Elder Marsh (my companion) and I are really
starting to become great friends. After being with him 24 hours a day
and 7 days a week we've gotten to know one another really well. We have
an identical sense of humor and our companionship study and prayers are
dynamite. We are both progressing in the language really well, but we
are still far from speaking Argentine Spanish.. which is apparently
blazing fast where we are going.
On
Tuesday we had a devotional with Keith B. McMullin and his wife as
speakers - I believe he was just released from the Presiding Bishopric
of the Church. One quote that stuck out to me in his talk was, "your
days as a missionary will become routine, but it's never routine for
those you meet. You need to be sure to treat everyone as a
special, individual child of God because that is what they are."
Wed-Thursday were pretty routine days.
Friday,
our 'investigator' that we had been working with every day became our
second teacher along with Hermano Salisbury. She is the granddaughter of
President Erying.
Saturday
was a great day. Hermano Salisbury is an awesome motivational speaker
and gives great lessons. Just when the elders in our district are
starting to get down, he comes out with a lesson that inspires and
uplifts us. It's obvious that he is prayerful about our discussions
because they are always what we need. During Hermana Eyring's lesson we
practiced the full first lesson as companionships. Elder Marsh and I
gave a 30 minute lesson and we were surprised to find out how much we
knew how to say in Spanish. I know the Lord was with us - guiding us in
what to say; I was saying things I hadn't reviewed since high school and
easily saying things I had just learned. "Seek not to declare my word,
but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed;
then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the
power of God unto the convincing of men." - D&C 11:21
Yesterday
(Sunday) was my most spiritual day in the MTC so far. M. Russel Ballard
from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to us. Before he spoke we
heard a beautiful rendition of "The Spirit of God" by Elder Archuleta -
all the sisters were in tears I'm sure, mainly because they knew they'd
have to wait two years before having a chance with him. He sang in
English and one verse in Spanish, it really was fantastic and he got
pretty emotional at the end. After that meeting we sang an awesome
version of "Called to Serve" as a whole MTC group. We started off
basically whispering it and were standing on our feet singing at the top
of our lungs by the end. My heart was pounding out of my chest, it was
incredible. And then we watched "The Testaments" to top it all off.. at
the end of the movie the 8 guys in our district all looked at each
other.. we had tears running down our faces.. and then we just started
cracking up because we like to think of ourselves as tough guys and we
were the only people really crying. It was awesome and just another
bonding moment to bring us closer together. I'm going to miss these
guys.
I
miss all of you, I wish I had more time to email here but it'll be
longer once I'm out in the field. The Lord is on my side and so you guys
don't have to worry. I pray for all of my friends and family so you
should be safe as well ;) I can't wait to get out into the field and be a
true instrument in the hands of the Lord!
- Alma 29:9
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