Subject: Hola!
So far I love the MTC! A lot of people told me that the first few days are the worst, and that it will get better by Sunday, but it is so fun. I mean, I really already lose track of the days and whatnot, but that's just because I am so busy. So, the basics. I am in a threesome, so I have two companions: Elders Jellen and Elder Lindsey. Elder Jellen is from Orem and Lindsey from Alpine. The three of us get a room for ourselves so that is kind of nice. They are both awesome guys and really even better companions. Elder Lindsey is very obedient and helps remind us of what not to do, his Spanish is also much better than mine so far, so that makes me want to study harder. Elder Jellen is also a great companion. He is a very gentle missionary so far, especially when teaching. He has that soft spoken missionary voice down very well. We have a pretty big district from what I have been told. 11 Elders and no sisters. And the rest of our zone is the advanced class, they leave in three weeks. But we are all in the intermediate class, which makes for some really effective language study since we all know quite a bit already. The Spanish is coming along so great. I basically remembered everything I knew by the second day and then I have been learning so fast. I have found lots of success in memorizing preach my gospel lessons and then using them to teach. It really helps with the grammar and my gospel vocabulary is increasing muy rapido. Also, I carry a small comp. book around and write words down that I think about and anything I don't know how to say in Spanish and then look them up later. Also, praying in Spanish really helps. We actually have to all write a 3-5 minute talk in spanish for sacrament meeting this week, which isn't very long, but will still be a bit difficult. Our branch president, Pres. Tyler, is a great guy, as are the rest of his presidency and their wives. He really wants to challenge us. By Sunday he challenged us to read the whole missionary handbook as a companionship, memorize "Our Purpose" and D&C 4, and write that talk. It'll be a stretch, but it should be fine. I already know them in English, so the Spanish will be un poca mas dificil. I really can see how obedience and faith and lots of study can help me learn. It has only been like three days and the language is coming along very nicely. I really am attacking it and loving it.
So, the last few days have been great.
The only thing we really did on Wednesday was a cool orientation and training. They brought in non-members (one was a real member acting as an investigator, that was obvious) and then has a companionship start talking to him to get to know him. Then the Elders were dismissed and the person would ask us questions, or we would ask them questions and teach them. I really have no idea if they were all members or not, if they were, then they were awesome actors. But, I really don't think two of them were. Paul, the first one, was catholic and hounded us for not reading the New Testament and refused to read the B.O.M. It didn't help that the Elders told him that the book of Moses was in the Book of Mormon. Then Arnold, who I think was the member, had recently lost his wife and had never found a church for him. I started actually speaking up with Arnold and I feel like I did okay. The last one was George, who had lost his leg and was introduced to the church by another amputee. He was interesting to talk with. Regardless of their membership it was still very eye opening and humbling. The next day we studied all day and met our Zone Leaders. The next day we began teaching our first progressive investigator, Tomas, all in Spanish. Now, we know he is a member (we could see his garments) but everyday for the next week we will be teaching him. Then we get a new investigator. This will go on for our whole time here. (Oh, by the way, I thought I had less time here, but I have until March 12). Our first lesson with Tomas was not good. We relied TOO much on the Spirit and didn''t prepare. It was bad. Then Today we did much better. We had a very set plan and I prepared to teach him about the Book of Mormon. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, the spirit, and how to pray. We also challenged him to read the Book of Mormon (Alma 32:21-43) and he said he would. He says he knows the Book of Mormon is true because he sees how it blesses his friend Seth and his family, but he doesn't want to get baptized. Next lesson we need to figure out why and continue to teach him, starting with the Plan of Salvation.
It is so awesome because we are already teaching in Spanish. It really drives our study and more importantly it teaches us to find out the needs of the investigator and prepare lessons based off of that. This is all a new curriculum that they started in August of last year. I am way excited to learn more and really can't stop studying.
There really isn't a better feeling knowing that everyday is dedicated to the Lord, it keeps me busy and I really love experiencing my spanish grow.
I will have more to write next week. My P-day is on Thursday. Can you please figure out how to do Dear Elders? I don't really expect a letter everyday, but my whole district has gotten something so far.
Hope everything is going well, I love you all.
Pray for me!
Elder San Martin
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