Hola Hermanos! Buenos Dias!
This week was fan-flipping-tastic. I have a lot to tell you about then I hope I can share more of my spiritual experiences and things I've learned throughout the past few weeks because it's been such a growing experience for me.
First off, P-days. I'm just as confused as you are, I really am. I have no idea when they're gunna be, it seems to change. Just be prepared for anything. It's okay that I didn't get a lot of mail today though because now I have more time to write! I'm not kidding about that I'm actually really relieved that I get more time to write everybody this week. I am almost 100% confident that P-day will either be on Tuesday or Wednesday but with this CCM I think that anything can happen. P-days here are awesome though! They're only three hours including writing but they're the best three hours of my life. They let us go out into Santiago and go explore and shop around, which is sooo much fun and a great cultural experience. Riding in the taxis is always a little adventurous though, it's amazing how they change lanes when you're absolutely convinced there's not enough space to merge. Today we took a taxi to a mall near the CCM called Paris. I bought a jacket there because exercizing in the mornings is freeeeezing without one and I've been killing myself every morning because we didn't think to pack just a normal jacket. We also went to a place called Dominó and bought real Chilean completos. They. Were. So. Good. They were better than anything I've had in my entire life. Okay a little exaggeration but they were flipping wonderful.
So last week we watched the Copa America championship game between Chile and Argentina in the CCM and it was awesome. Chile hasn't won Copa America since it started (100 years ago) and Chile and Argentine are rivals so this game was a BIG deal. The game went into sudden death and then to whatever that part is that happens after that and Chile won!!! It was amazing, the whole CCM (90 people... so that's not actually saying much) did the Chilean cheer and celebrated before our classes resumed. People were honking all night. No exaggeration, all night. The roads are closed Sundays though so it was silent on Sunday but then the honking resumed all day and all night Monday. The people of Chile were a taaaad excited.
So hymns don't translate between English and Spanish well and sometimes it's really funny. For example, "Come, Come ye Saints" is called "¡Oh, Está Todo Bien!" which in this case mooost accurately translates too "Oh, it's all good." So next time you sing Come, Come Ye Saints and you get to the "all is well part" think of it as "it's all gooooood, it's all good." And you will laugh silently in your head. Don't laugh out loud though because you'll be singing a hymn you fool. Also there's another hymn that's called ''¿Por qué sommos?'' which translates to "Why are we?" Yeah I have no idea what that hymn is.
Earthquakes happen here all the time! It's kind of exciting actually. Every now and then we'll get a little jolt and the door will shake or someone's waterbottle will fall off the table, but once in the morning I woke up to my bed shaking a bit for a good thirty seconds. It's exciting! We get em all the time in Utah but never feel em so I'm not used to earthquakes just being commonplace.
One more thing then I'll tell you about my week, Hermana Doll and Presidente Doll are some of the best people you could ever meet. Ever. Hermana Doll makes cookies for every missionary at the CCM every week, and sometimes twice a week if we have fhe that week. Also my teachers are absolutely wonderful here, and they all have the most excellent Chilean accents you'll ever hear. Hermano Antileo is a flipping stud. That's the one that served in Knoxville with Bri, and he is a stud.
So, this week! I want to start out by saying that I absolutely love it here. LOVE it here. I'm not going to lie, last week was hard. There was a lot of adjustment that all happened very suddenly, I didn't get the privelage of going to the MTC in America I had to dive in head first into Chile into a tiny little MTC that seems disorganized and kind of a mess, and all of my expectations about the MTC were defied. Like all of them. The first day even though I wasn't consciously fearful I had a lot of anxiety to the point where I wanted to throw up all day. I think my subconscious knew how much my life had just changed even if my conscious didn't, so I was very sick. But I was blessed to overcome that quickly, and I learned a lot that week and this week about charity, about hope, about the Spirit, about my purpose, and about the nature of the atonement that I'm sure will change my life forever. I'm expecting getting into the field to be similar. I'm assuming my expectations will be defied, that I'll probably be very anxious at first and wonder if I like where I am or if I can do this, then with the help of the Lord I'll adjust and relearn my pupose. It was hard, and it'll be hard, but through the Lord all things are possible. I've recieved revelation through multiple mediums (prayer, study, advice from all y'all) that has helped me realize what I need to do in order to feel the Spirit while I'm here, and that has caused me to realize that I've never had a stronger connection with God than I do right now. The communication has never been this fluid, this common, and this life-changing in my entire life. For that I am very greatful. A part of the lesson I learned was that in order to get the Spirit you simply have to strive to be a better missionary, in all aspects. Better planning, better study, teach by the Spirit, every factor to missionary work. The second thing I learned was that by striving to live all of the Christlike attributes and setting goals to improve one specific attribute really helps you have the Spirit, fulfill your purpose, and be excited about the mission. The last and most important thing I learned was the importance of charity. If I'm not loving my companion, if I'm not loving my district, if I'm not loving every single person in the CCM (which isn't very hard, again, only 90 people) then I can't feel the Spirit. It becomes impossible. This week I've become very close friends with my companion, my district, and the 80 other missionaries here, and that has made all the difference. In fact, 5 districts left us last night (a group comes in every two weeks and a group leaves every two weeks) and even though I've only known them for two weeks it was actually a pretty emotional experience. With such small numbers you really become close with everyone, especially when only 50 of them speak your language. So those are the lessons I've learned in a nutshell!
