February 9 2014 Letter

Hey everyone, thank you all for your enduring love and support to me. It means a lot to me to hear from my family and friends. I love being in Kuala Lumpur so much! It is hotter than Hades, but I don't mind, because the work I do is worth it! I am not going to lie, missionary work is the hardest thing in the world. I knew it would be, but anyone who has served a mission knows what I'm talking about. People tear your testimony to shreds everyday, you exert all your energy on praying and preparing for your investigators and then they don't even show up! What? I hate that. I go to bed thinking about how to help those that I'm teaching, and I dream about those I'm teaching, and then I wake up thinking about those I'm teaching. It's so stressful feeling like their salvation depends on you, and then they don't accept what you have to say. oh my!! BUT, being a missionary is unlike anything else in the world. All the hard things don't even matter, because when I am testifying of what I know, my soul feels like it is on fire and I can't even think about anything else that is hard. When you can love someone you don't even know, that's when the mission is worth it. And when someone can understand the importance of what you are saying the Spirit brings the most peaceful feeling that, yes, this this right here, is why you came across the world. 

 The language barrier here drives me nuts, because the message I want to share would be so much more powerful if they could understand English, but I am learning how to talk like a cave-man and as long as the spirit is present they are able to feel of the truthfulness of what I'm saying. Without the Spirit I would be useless. 

I am having the time of my life here though. My companion and my housemates think I'm nuts, but I don't care, if I was serious 100 percent of the time I would literally go insane. But I make sure to have a time and place for everything. When it's time to get my personal study going I hit the scriptures hard. They are my favorite thing in the whole world, one hour is not enough time. PEOPLE the scriptures are AMAZING!! READ THEM!! okay okay, I already know you do. But seriously I can't say enough how important the scriptures are. We say that they are the word of God right? Okay then why don't we study them more frequently. It's like people wonder why God has abandoned them, but they neglect to read the words of God which will tell them what they need to do. 

Well today I want to leave with you something that I have been learning. I was asked in the MTC if when you are done with your mission and you had a plaque describing what you did what would it say? Mine would say, 2 Timothy 4:7. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my cousrse, I have kept the faith." I want to finish my mission knowing I worked my hardest, and that there is no more I could possibly do. 

But I also want to leave with you all some encouraging words. We all obviously go through hard things, but President Monson reminds us: "The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure....we must each answer this question, shall I falter, or shall I finish?"

I am grateful for you all, I know none of you will falter, keep going the Lord loves you and so do I.

I hope you all have a superb week. Keep being a missionary, keep moving forward with faith. 

Love, 

Sister Krivanec

ps Since grandma doesn't get my emails, please share this with her :) k thanks byeeeeee

pps since it's Chinese New Year here, a tradition is to give mandarin oranges, so this is me giving you all an orange. enjoy :)