Hi everyone!
Sorry I haven't been able to write yet, today is my first P day, because they didn't want to give us a p day right after our first day. First let me tell you about my district. There are 4 elders and 4 hermanas. We only have 14 people in our zone. It was funny because when I got to west campus (where all the Spanish speaking missions are, I walked off the bus and one of the hermanas in my zone was a friend of mine from BYUI! My companion is Elder Habonimana, and he is from east Africa, Tanzania. He has lived in Salt Lake City for 6 years. The elders in my district are Elder Cummings and Elder Slade. They both are from around here and are great people. Sorry, I don't have any pictures for today, I forgot to bring my camera with me to the computer lab, and I only have one picture on it anyway, but today, we are going to the temple and will get lots of pictures.
So far this week has been very good, on my first day, when I walked
into the class, the teacher was telling me to do something in Spanish
and I had no Idea what she was talking about, but now, I think I am
learning Spanish quite well. How is everything doing back home? Be
sure to send lots of letters, dear elder works great so far. That's
cool that you and Dad were able to see a general authority! During
Sunday evening devotional we watched a movie called the Character of
Christ. It was a talk given by Elder Bednar two years ago in the MTC.
It was REALLY GOOD. Then at the end of the movie, Elder Bednar walked
in!!!!!!!!! We were able to have an awesome question and answer session
with an apostle of the Lord!!! It was so cool, he answered all of our
questions perfectly! It was cool because he always had a scripture or a
talk from somewhere to relate to the question. He made some very cool
analogies about faith and the gospel of Christ. It was one of the
coolest experiences ever!
My whole district also decided to be in the choir for Tuesday
devotionals, and this week we sang Where can I turn for peace, and it
was great! the only problem is that the seats for the choir in the
auditorium are horrendous, and are possibly the least comfortable chairs
I have ever been in. We were sitting there for so long! Oh, and for
Tuesday devotional, the speaker was Elder Evans of the Seventy, and he
taught us about teaching people, not lessons, and that now is the best
time to be a missionary. It was a very good talk.
OK, so on our 2 day, one of our teachers told us that on the next
day when he came back, he would be Jose, and investigator we were
supposed to teach. The hard part was that it all was in Spanish! This
was on our 3rd day! we were able to understand a little bit here and
there, but for the most part, it was just reading Spanish scriptures and
telling him stuff that we had already translated. But as we
progressed, we gave him 4 lessons, the last one being yesterday. Each
one I feel got progressively better, but now our teachers, both of them
are going to be new investigators for us to teach, with 20 min lessons
before each class. Our first lesson with these "new" investigators are
tomorrow. It is pretty good practice to teach someone in Spanish.
There are also people who live on the campus and pretend to be
investigators. We weren't sure if they were members at first, but we
talked to one, and asked him, and he said he was required to tell the
truth, so he is a member, but gets to stay here and help new
missionaries practice giving lessons to him. He isn't the only one,
there are lots of these people, and we are supposed to talk to them and
have them let us give them lessons like we would an investigators. My
companion and I have already talked to two of these people besides Alan(
the one who told us he is a member) and they said we could teach them!
One of them, his name is Jorge, said we could once we learned the
language more, but he has been helping m companion and I get the hang of
Spanish. The other, whose name is Mercedes, said she had a friend who
wanted to here from us, so we will go teach her friend next week
sometime. It will be cool to get to teach them all.
As for things I need, I was told that I couldn't use my
backpack, so I need a shoulder bag, I also wouldn't mind some good
snacks! :) As for the shoulder bag, you can either send me one, or I
could just wait until I get to Mexico, and get I nice one for cheap.
So far I have been able to make it without too much hassle without my
backpack, but we will see. I can't think of much else for you to send
me, but if you think of anything, let me know.
Yesterday was the one week mark, and was when all the new elders
and hermanas came, none of them are in my zone, but it is nice not to be
the newest group anymore haha. I hope that next week, we get more
missionaries for our zone. I will let you know, but now, my time is
just about up, be sure to write lots, dear elder is probably best for
now in the mtc. Can't wait to here from you next!
-Love Elder Austin Carey
No comments:
Post a Comment