I cut my own coconut out of a tree!!

 This week went by even faster than the last one! I am going to apologize in advance because this email might be longer hehe :) 

Okay so one of the weirdest things happened this week... I sang happy 8th month birthday to a lizard named Strawberry. I don't know if I could even elaborate on that because I think it speaks for itself. Kind of crazy, but I guess I can check that off the bucket list. I didn't even know that was on the bucket list, but it is what it is. 

To start things off, I went on my very first exchange this week on Wednesday!! It was so fun, but kind of scary in a good way lol I went on exchanges with sister Madrid and she is a Spanish speaking sister, so you know what that means... all of our lessons were in Spanish yay! I couldn't understand half the things that were being said, but there were points that I could follow along and I know that was just the gift of tongues working! It was amazing to be able to feel the spirit during a lesson, even if you couldn't understand what the people were saying all the time. 

Sister Mcleod and I did this really awesome thing on Thursday! We took our huge white board to a food truck event and wrote on it, "what makes you smile?" We had so many people come up and write on the board what made them smile, and let's just say, there is a wide variety of things haha. The biggest thing people wrote was their family. I was definitely smiling the whole time during this, and lots of other people were smiling too:) we had some really good conversations with people and taught a few people about the gospel of Jesus Christ!! Best night ever!! The next day, we went to the Fort Lauderdale temple, and did our studies and ate lunch on the temple grounds. Can I just say how beautiful the temple is. Just being on the outside brings peace, and you are happier! 

Okay this is the moment you were waiting for... drumroll... I got to cut my very own coconut out of a tree this week!??!?!?! I can't even believe it! We chopped it open with a huge knife and drank the inside. The green coconuts taste like water. The orange coconuts are perfect, and the brown coconuts taste like expired milk inside. So note to everyone, don't drink the brown coconut;) it was the most exciting thing I've done so far, and for a split second I thought I could live in Florida forever, but then I remembered how hot it gets... so that's probably a no for me. 

Here are a few things I learned this week:

1. If you think you can't do something, remember who you are; you are a child of God 

2. Peacemakers are not passive; they are persuasive in the Saviors ways. 

3. It always comes back to love and charity 

My favorite quote from this week: "Remember that the Lord will shape the back to bear the burden placed upon it."- President Thomas S. Monson 

I absolutely love this quote. The Lord is never going to give us a trial in life that we can't handle. He knows us perfectly, and He knows what we are capable of. Jesus Christ is there to help you through everything, but we have to search for Him as well.