Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Week 5

Happy Thanksgiving!  What a great holiday. We truly have SO much to be grateful for in this life!
It's pretty much just been another "week on the farm." (in mom's words) Class, rice, beans, tortillas, more class, lesson, sleep. It's great! 
Thursday was my favorite day. We have something called TRC. We teach people from the city. Usually its just members that volunteer so we have more of a home teaching lesson or they pretend to be investigators. BUT, this week we had the sweet opportunity to teach 2 real investigators! It was actually pretty ironic. All day my companion and I had been complaining how much we just wanted to be in the field. Sometimes its hard to make lessons real when you are teaching your teacher and in a time rotation. I had a really bad attitude about TRC and just didn't feel like teaching. I felt like I got slapped in the face when we walked in and our teacher told us they were real investigators. The Lord seriously has sense of humor. It was pretty cool. It taught me two things. 1. I don't know Spanish at all. Actually that's a little dramatic, I do know some, but people can talk really fast. 2. Sharing your testimony is the most powerful thing you can do. The first guy we taught was a man named Miguel. His son was a member and he was interested in the church. We asked him some questions about his thoughts on God and such and he just talked and talked. He talked so fast! Hma. Gates and I just looked at each other and smiled. We had no idea what he was saying, but we knew he had a testimony! He started tearing up and it really brought the spirit into the room. We just bore testimony and at the end he asked how he could become a member! I was able to explain baptism a little bit. He was interested! He was as sweet man. The second time we taught we taught a woman named Natalie. She is actually a friend to our teacher. That lesson went pretty good. Again, we mostly just bore testimony. It was really cool to share it to someone who hadn't heard it before and didn't have their own. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but it was just really refreshing. It was amazing to me the love I felt for these people I didn't know. I can safely assume that that is the love God has for them. I feel so honored to feel that and be one to help them feel of His love. Our teacher just told us yesterday that Natalie was really touched by meeting with our district that night and has decided to be baptized! Woot. It really was for real. I count it a great blessing from my Heavenly Father. Just to get a little taste of what is coming in a week. I'm so excited! 
Saturday we had a branch testimony meeting because one of the districts was leaving. Instead of going to TALL (which is a language study program on the computer) we had a testimony meeting. We actually got in a bit of trouble. Our teachers weren't too happy to find us skipping our language time. I felt a little disrespectful, but I had to laugh! Our major act of rebellion was having an inspirational testimony meeting to build each other up rather than study for another hour. The circumstances were just really funny. Only in the CCM. It's our district's time to shine now! We are the oldest and ready to go. I got a letter from my mission yesterday. One of the elders in my district delivered it to me. He said is super sketchy like something was wrong so my first reaction was a sinking heart and worry that I wasn't going to be able to go to my mission. But it was quite the opposite. It was just a welcoming letter. My mission pres. sounds awesome - I'm excited to meet him. 
Anyways, mi familia. Estoy muy agradecido por ustedes. Estoy muy agradecido por este Evangelio y por la oportunidad a servir un mison para mi Dios. Estoy muy agradecido por los Estados Unidos y por mi mision en Arizona. 
I love Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what I will be able to do yet. One of our teachers asked what we wanted, so we made a list. He said he'd do his best to get what he could. We might be making hand turkeys and paper feathers...the elders have strange ideas. I know we have a special devotional, but that's all that is planned as far as I know. I'm still grateful to be here I wish all of you the best holiday. I pray for you every night! Be happy and spread the sunshine! As Dove chocolate once told me, "You can't bring sunshine to the lives of others without bringing it to yourself." I hope you get the opportunity to serve someone this week - that is a blessing in itself. I love you all and wish you the best!

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