week is this: why do people congratulate you on your prayers when you pray in a group meeting? I had the opportunity to say the prayer for the fireside this past week and ever since then I have had people coming up to me and saying "good job on your prayer." That is a little strange to me...I guess it would be possible to have bad prayers, but it doesn't seem like Prayer is something that is or should be judged like that. Maybe that is just me, but I think it is a little strange. That and people kept asking me if I was nervous. Hmm....also strange. Anyway, needless to say I was capable of praying in front of a large group without passing out- since apparently it is a scary experience. The funny thing is that I have found out that I know more people at the MTC then I though I did, because they all recognized me on Sunday and have hunted me down.
Well, i know that the top 10 list has been anxiously awaited, but due to the lack of pretty much ANYTHING exciting happening this week, we are limited to 5. They are as follows:
5. Half of our entire zone is leaving for Brazil this week. It is a little sad because some of them have been in our district for 4 weeks now and we kinda forgot they were waiting on visas. That means that when Sister Earley's group leaves for Portugal we will only have 12 people in our whole zone. Muito Triste!
4. Sister Earley and I have discovered the wonderfulness that is the free box, and in order to increase our daily exercise we have started to race down the hall to check it every night. Quite the entertaining site I am sure.
3. For our service assignment ever week we clean the bottom two floors of the building we live in. For some reason our district always seems to be assigned the bathrooms- which then reminds me of you mom. I always remember cleaning the church growing up and you volunteering to clean the boys bathroom because it was the only time you could legally go in there. Just so you know, there are about twice as many boys bathrooms here than girls....twilight zone- I know.
2. I have once again been suckered into doing the musical number for church this past week. You would think with so many Mormons in one very small area someone else would have musical talent- but apparently they are stuck with me. It has become a zone wide project to get me to try out for a MTC wide musical number, but I am still in denial. We will see how that works out....
1. Our mormon.org chats once again make the top list. This week has been really interesting with all of the Prop 8 stuff going on. I'm not even sure what is going on in the real world, but we have gotten some pretty nasty conversations about it. This week I did get to talk to a woman who was seing the missionaries, but worried that because of a divorce she wouldn't be accepted in the church. We talked for a while and she is now excited to be baptized. It was probably the highlight of my week. Being here day after day it gets a little hard to remember that there is a world out there and that things are happening. It was great to be able to see how what we are doing really affects people and that there is a purpose behind the hard times here as well.
Thank you to everyone for all the support you give me. It is great to hear from you, and I really appreciate the encouragement! Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Irmã Ray"

The following is Sarah's contact information while in the MTC. She is scheduled to leave for Portugal on the 16th of December. Her contact information for
US mail (letters and all packages) is:

Sister Sarah Ray
MTC Mailvox #157
POR-PORT 1216
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, Utah 84604-1793

An alternative way, which is free and probably the easiest (letters only) is:
1) On the internet go to dearelder.com
2) There is a drop down box on the right hand side down just a couple inches. Enter her mission which is Provo-MTC and then click "write a letter" just below where you select the mission.
3) On the next screen enter your return address and Sister Sarah Ray in the address line, add your email in the email box below the envelope.
4) Write your letter in the text box and then hit the "send letter" box under the text box to send it on.

Again, this is free and is valid during her time at the MTC.