More details about the week! Classes are coming along great, I'm working as hard as I can to do everything and make my daily language goals all day (unless it's a break time or a meal) which I feel has made a huge difference. I can express most of the things that I want to say in our lessons with our investigators in Spanish now, which makes learning how to teach people much easier. Spanish really is the most simple language to learn, of course I'm nowhere near comfortable with the language and when a Chilean is speaking as fast as they normally do I do not understand a lick of what they are saying, but I have faith that that will come with time. Teaching has also gone a lot better, me and my companion have learned a lot about teaching investigators in these two weeks and our skills have improved immensely. We've been able to get both of our progressing investigators to open up to us and tell us what's wrong in their lives, and by teaching them based on their need we've been able to commit both of them to baptism. Of course since these are our first two weeks they go easy on us, but I'm just happy at how much we've improved at teaching and speaking the language as much as we have these two weeks. Sadly tomorrow we're changing teachers and progressing investigators (since the investigators are the teachers) and I will miss them all, but I know that the new ones will be great too.
So this time I'll close on more of a spiritual note. The Lord has been with me a lot this week, I have really felt His presence and His atonement strengthening me and shaping me into a better person and into a better missionary. The days are starting to fly by (I can't believe it's been 6 days since last P-day) and before I know it I'll be setting foot on Rancagua soil, not understanding anything that anybody is saying. I want you to know that I already love the people there, the Lord has immensely blessed me with charity for the people of Chile and the people that I will teach. I also love Chile, despite pollution and traffic and awful gross buildings and just about everything else here in Santiago I've already fallen in love with this country. It is so special, and I feel God's love for the people wherever I go and I feel God's love for this blessed country. We fasted last Sunday for rain because Santiago hasn't gotten rain for over a year, and after we fasted it has rained constantly all week. God really loves these people, and it's no surprise why. I love the Lord and I love my mission, I'm already feeling the Lord shape me to be a tool in His hands. I love my savior very much, and I am more than willing to give these two years to Him and to the people of Chile. Soy un misionero por La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Dias. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.
Love,
Elder Fox
This week was fan-flipping-tastic. I have a lot to tell you about then I hope I can share more of my spiritual experiences and things I've learned throughout the past few weeks because it's been such a growing experience for me.
First off, P-days. I'm just as confused as you are, I really am. I have no idea when they're gunna be, it seems to change. Just be prepared for anything. It's okay that I didn't get a lot of mail today though because now I have more time to write! I'm not kidding about that I'm actually really relieved that I get more time to write everybody this week. I am almost 100% confident that P-day will either be on Tuesday or Wednesday but with this CCM I think that anything can happen. P-days here are awesome though! They're only three hours including writing but they're the best three hours of my life. They let us go out into Santiago and go explore and shop around, which is sooo much fun and a great cultural experience. Riding in the taxis is always a little adventurous though, it's amazing how they change lanes when you're absolutely convinced there's not enough space to merge. Today we took a taxi to a mall near the CCM called Paris. I bought a jacket there because exercizing in the mornings is freeeeezing without one and I've been killing myself every morning because we didn't think to pack just a normal jacket. We also went to a place called Dominó and bought real Chilean completos. They. Were. So. Good. They were better than anything I've had in my entire life. Okay a little exaggeration but they were flipping wonderful.
So last week we watched the Copa America championship game between Chile and Argentina in the CCM and it was awesome. Chile hasn't won Copa America since it started (100 years ago) and Chile and Argentine are rivals so this game was a BIG deal. The game went into sudden death and then to whatever that part is that happens after that and Chile won!!! It was amazing, the whole CCM (90 people... so that's not actually saying much) did the Chilean cheer and celebrated before our classes resumed. People were honking all night. No exaggeration, all night. The roads are closed Sundays though so it was silent on Sunday but then the honking resumed all day and all night Monday. The people of Chile were a taaaad excited.
So hymns don't translate between English and Spanish well and sometimes it's really funny. For example, "Come, Come ye Saints" is called "¡Oh, Está Todo Bien!" which in this case mooost accurately translates too "Oh, it's all good." So next time you sing Come, Come Ye Saints and you get to the "all is well part" think of it as "it's all gooooood, it's all good." And you will laugh silently in your head. Don't laugh out loud though because you'll be singing a hymn you fool. Also there's another hymn that's called ''¿Por qué sommos?'' which translates to "Why are we?" Yeah I have no idea what that hymn is.
