July 24, 2014

    

 Hey all!!! So this is my second P-day in the CCM, and it has been weird. But first I'll talk about my week. We've had practice investigators (people who are interested in the church), and listening to lessons from missionaries, for our first week. This week is much the same. the two people that we are "teaching" are actually our current teachers, for the language, and learning how to teach and stuff. But I learned something that made it all a whole lot more important to me. When our teachers take on the role of investigators, they use different names. I thought it was all random. But it's not. The people that they pretend to be are real. Hermana S, our teacher during the morning, is taking on the role of someone she knows and cares about, which I did not know until yesterday. I don't remember everything about her, and some of this may be faulty memory, but I still want to tell you. She got married when she was 18 (I think). She is now maybe 29 or 30. She has 3 or 4 kids. Her husband left her after cheating on her for many years, and she has made many many mistakes which she feels very sorry for. This is a woman who is depressed, convinced her life is nothing but misery, and feels that there is no chance for redemption. And even though it wasn't really her that we were teaching, they are her real problems. It touches my soul. I realized that this is the sort of thing that I will be doing all day for two years when I leave the CCM, teaching people, and a lot of them will be like her. We taught her about prayer, and how God is our loving Heavenly Father, and he cares for her, and He sent His Son to die for her, that she may be happy. Then we taught her about the Atonement of Christ in Gethsemane. We told her how we can all be happy again, that we can be forgiven, and we taught her how to repent. I have never felt the spirit so strongly while I was teaching someone than I did with her in the moment that me and Elder Kerr were bearing our testimonies of redemption and of Christ to her. It hit like this massive wave of power, just engulfing our hearts. Imagine how awesome this will be when it's not just practice.

      Anyway, I've memorized tons of Spanish words but grammar stumps me everytime. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to learn and memorize all the different tenses then I would love that. Please!!!!!! But now, let me get to today. And how I learned that I actually suck at Spanish..... Today we had to go to the consulate in Mexico City to do some more stuff for our Visas. One of our leaders said, "Hey, you guys are missionaries!!! And your mission has begun!!! So what are you waiting for!!!  Go talk to people about what you believe!!!!" So while we waited to get in to the building, me and Elder Kerr went and talked to some people. We first found two men standing by a tree, both obviously very wealthy. You don't often see ipads with Ferrari cases in Mexico. 

       Anyway, they talked really fast. I got maybe 10% of what was being said. Fortunately Elder Kerr is a stud. Those 5 years of heavy-duty studying for Spanish class and heavy study in the CCM paid off. He understood almost everything, and was able to say anything he wanted. I understood about 60% of what he said, because even he can't speak a billion miles an hour yet. They gave us a buisness card. We're going to get it to the local missionaries to contact them. 

        The next guy looked like Michael Jordan. I couldn't understand anything he said either, but Elder Kerr and Elder Roberts could. Elder Roberts is almost as good as Kerr at Spanish. Anyway, he believed that people have gotten confused. He said everyone he knows thinks Christ and Heavenly Father are the same people, but the Bible clearly says they are not. Then he chanted off like 5 scriptures at us to show this, and we were like, yeah we believe that too. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he was all over it and super interested. He is OBVIOUSLY going to read it. The cool thing is, he is from Veracruz, and is only in Mexico City for a month before he goes back. It's cool because in a month we leave for Veracruz. He said he will find missionaries in Veracruz and check out the church and learn from them. That's really cool!!! 

        But yeah, after all this I definitely don't know Spanish. I know lots of words and can sort of speak it, but only in present tense, and I can understand what people are saying most of the time, if they speak real slow. But it's okay I'll get it. I know the amount of progress I have made in 2 weeks is impossible. Unless, of course, God is helping you learn it. 

    Okay so I will have more stuff next week!!!! So far I'm loving it!!! It's hard but it's right and I know it. And that's all that matters.