2/23/12

Hello all!

 

So, I have roughly 18 days left! It is getting down to the wire, it's pretty exciting. The Mtc really is great, but I just wanna get into the field. I don't know how great this letter will be, I don't have a lot of time today and it hasn't been a super eventful week.

 

More than anything that has happened is that we have taught a bunch! But that is normal. I mean we have scheduled appointments every week, but its sweet. We got 2 new "investigators", Marcos and Luke. They are brothers living at USC. They are two Elders from our district, but we have started a new thing where we take on the role of progressing investigators. It is actually my new favorite thing. My investigator is Matt, he goes to UCSF med. school and lives with Riley (Elder Lindsey) who is in the military, and then is taught with Riley's sister (Hermana Coleman), Jessica. It is actually way fun, and i tend to kind of dominate our lessons since I have so many questions. But it really is teaching me a lot because I am starting to see, just a little, what it might mean to be an investigator. I use a lot of Ivelisse's concerns and doubts and then I talk to Elder Hernandez a lot, who used to be Catholic, about a lot of Catholic things, and then Dad sent me a pretty big list of things to talk about that he did when he was going to join the church. So, i get to learn and apply a lot.

 

So we have five investigators now. Can't wait until they are really actually investigators though.

 

James is doing well, we had a good lesson on Joseph Smith last week and he was rearing to go on his commitment to pray about him, and then we kind of last momentum on the last lesson we had with him, so we are going to go back and focus on his needs again. Hermano Pacheco has been sick, so we haven't been able to teach him much this week.

 

We taught Mauricio for the first time in a week and half yesterday, it went really well. We went over his questions with the Restoration pamphlet and then read 1 Nephi chapter 1 with him. We all took turns reading and answered his questions and really strived to show him HOW to use the Book of Mormon right. So now we feel like he is a little bit closer to having the tools that he can help himself to progress.

 

Ivelisse has been not so difficult, we have had some pretty tricky lessons with her, but lately we have been focus on the simple things and the basic principles, so things have come a bit more easy.

 

So, things are going great with them. It really helps to haave people to ponder about and pray about and then study for.

 

Other than that, it has been pretty chill.

We had an awesome devotional with Elder Larry Y. Wilson of the seventy about the Book of Mormon, it was a good devotional.

 

My Spanish has been steadily progressing, we have learned most all of the grammar and conjugations, so it has been a huge matter of personal study now, which is what it will be in the field. I am going to try really hard on conversational Spanish the next few weeks, because un gospel related subjects are still a struggle with native speakers. But, i do feel pretty confident with the Spanish.

 

We have become more unified in our teaching and have learned how to teach better as a trio, it is a bit more difficult. I really appreciate Hermana Coleman and love having her in our lessons and studying with her and whatnot, but i will be happy when it is just another Elder and myself.

 

I feel like this last week has been really great because I feel like my purpose has been more refined and I feel more comfortable now. It is a constant progression, but it has been good. I don't have a whole lot of time left in here, so I am going to hit it hard these last two and a half weeks. Can't wait for Kentucky!

 

Anyone who wrote me a letter, I am going to write you back. We can only write letters on P-Day, so that it why things don't get out as fast as you send them. Thank you all for your letters though, I really appreciate it and I love being able to see what is going on with everyone.

 

I love you all, hope all is well in the real world ( i saw a little bit of Obama speaking on CNN, "calling for cooperation" or whatever, (the mailroom people were looking at it on their computers) so I feel a little bit in tune now, not really though). I pray for all of you and appreciate your prayers more than you can know.

 

The Church is true. As true as the Gospel, which is insanely true. I love my first 7 weeks as a missionary. Love and miss you all.

 

Con amor -

 

Elder San Martín

6 weeks

On to week six!!

 

That's right, only like three more weeks left and then we are outta here! It is a little bittersweet because I really do learn a lot here and my district is so sweet, but I am more than excited to be nearing that departure date.

 

This last week has been once again very great. Last Friday I entered into my second day on my three day English fast, I was only speaking Spanish for three days. So once it hit 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, I was cleared to speak English, which felt kind of weird starting up again. In those three days I was really amazed to see how fluid my Spanish was becoming, fluid - not fluent. But it really did improve a ton. Really committing to something and following through and just praying and fighting to learn more and speak better did wonders for the language.

