Week 3

This week was definitely the best I’ve had yet. We started what are called TRC's this week. TRC's are basically just set up appointments with people who are interested in the church. They come to the MTC and we teach them every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I think we are supposed to believe they are real life investigators, but most people think they are either new converts that still have a few questions about the church or less-active members that are still willing to hear more about what missionaries have to say. So we got set up with a guy named Mauricio. Mauricio is 22, he is studying English at BYU, and came to America from Bolivia. He is a really cool guy and we are already friends. For our first lesson, we were planning to take about 20 minutes of the 45 min lesson to get to know him. Learn his likes, hobbies, about his family, and basically everything he would tell us. It was pretty fun. He told us a little about Bolivia and shared with us some stuff about Argentina. He says empanadas are amazing (I already knew that. I’m in love with them) and about Mate, and the ice cream and how crazy hot and humid it is there. I honestly can’t wait to get down there. So, we taught him the basic first lesson about God being our loving Heavenly Father. We also taught him how to pray and that God answers our prayers. We usually teach them something close to this because its a good way to learn about the investigator's religious history, what their beliefs are, and what needs they have. From what Mauricio told us, he loves the ideas of Eternal Families and how much the church blesses and teaches families. He also told us he comes from a Catholic family. So the first lesson was really good. Well, except for when my companion tried to talk about the first vision without having it memorized. We got stuck there, but ended up telling Mauricio we would research more about it and teach him more on Wednesday. 

Before doing TRC's, my companion and I didn’t know enough Spanish to hold basic conversation. We had to write down our lesson plan, word for word. That kind of stunk for a few reasons. First, lesson planning and studying took FOREVER. Our teachers told us our lesson planning should take no more than 30 minutes. We would have to spend upwards of 1.5 hours to 2 hours on one lesson. And then when we taught, it would just be us reading out of our notebooks so we wouldn’t be using what we’ve learned or feeling the Spirit. We would ask questions, but that was dangerous because we wouldn’t know what they were saying in response. All we could say after they replied was "Si" a lot and nod our heads. But by this week, we had learned enough Spanish to hold basic conversation and ask questions. And when we asked questions, we could understand what they were saying! Its crazy how powerful the Spirit is and how well the Gift of Tongues works. 

Our second lesson with Mauricio was on Wednesday and we taught him about the Godhead, the Apostasy, and the First Vision. It went really well. My Spanish was kind of choppy and slow, but I got my point across with the words I know. The only speed bump we had was when he asked us where we find Prophets. I thought he meant like where does the prophet live, so I told him President Monson lived in Salt Lake. But I guess he was asking how they are called. We didn’t really know how to answer that in Spanish, so we just told him we would share more during our next lesson. 

The third TRC lesson was the best lesson we have had in the MTC. We taught about Prophets and the Book of Mormon. During our last lesson, we left him the Restoration of the Gospel pamphlet and asked him to read it. He did and came with some questions for us. It was really cool because we hadn’t prepared for the lessons he asked about, but we still answered them pretty well. I have some pretty decent Spanish skills now. It is pretty crazy. The Gift of Tongues is real. I know it is. Mauricio accepted our invitation to Read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it to know if it is true. 

On the way back from the temple this morning, we ran into Brad Wilcox. Brad freaking Wilcox. Just passed him by the fountain outside the temple. He shook our hands and told us he was going to be speaking here at the MTC on New Year’s Day. It pretty awesome. I also got a haircut today.

Well that’s about it. All the cool guys in the Zone are leaving this weekend. Bummer

Can’t wait to hear from you guys. 

Love,

Elder Haley