"I have learned so much in just these few weeks. I love the scriptures and I hope to continue learning more and more! Anyways, as you can see, things have been going great. Tough, but great. I have definitely settled into the schedule here at the MTC, or in Spanish, the CCM. The first group of Latinos and the oldest North Americans left last week and new ones have come today to fill in. They are mostly going to Paraguay and some to Uruguay. Sorry Joey, I can’t remember that Italian Elder’s name. He was really cool though. Everyone is cool here!
Its hilarious, the new North Americans came today, and I already feel like I’m a little seasoned. I can still remember how I felt when I walked in the door that first day. I should hope so since it was only three weeks ago. Still, you learn so much so fast here that it feels like I’ve been here for weeks. I am already kind of anxious to get out. Oh well, at least we get to go proselyting every Saturday. This weekend we start going for 7 hours I think. We're pretty much going to be out all day. This past Saturday went better. We knew a little bit more Spanish, though we still sounded like we were two years old. We had lots of people say they didn’t have any time, but allowed us to write their names and address down for other missionaries to come back later. Only a few people rejected us, the others just didn’t even answer the door, or weren’t awake or home. But the scariest part was that we were brought into someone’s house for the first time. I was really anxious, and to make matters worse, I could hardly understand the young guy because he was mumbling so much. They have a different dialect here called Castillano, which is a little more fluid than Central American Spanish. The words REALLY run together and you have to do all you can to make sure you aren’t smiling if they are telling you a tragic story, like a family member who dies. I was pretty much just looking into his eyes and smiling the whole time. We began to read the lesson, when he stopped us because he had run out of time. We had just started talking about Christ. I would have just went right to the Restoration had I known that he had so little time. His brother walked in, and we asked if other missionaries could come back another time. They agreed and we took down their name and address and gave it to the front desk at the MTC. While we were teaching, I had been holding a Book of Mormon. I had a prompting while no one was looking to just leave it on the table and walk away. They didn’t notice. I then said to my companion, ¨"just keep walking, don’t look back," hoping that he wouldn’t notice and rush after us to give us back the book. It was kind of funny. During our reptor, the president comically told us “that doesn’t count as a placement..." Ha-ha, I wonder if he’ll even look at it. Who knows?
I have had some rejections, but I just keep remembering what it says in Preach My Gospel about rejection, that if you share the message in any capacity and with real intent, no matter how broken the language may be, it is up to them to recieve it. If they are not ready, they aren´t ready. I hope to remember this my whole mission. If someone really wants to listen to this wonderful news, they will make the time, or have the patience to listen to our broken spanish, that will improve over time. "
No comments:
Post a Comment