First of all I wanted to thank all of you who have written me! The letters are a great pick me up at the end of a long, hard day. I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping focused throughout the day. I try to do the best I can to avoid having any idle moments. I know that the Lord has promised to substantially help me in this work, but that help will only come after I have exerted all of my energies and faculties into preparing me for this work.
We have been teaching "investigators" just about every day. Basically, we go into a room and contact a person. We get to know them a little bit, and briefly tell them who we are and what our message is. Then, in a return appointment, we teach them lessons about the Restored Gospel, the Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is all done in Portuguese. It's up to us to study vocab, phrases, grammar, and whatnot in order to teach these people. We do have classes where we are instructed on some of these things, but their main focus is on how to teach, not how to speak Portuguese. You basically will only learn the language here if you really want to...let's just say that I REALLY, REALLY want to learn to speak the language.
There's quite a difference that manifests itself between those who are motivated and those who are just along for the ride here. There's Elders who have been here fore 7.5 weeks that sound like they got here yesterday, and there's Elders who have been here 4 days that sound like they've been here for a month and a half. Pretty amazing how that works.
Anywho, My companion and I have been teaching Pablo, a 16 year old student who is learning English. We also teach Regina and Jonas, a 50 year old couple. Most of the responsibility of teaching, sharing scriptures, and asking questions to our investigators falls upon me. My companion is still very limited as far his Portuguese goes. This is just my guess, but I might be safe in assuming that he thinks the language will come to him sooner or later, especially when he gets into the field. I've told him a few times, that every second spent learning or trying to study the language in the field is a second that could be used to find, teach, and change someone's life. That's what I use to help motivate myself. I'm doing everything I can to try and get my companion to see that too.
I know I've said before that I'm learning fast here, but I want to put it in perspective. It took me 3 years to learn how to conjugate, use, and memorize all of the present, preterit, and imperfect tenses of Spanish. My companion and I made a goal of trying to do that same thing with Portuguese, but in only 10 days. We thought it might be a little (I say little sarcastically) ambitious to make that goal, but we felt that it would be a good challenge for us. We stated our goal with a prayer for help from the spirit to enlighten our minds and strengthen our memories. Needless to say, I accomplished that goal....in 36 hours. I'm not saying this to brag. What took me 3 years in school without the spirit, took me a day and a half with the spirit. I wouldn't be able to learn this quickly or effectively unless the Lord himself wanted me to for some special purpose. My guess is that purpose is to spread the Gospel in the Portuguese language. We will see with time if that truly is why I have been so heavily and substantially blessed.
I'm pretty amazed at just how simple the Gospel really is, and just how easy it is to know if it's true! Anyone, and I literally mean any human being on this planet, can know for a fact, for themselves, and from God that the Book of Mormon is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's church on this earth. If you don't already know or believe this, please don't take my word for it. I'm hundreds of miles away in a little place called the MTC. Get on your knees, by yourself, and open up your heart to God. Ask the Father, Creator, and Master of us all if the work (which I'm gladly giving up 730 of the best days of my life for) is true! Listen to the feelings and thoughts that enter your mind afterwards. Surely they will be calming, peaceful, and full of simplicity. What do you have to lose?
I love you all, and I know that Our Heavenly Father does too. Do something this week to bless the life of another, and see what happens...I have a feeling you won't regret it.
Until next time,
Elder McKinley
No comments:
Post a Comment