Last P-day at the CCM!

So after p-hours last week Elder Gale said I had a ton of mail! I went and got the key so I could get my mail from the box. Sure enough I had 3 birthday cards from my Family and I was super stoked! I seriously have the best family ever. Tuesday was the last day with all of our teachers which kind of stunk because Hermano Spolman and Hermana Cabrera are awesome.

We found out Wednesday morning that we got to keep on of our teachers. That´s right folks we get Hermana Cariola for all six weeks. It still stinks to lose the other teachers though. And Wednesday I kind of got the hang of preterite vs imperfect for talking in past tense which is kind of a big deal. In the afternoon we met our first new teacher Hermano Torres. He´s pretty cool but he talks so dang fast. Do to this fact I think my brain got overloaded and I got really tired super fast. Of course he notices this and decides me to have me help him teach a lesson. But hey it woke me up and I didn´t do to bad! That night we met our crazy lady nazi teacher Hermana Arfaro. Don´t get me wrong though I like here she´s just really intense. She speaks ridiculously fast! And we asked her to slow down a little and holy cow it was like a sling shot. She slowed way down for like two seconds and then all the sudden she was talking faster than she was earlier. Even though I was a little overwhelmed I felt like Wednesday was a good day for me.

Thursday was fun because it was Hermano Rhoads b-day. In the morning I just randomly decided to read about inspired questions which turned out to be a prompting of the spirit because Hermana Arfaro that night taught us about asking spiritual background questions. I learned so much about asking questions and it was awesome. On Wednesday we also taught our new investigators! Hermano torres´s investigator is named Ruperto. Our appointment with him was kind of crazy. He told us about how his mom just died and on top of that he used to be really reach. We´re talking three mansions in Miami rich. He was out here in Chile for his moms funeral and he got sued and lost everything... So now he´s stuck in Chile without a job. Definitely one of the most unique investigators yet.

I had a cool personal study on Friday about listening. In the scriptures it often says "Neither take ye though beforehand what ye shall say." I always though this meant not to prepare anything and rely on the Spirit but as I read it this time I learned something new. To me what it is saying is when you are teaching a lesson LISTEN! Don´t think about what you are going to say next. If you listen well then the Holy Ghost will guide your response. Later that day we watched a talk by Elder Bednar. In it he said "If you are trying to be a good boy or girl you will be guided by the Spirit whether you know it or not." I know that to be true. As I am 100% obedient out here I do things for no reason and then later that week I find out why. That night we taught Marjory for the second time and focused on Spiritual background questions. It went sooo much better than the first lesson so I´m really glad we were able to apply what we learned.

So Saturday morning kickball was the stuff. Hermana Doll asked us to help her change up the rules to make it more fun. I had a ton of fun playing so that was a good way to start the day. That night at dinner we had to ask 10 people to read the Book of Mormon. Hermano Inostroza played hard to get and helped me realize I need to get a lot better about promising specific blessings. We also practiced with some of the other districts that night but it wasn´t our best lesson. We were really struggling to focus that night. At the end of the night we decided just to have a district three chat. It was amazing! I´d say that the theme of our chat was "just hold on" and faith. It was a super spiritual experience for me and a lot of things that people shared was really what I needed to hear even though it didn´t seem to me that I was struggling a whole lot. Cause really I´m not having a tough time out here so far! That night district prayer was something special. I don´t want to ever forget how strong the spirit was in that room.

Sunday was pretty awesome. It was a fast and testimony meeting and I was able to share my testimony for the second time in the MTC. In Sunday School or district reunion we had an awesome lesson about having the courage to defend your faith but also having the courage to walk away. We also had a cool session about Ammon and how we need to listen, observe, and discern in all of our lessons like he did. Oh and all of our classes were in Spanish this Sunday so that´s fun! That night I got to sing twice during FHE. We´ve been practicing with district 2 to sing the first prayer to the tune of come though fount in Spanish. Well the other night Hermana Doll heard Hermana Rhoads and I singing "a Childs prayer" at the piano back in the dorms just for fun before all the other districts returned. She asked us if we would sing it together for one of the FHE´s. We assumed it would be next Sunday... So at FHE we sang with our district and district 2 and it went really well! And then I looked like the Jolly Jump up show cause I had to go back up there two seconds later. We sang "A Childs prayer" in English because we didn't have time to learn the spanish version. It´s been a long time since I have sung a duet and it felt really good. Hermana Rhoads has a killer voice. She reminds me of my cousin Gabi a little (not quite on that level but close). So Gabi better be ready to sing with me when I get back for old times sake. That night we had a fun time teaching the Latinos English. We taught our Elder a bunch of extra phrases to use like "hashtag instragram straight flexin" and "summon your eagle powers." During the game at the end every time he won his round against another Latino in translating a phrase from Spanish to English he would turn around and say whatever we had taught him and it was hilarious!

So this email is really long and Monday and yesterday were pretty much normal days. Yesterday I got to go to the Temple and I´m just newly motivated and ready to go. I love the temple! I love it out here and I love you guys! The quote for this week is "Stand for something or you´ll fall for anything." Think about it :)

Love,
Elder Shell