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