Tuesday, September 3, 2013

3 Days Til Chile!!! - Aug 28,2013

Hola!! (I am pretty sure this is the most said word here at the MTC)
Welp another great week here has gone by. The classes have gotten a little longer and I look at my watch more often just counting down the days till I can finally get to Concepcion, Chile on Monday. Everyone keeps asking if I am nervous or scared, but nope, I don´t really feel that at all, basically just pure excitement and anticipation. My Spanish has improved immensely and I hardly find myself stuttering or trying to find the right word, I think it is even more smooth than it was when we were in Monterrey. This morning and last week we got to go to the temple and it was incredible. Just being in there with all missionaries had even more of a special spirit. Sports are still my daily relief and are what help me make it through the countless hours spent just sitting in class. Our district yesterday became Ultimate Frisbee Champs over another district! We´ve been playing basketball quite a bit too and that is always great! We even play with the Latinos and they are well.... funny to play with haha I love it. Yes the food is getting better and I am actually liking it a lot more than before. Overall it has been absolutely great here, but I am so ready to get to Chile and go and teach real investigators about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So last Thursday Hna Christensen and I got changed into a Latino district and they are hilarious! The picture in front of the CCM sign is with all of them. They always crack jokes and there are actually 6 Hermanas in the district and 4 Elders so that is a change, but I would rather be with more Hermanas! We have been teaching them sassy English sayings and how to pray in English, while they teach us Spanish. The Spanish 12 day program goes at a much faster pace so we teach all the time, in fact yesterday we taught 4 lessons. So we taught our normal 3 "investigators" that we have and then after our last lesson of the day after dinner we taught our "investigator" who is really our teacher, he told us we did such a great job and that he felt the spirit so strong. Apparently he was just trying to butter us up because he then asked if we would help him with something which we of course responded yes to. We walked over into another building into a class filled with Latinos and our teacher said that my companion and I were going to do a teaching demonstration for the class....whatttt... Hna Christensen and I just looked at each other with wide eyes and wondered what we had just gotten our selves in to. We were then told the situation of the investigator and then our teacher said go and we had to teach her. Luckily the one and only thing that could have gotten us through that smoothly was the spirit and boy was it strong! I felt the spirit the strongest I have yet in a lesson and it really was guiding me what to say. I still feel like I kind of take charge of the lessons maybe more than I should, but I have gotten much better at trying to make it even between my companion and I. The "investigator" had been seeing the missionaries for 10 years and still hadn´t gotten baptized yet because she was scared and didn´t want to give up her coffee. Hna Christensen is a convert and so is her mom so she told the story of how it was so hard for her mom to give up coffee, but how she was truly blessed when she did. It was powerful and then I went and shared Alma 7:11-15 (some of my favorite scriptures to use in a lesson) and I think they really spoke to her. I bore my testimony to her and then as I had a feeling to open up my scriptures and opened it up right to 1 Nephi 17:3 and I felt prompted to have her read that scripture too about how the Lord will strengthen us to be able to follow his commandments. Anyways, she ended up accepting being baptized and it turned out great. I´m sure she just said yes since it was a practice, but it truly was a testimony to me that we are the instruments in the Lord´s hands and he will guide us in our paths. I know that in the field that will be basically what it is like at least on the first visit with no prior knowledge of who these people are, but it was quite intimidating have Latinos watch us Gringas teach in Spanish. I am however so grateful for the opportunity and my teacher must have known it was what we needed.
I love personal study so much everyday in the morning and I continue to learn and strengthen my testimony all the time. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most amazing thing that we have and it is the source of true happiness. I am so grateful everyday that I decided to come on a mission and don´t know why I ever thought about not going. It is an amazing time for me to grow personally and to try and help others to do the same. I love you all so much! Talk to you next time from Chile!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Romney

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