Usually after I finish writing emails I like to look up a talk to
print out and read during the week. Last Monday I had a talk all picked
out to read and then for some reason the internet in the library went
out and the printer wasn´t working and I couldn´t print one out and I
was super bummed. But then I got a letter from my Dad this week and it
had two talks in it! Such a small thing but it was a huge blessing to
me. My dad´s kind of awesome in case you guys didn´t know.
So
Tuesday we finally got to teach Patricio and Fallon. They are recent
converts and haven´t been to church in over a month. They have a really
busy schedule and it´s hard to find them in the house. The lesson itself
was alright but what made it a really good visit was when we started to
talk with them afterwards about their thoughts. It was such a cool
experience because I listened to what they were telling me I just knew
what to say. I wasn´t really thinking at all I was just talking and I
know that it was the spirit guiding my thoughts. I was able to think of
everything I had read in talks and scriptures and what I had read in my
personal study that day was one of the things that I felt they needed to
hear. I had a similar experience with Alex and Carola that night. We
were teaching them about how to have a family home evening. We were just
kind of throwing the lesson together on the fly and for the first part I
felt like it wasn´t the best lesson. But then at the end of the lesson
again I really just felt the spirit guiding my thoughts. I don´t really
remember exactly what I said but I felt like the lesson ended really
well and they were super excited to have an FHE the following week
(today). There are countless scriptures that promise that if you listen
to people and are pondering the teachings of the gospel throughout your
day that Heavenly Father will help you know what to say through the
power of the Holy Ghost. I know this promise to be true. D&C 82:10
says "I the Lord am bound when you do what I say but when ye do not what
I say ye have no promise." If we do our part Heavenly Father will
always hold up his end of the bargain.
Wednesday
I learned a ton in District Class. During our practice I was kind of
struggling to apply the points of the lesson to the need of my
investigator. We were practicing lesson 1 and I was like how am I
supposed to apply the apostasy (when the authority of Heavenly Father
was not on the earth) to problems with drugs and alcohol. Throughout my
struggles Elder Hyer said "You´re like me, a perfectionist. In time your
gonna be just fine." What stuck out to me was the first part. If you
know me, you would never think that I was a perfectionist. Heck, I´ve
never thought that of myself but as I thought about it that is something
I have been finding out about myself out here. I really want things to
do things exactly right and because of that I overthink stuff A TON. I´m
really finding out a lot about myself out here that I had no idea
existed. Anyways the practice actually ended really well. Elder Hyer
showed me an example and I really felt like I got better at applying the
points of the lessons to the needs of my investigators.
So
Thursday I had another slap of humility in the morning as I practiced
teaching more with Elder Ortiz. I felt like at the beginning of our
practice I was doing really well with asking lots of questions but as I
found his need and started into the lesson I just talked and talked and
talked. At the end of the practice he was like not gonna lie you bored
me. Just another reminder that I have a lot of work to do with my
teaching. I´m trying to be very spiritual all throughout the lesson and
people definitely need to feel the spirit but they need to be paying
attention to feel the spirit when your bear testimony. So that´s
something I´m working on a lot now. I need to be more animated in my
lessons and ask more questions so that when it´s time to bear testimony
they will feel the spirit. The rest of Thursday was hot hot hot and a
lot of walking. We didn´t teach anyone until the night time and that was
just a little chat with Alex and Carola to see how they were doing.
Friday
we didn´t find anyone all day until we saw Bernarda in the street and
she bought us some popsicles and we had quick lesson with her.
Definitely was working on my missionary tan Thursday and Friday. That
night for dinner we decided to order pizza. Problem was that they didn´t
have anyone running deliveries so we had to go to the pizza place to
pick it up. At the pizza place while we were waiting these two Chilean
guys challenged us to some fusbol. We played a quick game to 5. We were
down 4 to 3 but then I scored two quick goals for the come back win.
Kind of fun to play fusbol again. It´s been a while but that win goes
out to my college boys in Building 9 :P That night we were exhausted and
it was 9:10 and it was a ten minute walk from the house it was tempting
to just go home but we knew we had to try for one more person. On our
walk there who else was to pull up and offer us a ride to our
destination than our good buddy Chano. We were dead beat and it was the
biggest blessing in the world to get a ride to the house. Vanessa wasn´t
there but I felt really good about pushing the last little bit and very
grateful for the blessing Heavenly Father gave us for pushing the last
little bit.
Saturday we knocked an apartment
complex and ran into this guy about our age named Felipe. He was like
"what´s up?" Elder Ortiz just says "Can we come in and talk with you
about Jesus Christ?" And He was just like yeah why not. It was kind of
funny how quick it happened. Felipe is atheist and he asked me a
question in English cause he´s studying English in school. "Why should I
believe?" He was a super nice guy and he was open to learning and he
posed a really good question. After the question in English the rest of
the conversation was in Spanish. As I really listened to him as we
talked I really just felt the Spirit guiding me again. We actually had a
really cool visit and we are going back next week. I really think that
we might be able to have some success with Felipe. We walked all over
creation. Literally one end of our sector to the other to try and find
an open internet place after the lesson so we could print our informe de
progreso and nothing was open. Kind of lame to show up to coordination
with no informe but it happens.
Sunday was
really cool. Again we only had one lesson. It was with Brandon and
lessons with him are kind of like beating your head against a brick
wall. He just isn´t keeping any of his commitments. He's been baptized
for about a year now and at the end of the lesson he needed a reminder
of how to pray. I´m praying really hard to figure out how we can help
him. Regardless I felt really good about this week because we did our
contacts all week. I have never met my goal for contacts for the week
until this week and it felt so good. We also got more reference than we
have ever had. Sure we aren´t finding people at home but I feel really
good in the fact that we are doing our part in trying to find people.
My
quote this week is from Jim Rohn and I´ve probably shared it before but
I love it. "The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to
become the person it takes to achieve them." Really that is why we make
goals as missionaries and as people. The mission and really life is
about becoming. I know that as we set righteous goals and truly strive
to reach them that we will become the person Heavenly Father wants us to
be and that is a more Christlike person.
Love all of you,
Elder Shell
No comments:
Post a Comment