10-25-10
Hey everyone!
So the big news for this week is that on Tuesday for the devotional we got to hear from Elder Nelson! I sang in the choir like I normally do, and it was funny walking in because there were tons of people lined up outside already waiting in line to get good seats, and I automatically got a seat for being in the choir, and my spot is in the very middle part of the gym so I was at his level looking straight at him. It was nice watching him speak rather than the screen. It was amazing feeling such a strong spirit there with an apostle of the Lord. He reiterated how much the Brethren love us and how much they pray for us. It made me feel pretty good, knowing how mindful they are of us, and how mindful the Lord is of his servants. It's such an awesome opportunity to hear from a real apostle in person, but I found it kinda funny how people make such a big deal going to "see" the apostle when they mainly look at the screen the whole time and might as well be watching a recording, and then they complain about having to watch all 5 sessions of general conference. I just love getting to hear God's chosen servants, special witnesses of Jesus Christ, and hearing their strong testimonies'. I hope that I can bring that same spirit to my future investigators so they can know of its truthfulness and come to know that God lives and loves them. That message is so important and so many people don't know it! For the TRC on Saturday we had to do our task of going to a store and buying clothes, contacting the clerk and getting him to invite us to teach him the lessons (all in Spanish) and then go to his house and teach him the first lesson (all in Spanish). We had to teach a lesson to a person without a teaching record, and our person decided to be an atheist, which was fun... It's so hard to talk about our message when they think it's all just a fabricated story to get people to live good lives. I tried so hard to bear witness that, I know it's true, that God really does live, that we are his children and he loves us, but it's hard to answer questions and explain things on topics I've never studied the Spanish vocabulary for. It was a very neat experience though, when during the lesson I felt like we weren't connecting with him, or getting the investigator interested, so I just started asking more questions and trying to pry information out of him. I finally got him to say that he liked reading, and upon further inquiry that he liked history, which I love! So I then had to try to get him to talk to me about his favorite historical figure, and then I started going on this tangent trying to show how Napoleon (the person he decided on) was able to make such a difference in the world, and was able to make such great changes and affect so many people because he'd been prepared and learned what he needed to know. I tried to make an analogy to the gospel and how it helps teach us the principles on how to live our lives, but we need to make the effort to follow their counsel and let Heavenly Father teach us. It was just really cool because it got him all excited and perked up and I was talking about all this in Spanish, and half the words I'd never even seen or learned, but words kinda just popped in my head and later I looked them up and they were right, and he understood me. The gift of tongues is such a blessing, I hope I can use it in the field, to help me communicate with the people, even with my lack of knowledge, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can!=) In our class we're playing a game called loco nativo where every night we draw cards and one person is the nativo and they have to try and speak the most Spanish the next day At the end of the day we all vote who we thought was it and if we get it right we get 2 pts, and if someone votes for us and we weren't it we also get 2 points. So everyone tries to speak a ton of Spanish so people will vote for them. It's helped a lot so other class members speak a lot of Spanish which in turns helps all of us! It's a lot of fun, and I just enjoy speaking Spanish, especially if everyone's doing it so it doesn't matter if it takes a while to formulate and conjugate all your sentences=)
Also this week we've had a lot of subs. Hno. Edwards got married on Sat. in the San Diego temple so we missed him half of last week, all this week, and part next week too. We're very happy for him, but we miss him. It's interesting getting subs though because each teacher is extremely different in their methods, some have certain things that are extremely effective, and some things that aren't so much. It's quite the party every day having a new person that we have to get used to, but it also keeps us on our toes and we are learning a lot! One of our teachers was Sis. Ennor who had served in NYC-S as well! She told us lots of great stories after class and we want to go see pictures and hear more about our mission, at least the 3 of us in my district that are going there. Just 2 more weeks!! Crazy.
This week we also got to teach Tommy again, our progressive investigator, and it was fun teaching lesson 4! It's crazy with Tommy because we picked him up our first week here, so we've gotten a lot farther with him then with our teacher investigator "juan", so in class we always learn how to teach a lesson, like 2 weeks after we already taught it to Tommy. It helps us a lot to learn, and lesson 4 we never teach or learn how to while in the MTC so it's very good for us as a companionship to have to work really hard forming our lesson plans and all that. Lesson 4 is hard because it's all the commandments and things: tithing, chastity, word of wisdom, Sabbath day, 10 commandments etc. We wish we would have integrated these commandments earlier in our lessons like you’re supposed to so you don't dump it all on them one right after another, but we didn't know back then, but we know for next time! Always learning=)
Sunday was really fast yesterday, which was weird because it normally takes forever, and in choir we're going to sing "A Marvelous Work" on Tuesday which reminds me of when I was really little and I think we performed this song as a family in church or something. I somehow already know it and it reminded me of you Mom=) Again thank you so much for giving me so many musical opportunities growing up, they've blessed my life so much!
Dad: Thanks for your letter! It's always nice to hear about you in the family newsletters, but I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to write me a letter, and even give me great advice!
Our investigators are usually volunteers that know Spanish or are learning English, or they're teachers. I think they all know the gospel, and just have a character that they do for the lessons. Like Tommy is actually Hno. Evans an RM from Peru, but he always in character if we ever see him, so I don't really know Evans at all, just Tommy, a young man from Chicago that has a good friend that joined the church and he wants the happiness she now has.
I love reading the family newsletters. Thanks for sending them! makes me miss XC, and going to Herricks, etc. I love you all and miss you!
Elder Lewis
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