Hey! how are you guys doing? As
it turns out we got a half Pday today to do laundry and we can use the email
while we are here. So after I sent my letter we were interviewed by our Branch
President, President Dennis. He selected the District Leaders for our branch
and I was selected as the District Leader for our district and Elder Hobbins
was selected to be the District Leader of the other district in our branch.
Yesterday was a good day overall, It started out not so great. In the morning
we went to class for three hours and we were speaking in only Spanish. This was
quite difficult especially because we have two people who are really good at
Spanish in our District. Elder Reynolds my companion and Hermana Thomas. I was
starting to get discouraged with the class for the day and rather tired. After
class we were able to have gym time but the gym was closed because a fire alarm
was pulled in the main building so we had to do personal fitness in our
residence hall. After this we went back to class for personal study time. We have
a lot we have to do in our personal study time like we were challenged to read
the white bible by Sunday (which our companionship has finished) and we have to
prepare a talk in Spanish in case we are called on to speak on Sunday. This
weeks topic is rather difficult for me in Spanish we are assigned to speak on
enduring to the end. I hope that I don't have to speak this week.
After personal study we had a little time longer to prepare to teach our first investigator which we had to do in Spanish. It was rather difficult and I felt like I wasn't able to say that much especially with Elder Reynolds there because he knows it so well that he just spoke most of the time. I think at one point I said by accident to help the bed instead of bless the house. Ayudo el cama, instead of, Abendigo el casa, haha. I have a lot of work to do with Spanish but I am learning a lot everyday. I definitely know more than I thought and we speak only Spanish in class unless we start talking about really complex things then we switch to English for a few sentences to explain those things. It was after this that the day started to get good.
Hermano Painter started talking to us about how teaching Edgar went. We told him that he didn't really open up and that we needed to work harder to that. Then Hermano Painter told us to think of the movie Hitch. He said that just like in the beginning of the movie Hitch tried to ask out the girl and he said that she would never give him the time of day and so they would each go on with their live and be just fine but then as he got to know here his feelings changed. By the end he throws himself on her car to try to be with her and tells her that fine isn't good enough, that he wants extraordinary. He told us that we need to get Edgar to get a taste of the gospel because right now he is fine in his life and happy with that but once he finds out about how extraordinary his life could be with the gospel he will start to seek it out on his own and want to learn more on his own. Hermano Painter is very smart and eloquent. He seems to have a lot of analogies that can really put things into perspective. He told us that President Hinkley said that there was something wrong with the missionary system that we had. He said that Elders were going and and being human recording devices and memorizing the lessons and regurgitating them back and a high number of them would become inactive after their missions. He said that because of this we need to focus on three things in the MTC. The third being the language and the teaching skills, the second being learning and planning, and the very most important thing we need to learn here is to have a greater conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us that we shouldn't worry about struggling with the language because that will come to us as we progress. He said that the only thing we need to focus on is becoming more converted to the gospel every day. He said that We shouldn't worry about how much Spanish we know but to learn more each day and that is what we need to do. I think that that really helped me because I was starting to wonder how I was going to do because the others seem to know Spanish considerably better than me.
I have prayed to Heavenly Father to help me learn Spanish better and I know that he hears and answers our prayers and I feel as if I can already recall the correct verb or conjugation that I am looking for much more quickly. Today we are teaching Edgar again and I hope to be a bigger part of the lesson and talk more so that I can practice my Spanish. Hermano Noltemeyer told us to think of a foreign exchange student who has first come to the United States. For the most part they are very nice and sincere but their language may not be perfect. While they may not have proper grammar or sometimes use incorrect verbs they can still easily make friends because they are so kind. He said the key to making people open up isn't to speak the language perfectly but is to be sincere and open up to them. He told us that in the last area of his mission he was talking to an investigator for a half hour on all the medical and just secular reasons why he should stop using cocaine and was unsuccessful but when his companion said to stop using it in his broken Spanish the investigator said he would. This was because he was very sincere and he had the spirit with him when he said it.
I am so grateful for you guys and love you all very much. I miss you very much. I know that this is where I am supposed to be but it doesn't make me miss you any less. I can't wait to hear back from you guys! I should be able to email you again next Friday, I believe that is our next Pday!
After personal study we had a little time longer to prepare to teach our first investigator which we had to do in Spanish. It was rather difficult and I felt like I wasn't able to say that much especially with Elder Reynolds there because he knows it so well that he just spoke most of the time. I think at one point I said by accident to help the bed instead of bless the house. Ayudo el cama, instead of, Abendigo el casa, haha. I have a lot of work to do with Spanish but I am learning a lot everyday. I definitely know more than I thought and we speak only Spanish in class unless we start talking about really complex things then we switch to English for a few sentences to explain those things. It was after this that the day started to get good.
Hermano Painter started talking to us about how teaching Edgar went. We told him that he didn't really open up and that we needed to work harder to that. Then Hermano Painter told us to think of the movie Hitch. He said that just like in the beginning of the movie Hitch tried to ask out the girl and he said that she would never give him the time of day and so they would each go on with their live and be just fine but then as he got to know here his feelings changed. By the end he throws himself on her car to try to be with her and tells her that fine isn't good enough, that he wants extraordinary. He told us that we need to get Edgar to get a taste of the gospel because right now he is fine in his life and happy with that but once he finds out about how extraordinary his life could be with the gospel he will start to seek it out on his own and want to learn more on his own. Hermano Painter is very smart and eloquent. He seems to have a lot of analogies that can really put things into perspective. He told us that President Hinkley said that there was something wrong with the missionary system that we had. He said that Elders were going and and being human recording devices and memorizing the lessons and regurgitating them back and a high number of them would become inactive after their missions. He said that because of this we need to focus on three things in the MTC. The third being the language and the teaching skills, the second being learning and planning, and the very most important thing we need to learn here is to have a greater conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us that we shouldn't worry about struggling with the language because that will come to us as we progress. He said that the only thing we need to focus on is becoming more converted to the gospel every day. He said that We shouldn't worry about how much Spanish we know but to learn more each day and that is what we need to do. I think that that really helped me because I was starting to wonder how I was going to do because the others seem to know Spanish considerably better than me.
I have prayed to Heavenly Father to help me learn Spanish better and I know that he hears and answers our prayers and I feel as if I can already recall the correct verb or conjugation that I am looking for much more quickly. Today we are teaching Edgar again and I hope to be a bigger part of the lesson and talk more so that I can practice my Spanish. Hermano Noltemeyer told us to think of a foreign exchange student who has first come to the United States. For the most part they are very nice and sincere but their language may not be perfect. While they may not have proper grammar or sometimes use incorrect verbs they can still easily make friends because they are so kind. He said the key to making people open up isn't to speak the language perfectly but is to be sincere and open up to them. He told us that in the last area of his mission he was talking to an investigator for a half hour on all the medical and just secular reasons why he should stop using cocaine and was unsuccessful but when his companion said to stop using it in his broken Spanish the investigator said he would. This was because he was very sincere and he had the spirit with him when he said it.
I am so grateful for you guys and love you all very much. I miss you very much. I know that this is where I am supposed to be but it doesn't make me miss you any less. I can't wait to hear back from you guys! I should be able to email you again next Friday, I believe that is our next Pday!
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