 

Speaking of Saturday, we had a great time teaching two lessons in the TRC, which is where members come in and we teach them lessons. We taught about Revelation through the Book of Mormon. They were awesome lessons and our first appointment, Santiago, really did teach us a lot more than we did him. I really can't remember more than that, but Saturday was good.

 

On Sunday we had a great devotional from an administrator in the MTC, but the really great part was when he had four recent converts come up, they had only been members for about a year and now they are on missions, it is crazy to think about. Their testimonies were amazing and it really helped me and gave me a boost. After that we watched a devotional that Elder Bednar gave on Christmas in the MTC about the Character of Christ. It was such a great talk. So powerful, he really didn't hold back on anything. He talked about how we need to seek to be like Christ and not only have a testimony, but be converted. There was a lot more obviously, but it was awesome.

 

On Monday we kinda had an off day, don't know how, we just weren't all really focused, which is not good. Our teacher got engaged over that weekend at Disneyland, so we took a pretty huge chunk talking about that, and then we had to see the pictures of course. And then of course the next day was Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day as a missionary is very interesting, especially here in the MTC, probably only here in the MTC to be honest. There are just floods and floods of packages. Tuesday was the day when you found out which missionaries had girls or not. And my favorite girl sent me an amazing package, its mom. It was awesome. And Aunt Lori, so I got to wear a sweet, probably not missionary appropiate tie, but who wouldn't wear a tie with tons of hearts on it. Our message is about love, right?

 

We taught Ivelisse again on Tuesday. She is pretty hardcore Catholic, so our teaching of the Great Apostasy was not so well received, but we were able to salvage it a little bit. It wasn't so bad. Also, we taught James last night, it was a great lesson, couldn't have done it without the Spirit.

 

And sorry if it is confusing when i say investigators. Here is how it works. Our two teachers, Litzenburger and Pacheco have their roles as Mauricio and James respectively. Hermano Pacheco was also Tomas in the beginning. And then on Saturdays we teach in the TRC, which are lessons to members. And then twice a week we teach Ivelisse, who (we arent told this, but I found out since I clean that floor for service, not like it wasn't hard to find out anyway) is a paid actor by the MTC to act as an investigator and everything, And then we are starting a new thing where we all get to make up our own person and have other missionaries teach us, which is awesome because it is kind of payback in a sense, but more so it is way cool because we get to know what it is like to be an investigator, only slightly. My role is going to be a mix of me and dad, so it should be interesting. Everyone we teach here is a member, but the Spirit still testifies of the truths we teach and many of the questions and roles are all real people.

 

That is something that is so interesting to see here, how the Spirit doesn't care if the person being taught is a member, He still testifies of the truth, wherever it is taught. I know it will be so much different in the field, I am not naive. But so far we have had some really tough experiences with our investigators and we still pray for them and we still feel the Spirit with us when we teach. It is awesome.

 

 

This work is true, the Church is as true as the Gospel. I love all of you my family and friends, the Lord is watching over me and I know he is over you as well.

 

Love you all,

Elder St. Martin

Half Way Done!

Hello all,

 

One more week in the MTC down. I am really beginning to appreciate my time here more and more. I am so thankful I have five more weeks to work on my Spanish and learn more from my awesome teachers and be with my district. Nonetheless, I am more than excited to get to Louisville. I am halfway done with my stay here, and every week is one more week closer to getting into what I would call my "real" mission. But I am excited to be here as well.

 

This last week I have learned a ton. And my testimony has definitely been strengthened and I have definitely been uplifted. Last Friday we taught Mauricio, he lives in New Jersey, owns a construction company with three kids and a wife. Our lessons with him have been a underwhelming, but that is our fault. We finally picked up our game on Friday, we decided to scratch our previous plans for our lessons and jumped right into Prophets and this last dispensation. He is Catholic, so we were worried how he would handle it. But it went so well. We hardly really talked. All we really did was ask question after question after question. Our goal was more of a conversation than a "lesson". But we left with him a challenge to pray more and to go on lds.org, and afterwards our our teacher said he was impressed with how well we did. I only say that because it meant so much to me, I needed a good lesson. I have felt so incompetent as a teacher and that had been made worse by the language barrier, but it was a great lesson.

