Studying, Teaching, Finding, Preaching
It has been another awesome week of work. My Spanish is improving so much, even more than before. Having it all rely on both of us forces me to take it even more seriously to learn the harder stuff. Elder Jackson and I have been practicing a lot more together. It is still great how the spirit works. If I try hard in my Spanish studies that day, even when I am super tired and can't even remember what I learn, I can understand and speak Spanish 4 times better than when I just casually study some grammar principle or learn some words. The Gift of Tongues once again is proven real every day, I just have to keep doing my part or the Lord won't help me. It is humbling always to realize how much I desperately need his help in everything.
It has been another awesome week of work. My Spanish is improving so much, even more than before. Having it all rely on both of us forces me to take it even more seriously to learn the harder stuff. Elder Jackson and I have been practicing a lot more together. It is still great how the spirit works. If I try hard in my Spanish studies that day, even when I am super tired and can't even remember what I learn, I can understand and speak Spanish 4 times better than when I just casually study some grammar principle or learn some words. The Gift of Tongues once again is proven real every day, I just have to keep doing my part or the Lord won't help me. It is humbling always to realize how much I desperately need his help in everything.
We found an awesome pair of new investigators. We had met them at one of the huge Fiestas that the Mexicans here throw for their 1 year old daughter's birthdays. They go all out, and every Mexican from 30 miles away comes. They are usually a really sweet place to find potentials, and the members usually introduce us. This young couple already have 3 kids and one on the way, they were raised catholic, but are really eager to learn more to find out what religion they should raise their family in. We were really exited to teach them, but they live 35 minutes away, so it took some work to figure out how to schedule them in. But the day before we were going to teach them, the wife called and canceled, but actually told us she was exited to learn and asked if any other day would work! I don't know if you would understand the significance of that unless you were a missionary, but no one ever sets another day on their own. It is either the day you set or nothing. So needless to say, we were pretty exited, and when we taught them, the spirit was so strong. We had to clear up a few things, she thought we were telling her Joseph smith was one of the original apostles (as you can tell, our Spanish needs a bit of work) but it went really well. When we asked one of them to pray at the end of the lesson, they both shook their heads no, that they had no idea how to pray.
We explained prayer simply, that it is just a conversation with God, thanking him for things and then asking for anything you might need, and ending in the name of Jesus Christ. I can't believe how much I take for granted the ability and knowledge that I can just talk with God anytime I want. It would have been so hard to have made it this far in my life without always having Our Heavenly Father to call out to at all times for help, knowledge, strength, and comfort. After we explained it all, the wife gave a great prayer. It was awesome, and it's moments like that, where you can just teach someone something as powerful but simple as talking with their Heavenly Father, and you can feel a bit of God's joy that another one of his children is taking the time to talk to him. Even if they don't become converts, they will have learned that, and that is the first step to coming closer to God. Oh, and they told us they are also studying with Jehova's Witnesses, so this should be interesting, haha. I am not worried. The Jehova's Witnesses have their knowledge and learning to try to convince people, we have the actual Holy Spirit of God to testify of the truth. I like our odds.
My companion is awesome, and it is fun getting to know him. The problem wasn't that there wasn't many Spanish people in his old area, it was that they were all from El Salvador and Guatamala, and it is a bit different than the Vera Cruz Mexican street Spanish or Honduran slang spanish they all speak here. It is funny swapping phrases and words that we both have learned from different countries. We found a Mexican investigator from Distrito Federal (Mexico City), and it was funny how much different it was and his accent just from Vera Cruz Spanish. I talked to one of the stake councilors who visited Hampton Branch, and he served his mission in Chile Orsorno. Chile is infamous for how fast and slurred they speak, and he told me that he could understand basically everything from Chile, but the could hardly makeup a sentence at times from the people in my area. Makes sense why the MTC Spanish was so much different. Looking forward to learning even more types of Spanish, I will be able to talk to everyone!
Love you guys, a mission continues to be the best thing I have ever done, and I love every minute of it.
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