this week has been
pretty intense.
i've been learning a
lot. my companion Elder andrasko left this morning at 3 in the morning. so. i
didn't get a lot of sleep this last night. im finally starting to get into the
swing of things. feeling at home really. uh. i guess i'll go day by day of what
i remember.
on last friday. my
companion elder andrasko left me for the day. theres this thing that i have to
do tomorrow that is very valuable that he would miss because he would be
leaving the thursday before. (today). so he went to the one that friday. uhmm.
honestly all the days are kinda meshing into one. breakfast. exercise, class,
lunch, class, dinner, study, plan, sleep. so. class. my teacher sister dodds is
really awesome. she went to boise for her mission i think. she's really good at
getting her point across through the spirit and i have really learned a lot
from her. and my other teacher bro deppermann. he is also pretty cool but he's
more factual about how he teaches and so. but he's still a great teacher.
the food here is kinda
iffy. sometimes it's really good like. steak fajitas. and then other times its
like. a small block of potatoes and a slice of roast beef. so. i hope for the
best. honestly i don't eat breakfast in the cafeteria. i get a sack breakfast
of like. choclate milk, a muffin, a donut and some orange juice. it's all
pretty ok.
our study times here
aren't very effective most of the time. it usually devolves to us watching
mormon messages and talking than rather studying. but it's all good. i
got the emails from everyone in my zone so if i have email on the islands i'll
be able to send them cool pix and be like. hah my mission is the best!
i've really been itching
to get out into the field lately. especially after sundays and watching a
devotional from elder bednar or elder holland. and it just gets me really
pumped up and i actually wanna be there alreadyyyy! speaking of investigators
and such. there's a program here called the TRC (teaching resource center) and
at the trc we can teach fake or real fake investigators. like. people from byu
come and play that they're non members and we get to teach them a couple times
a week.
so far i've taught 4
people in the trc. dennis, lucia, aaron and nathan. dennis is the cutest old
man ever. he was in the army for a bit and has family and all. by the last
lesson we commited him to baptism. its was great. he likes history so he easily
denounced the catholic church talking about the inquisition and stuff being
like. 'yeah. it really makes sense that the apostacy really happened because
the real church of christ wouldn't torture people' he was really fun to teach.
then lucia. she was a
bit on the quiet side. a student of byu. it took a bit to open her up n get her
to talk about her feelings and getting her to commit to things but it all
worked out in the end. we didn't get very far commitment wise with her.
and then this week we
taught aaron. i am 100% sure he's actually mormon but it's all good. he's a
really enthusiastic story teller and he had explored a lot of different
churches. we commited him to prayer and reading of 3 Nephi 11. he was fun to
teach because we were making jokes and stuff, and then getting real interaction
out of him when it was time for the lesson.
anf finally nathan. oooohhhhh
nathan. he started out atheist. talking about how he grew up with no real
religion. and he had a lot of really odd questions but like. they made sense
where he was coming from. he asked like. 'what are the origins of god? i wanna
know where he comes from before i believe in him. what happens to the spirits
that are left in the pre existance when the second coming of christ happens?
will they just. not get a body?' all really good questions. questions i
didn't know the answers to and then after each visit i'd study up and try my
best to find the answers to his questions. he had taken religion classes from
byu so he kinda already knew all the basic doctrines.
one thing that i've
found is really hard is coming up with really good really thought provoking
questions to prompt interaction. like. they have to be direct enough so they
know it's not rhetorical. and they have to be simple enough to understand. and
you can't bring up doctrines you haven't brought up yet. ugh.. but im getting
slowly better i think.
i've been marking up my
scriptures a lot. going through preach my gospel page by page and marking all
of those scriptures. something im working on is knowing the references enough
to be able to call up a scripture in my head when im in the middle of a
lesson.
i leave for the airport
on monday at around noon. it's really bitter sweet because i don't know if i'll
see all of the members of my district ever again but. i want to be in vanuatu
already!
here's some pictures of
my zone and such. the guy with a bunch of acne and really great hair is my
companion.
that's all for now~