Earthquakes happen here all the time! It's kind of exciting actually. Every now and then we'll get a little jolt and the door will shake or someone's waterbottle will fall off the table, but once in the morning I woke up to my bed shaking a bit for a good thirty seconds. It's exciting! We get em all the time in Utah but never feel em so I'm not used to earthquakes just being commonplace.
One more thing then I'll tell you about my week, Hermana Doll and Presidente Doll are some of the best people you could ever meet. Ever. Hermana Doll makes cookies for every missionary at the CCM every week, and sometimes twice a week if we have fhe that week. Also my teachers are absolutely wonderful here, and they all have the most excellent Chilean accents you'll ever hear. Hermano Antileo is a flipping stud. That's the one that served in Knoxville with Bri, and he is a stud.
So, this week! I want to start out by saying that I absolutely love it here. LOVE it here. I'm not going to lie, last week was hard. There was a lot of adjustment that all happened very suddenly, I didn't get the privelage of going to the MTC in America I had to dive in head first into Chile into a tiny little MTC that seems disorganized and kind of a mess, and all of my expectations about the MTC were defied. Like all of them. The first day even though I wasn't consciously fearful I had a lot of anxiety to the point where I wanted to throw up all day. I think my subconscious knew how much my life had just changed even if my conscious didn't, so I was very sick. But I was blessed to overcome that quickly, and I learned a lot that week and this week about charity, about hope, about the Spirit, about my purpose, and about the nature of the atonement that I'm sure will change my life forever. I'm expecting getting into the field to be similar. I'm assuming my expectations will be defied, that I'll probably be very anxious at first and wonder if I like where I am or if I can do this, then with the help of the Lord I'll adjust and relearn my pupose. It was hard, and it'll be hard, but through the Lord all things are possible. I've recieved revelation through multiple mediums (prayer, study, advice from all y'all) that has helped me realize what I need to do in order to feel the Spirit while I'm here, and that has caused me to realize that I've never had a stronger connection with God than I do right now. The communication has never been this fluid, this common, and this life-changing in my entire life. For that I am very greatful. A part of the lesson I learned was that in order to get the Spirit you simply have to strive to be a better missionary, in all aspects. Better planning, better study, teach by the Spirit, every factor to missionary work. The second thing I learned was that by striving to live all of the Christlike attributes and setting goals to improve one specific attribute really helps you have the Spirit, fulfill your purpose, and be excited about the mission. The last and most important thing I learned was the importance of charity. If I'm not loving my companion, if I'm not loving my district, if I'm not loving every single person in the CCM (which isn't very hard, again, only 90 people) then I can't feel the Spirit. It becomes impossible. This week I've become very close friends with my companion, my district, and the 80 other missionaries here, and that has made all the difference. In fact, 5 districts left us last night (a group comes in every two weeks and a group leaves every two weeks) and even though I've only known them for two weeks it was actually a pretty emotional experience. With such small numbers you really become close with everyone, especially when only 50 of them speak your language. So those are the lessons I've learned in a nutshell!
More details about the week! Classes are coming along great, I'm working as hard as I can to do everything and make my daily language goals all day (unless it's a break time or a meal) which I feel has made a huge difference. I can express most of the things that I want to say in our lessons with our investigators in Spanish now, which makes learning how to teach people much easier. Spanish really is the most simple language to learn, of course I'm nowhere near comfortable with the language and when a Chilean is speaking as fast as they normally do I do not understand a lick of what they are saying, but I have faith that that will come with time. Teaching has also gone a lot better, me and my companion have learned a lot about teaching investigators in these two weeks and our skills have improved immensely. We've been able to get both of our progressing investigators to open up to us and tell us what's wrong in their lives, and by teaching them based on their need we've been able to commit both of them to baptism. Of course since these are our first two weeks they go easy on us, but I'm just happy at how much we've improved at teaching and speaking the language as much as we have these two weeks. Sadly tomorrow we're changing teachers and progressing investigators (since the investigators are the teachers) and I will miss them all, but I know that the new ones will be great too.
So this time I'll close on more of a spiritual note. The Lord has been with me a lot this week, I have really felt His presence and His atonement strengthening me and shaping me into a better person and into a better missionary. The days are starting to fly by (I can't believe it's been 6 days since last P-day) and before I know it I'll be setting foot on Rancagua soil, not understanding anything that anybody is saying. I want you to know that I already love the people there, the Lord has immensely blessed me with charity for the people of Chile and the people that I will teach. I also love Chile, despite pollution and traffic and awful gross buildings and just about everything else here in Santiago I've already fallen in love with this country. It is so special, and I feel God's love for the people wherever I go and I feel God's love for this blessed country. We fasted last Sunday for rain because Santiago hasn't gotten rain for over a year, and after we fasted it has rained constantly all week. God really loves these people, and it's no surprise why. I love the Lord and I love my mission, I'm already feeling the Lord shape me to be a tool in His hands. I love my savior very much, and I am more than willing to give these two years to Him and to the people of Chile. Soy un misionero por La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Dias. En el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.
Love,
Elder Fox
No comments:
Post a Comment