August 7, 2014

This is how much it rains here in, like, 20 minutes.

And this is my favorite picture of Christ ever. It is in the hallway outside our classes.

  
     I am in the Thursday of week five. Week five ends on Sunday. I have six weeks. So two more Sundays. Then I leave the CCM on Monday, August 18th. I will fly to the mission home in Veracruz (where our mission president lives) and will be assigned a trainer. He will most likely be a native who speaks not much English. It'll be tough, but I can do it. Your trainer is the first companion that you recieve in the field. They are generally very good at obeying mission rules, and have been out for some time. Usually more than a year. There are a whole ton of guys here going to the Knoxville Tennessee Mission (SPANISH SPEAKING OF COURSE) and a whole ton going to Baton Rouge. Thought that was cool.

     This week has flown by faster than any other. Each day has literally felt like a few hours. I am getting a little tired of being in the CCM, and I really want to be in the field, but I figure that I can wait about a week and a half. Spanish I think is going well. I've realized the only real way to learn the grammar fast enough is to use it a bunch, so I am going to begin speaking with the other kids in my district in Spanish during our language study time while working on a specific principle. Speaking of learning languages, a shout out to my friend Remington in Bolivia. He's been out about 10 months, is fluent in Spanish, and is now learning  Portuguese. Talk about a stud. 

     One of the things that I have really learned this week is about teaching and having the Holy Ghost with you all the time. It's not easy. Just because we are missionaries and have been called of God to preach his word by the proper authority, does not make us automatically have the Spirit. There is soooo much work and faith involved. We must constantly be studying and praying and working, for the Spirit to be with us at the level that we need it to be. We also have to have the desire to have it there, more than anything. I think I am getting better at this. My faith in God is increasing, and I would rather be here than anywhere else in the world. 

     The thing that I am struggling most with right now is understanding the scriptures in Spanish. When I teach, I teach in Spanish, so I need to know the Book of Mormon and the Bible in Spanish. But it's like, old Spanish. Really tough to understand. I figure there's nothing for it but to read till I get it, translating as I go along. This is really important because God speaks by the mouth of his prophets, whose words are in the scriptures. There is nothing that invites the Holy Ghost and brings peace, more than reading the scriptures. The only way to know that this church is true is to read the Book of Mormon and then pray about it with real intent, which means to ask God if it is true, having a REAL desire to know. And all the while, knowing that if the answer is yes, that you will change your life to follow the new light that you have acquired. So yeah, basically the scriptures are everything, and it's a reallly good thing for me to get to know them in Spanish as well as -- no, better -- than I know them in English. 

     I testify that this church is true. I have read the Book of Mormon and have asked God if it is true, and I have recieved my answer. Joseph Smith was called of God to restore this church to the Earth, and he was a prophet of God. I know that today the church has a prophet in Thomas S. Monson, and I know that God speaks his will through him. I know this is true because GOD is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and every time his church has been on the earth with his priesthood, the church has been lead by a prophet. It began with Adam, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and many others. Finally the Savior, Jesus Christ himself, during his earthly ministry. The true church must therefore have a prophet, who is today Thomas S. Monson. This is the message that I am called to share with the people of Mexico, that Christ lives and that he died for you, that you may inherit the kingdom of heaven, by faith, repentance, and baptism by immersion for the remission of our sins, because no unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of god. If you doubt me, read Alma, chapters 39 to 41, in the Book of Mormon. It is all very clearly explained, why we need the atonement of Jesus Christ. And 2 Nephi 31 explains why we need to be baptized. This is my short testimony that I feel that I should share, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.