Saturday we went back to TRC and taught a returned missionary sister about prayer, it felt good, once again, to hear her complement our Spanish, which is something I needed. Words of Affirmation, what can I say?

 

Sunday was Fast Sunday, so I was a bit tired. But we had a great testimony meeting, a ward full of missionaries makes for a great testimony meeting. Later on we had Mission Conference, I feel guilty but for me that was more a sleepy time, I don't think by choice, I was kinda wiped out. But I was able to stay awake for the last two talks, which were awesome. Especially MTC President Brown's about repentance. I feel like a lot of times repentance is overlooked in our lessons, which is weird because it is what we are called to preach, but his talk definitely made up for that. It was great.

 

That night we had a devotional, and I still can't remember what it was about. I was only awake for a few minutes. I sound like the worst missionary, but I was tired. Just saying. That night was a little rough because I seriously felt like I was still in college, or even high school. It was frustrating. I didn't leave college to come to another college atmosphere, I am pretty sure it was for a mission. But I am probably just being a bit too haughty. But I just feel like sometimes our priorities get mixed up. Oh well, its all good.

 

Monday i was still kinda in my funk, but by the time we taught James I was fine. We talked about the Book of Mormon, read the Introduction together and talked about what he needs to do to know it is true. We gave him half of Alma 32 to read, it was a pretty goos lesson as well.

 

Our lessons and visits have evolved finally, I would say we are on another tier right now. It helps to know we are improving.

 

Tuesday was amazing. Tuesday was why I am on my mission. I came on my mission for many different reasons, but I am staying and will work as hard as possible because of days like Tuesday. We went to meet with our new investigator, Ivelisse. She lives in Venezuela and is married with no kids. She has been catholic all her life but has stopped really practicing. We planned to just talk with her, tell her our plan for our lessons, and then talk a bit about the Book of Mormon. We only had thirty minutes set for our appointment, but we ended up staying for an hour. I'm not complaining. It was so fun. Her accent was a bit different to understand, but Spanish wise it was alright. I was struggling for a little. But, I had earlier fleetingly mentioned how Dad used to be Catholic and now is a member, she later brought that up and asked me about it. Her question, and then the Spirit totally blindsided me. I realized why she was asking that question, her whole family is catholic, she wanted to know how it was possible for someone to switch like that. The Spirit bore a stronger testimony of the converting power of the Gospel, and I tried to keep it together as I told her Dad's conversion. My Spanish was flawless, and I know that Ivelisse had felt the Spirit. We finished up and left her the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible and in 3 Ne. to read. We meet with her again tonight.

 

After that I was all but overwhelmed with the Spirit all day. Also, I was totally reinvigorated in purpose and drive. Later that night we had a great devotional by Bishop Edgeley in the Presiding Bishopbric. He and his wife gave great talks. What was more uplifting for me was our District Devotional Review after. We always get together and talk about the Devotional. My love for my district was increased and we all learned a lot. As I listened to one of our Elders talk about how he had been planning to go home, I was overwhelmed again. This Elder is a convert, he was baptized two years ago, and is now on a mission. That takes a lot of faith. I really couldn't help think of Dad, not saying he ever contemplated leaving the mission. But I could maybe imagine how hard and trying that must've been for him. As we all talked the Spirit bore witness of how sacred and divine our calls are.

 

Tuesday was a great day to be a missionary. The only bad thing was getting swatted pretty hard in b-ball, but I am getting over it.

 

Yesterday we taught twice, we talked to and read with James Alma 32 and talked about Baptism, we have a date for March 12, which is when we leave the MTC. And we are working with him to feel prepared. We later talked to Mauricio about the Restoration and Prayer and left with him one of the Restoration pamphlets.

 

This week has seriously been great. Sister Erianne Avery got in, so I get to see a friendly face and talk with her every meal.

 

And I haven't spoken any English for a day, and I have two more to go. Three days with no English was the challenge by my teacher. So, I hope it goes well.

 

Hope everything is going well with all. The Church is true. God lives. Jesus is our Savior. Love you all.

Elder Zachary St. Martin