The Gift of Tongues

I have always been in love with learning languages. I started Spanish in high school and college, and was lucky enough to serve a mission for my church in Buenos Aries, Argentina for a year and a half and became fluent in Spanish through that (though I must add that Argentine Spanish has a very different accent than the rest of the Spanish accents, and so it can still be hard for me to talk to many people from other countries!) When I was at BYU I decided to take a random Italian class for fun and couldn't stop with just one class, and ended up minoring in Italian and even completing an internship in Siena, Italy for a couple months. At various points throughout my life I have also studied some German, though it has been a lot harder to learn since I haven't taken any formal classes, or had anyone to practice with really, and since it isn't a romance language the grammar is a lot more difficult for me. My latest language obsession has become Romanian, which in the week since I started studying has come very easily. Part of the reason of course is that it is another romance language, and after having Italian and Spanish under my belt so many parts of the language make so much sense and are so very familiar to me. But I also think a big part of why it is coming so fast is the gift of tongues. We are told that we all have been given gifts of the spirit, and that we should take time to learn what they are and then use them to help our brothers and sisters hear on this Earth. Learning languages has always been easy for me, and I really feel that this is a gift that I have been blessed with. I hope that I will have the opportunity to not only learn these languages, but use this knowledge to help other people as well. I never want there to be a moment in my life when I am not learning a language or improving the languages that I have already learned. When I was younger, I made the goal to learn 7 languages. I really do hope I achieve that goal with the help of the Holy Ghost. Our Heavenly Father really is the source of all knowledge, and if we involve Him in our process of studying, no matter what it is that we are studying, He will help us learn and grow and give us the gifts we need to achieve these goals. I am so grateful for the gift of tongues in my life, and I am so very grateful for the many other gifts which God has given me that have both blessed my life greatly and have helped me to bless the lives of others.