Yet, Another One

Hola everybody!

 

So I have some exciting/crazy news: I will only be in the MTC for another 2 weeks and 3 days!! Crazy huh! Has it gone as fast for you as it has for me? Probably not... haha :) I'm excited to leave, but I will be super sad to go at the same time! I'll be sad/scared I should say, I feel like I don't know ANY Spanish, even though I know I do and I should be grateful I've been able to pick it up as well as I have because I know some people who struggle way hard with it. Someone said something way cool though about that, it was an Elder in one of our old districts. He said that once he stopped trying to learn Spanish for himself and started learning it for the people he would be teaching he was able to learn it much quicker. And I've realized that when I pray before doing language study if I pray and ask for help remembering that I'm learning it for the people of Colorado and if I pray for help in learning it, I remember a ton more of what I learn than if I don't pray... It's super cool!

 

I also just have some exciting news: Elder Scott came and spoke to us in our devotional last night and it was super good! It's the first time a member of the 12 has spoken here in like 3 or 4 months, so I was glad we were able to be here for it! When he walked into the room I felt the Spirit way strong, I had never had that happen to me before just by having someone walk in the room so it was super cool.This was his testimony: "I don't believe that Christ has a resurrected body - I KNOW He does.  I know that He atoned for our sins and that He LIVES." It was a super short testimony but it was really powerful. He also invoked upon us the Gift of Tongues, and said that it doesn't mean we don't have to study, but that if we sincerely try and have a desire than the studying will be much easier.

 

Elder Scott also said something really cool, "Don't judge yourself by what you think your potential is." I realized that we really shouldn't do that because with God we can do anything, but if we limit ourselves by not believing in ourselves we'll never reach our full potential, and we'll never reach our full potential without God. I have no idea if that makes sense, it does in my head at least... :) He also said, "Don't judge your capabilites by your past." Just because you couldn't do something in the past doesn't mean you won't be able to do it in the future. I really, really like that!

 

So we taught the first lesson (The Restoration of the Gospel) in Spanish for the first time on Saturday! It  actually went way better than I thought it would. I know that all my grammar and conjugating isn't correct, but I get across the message I want to. I always try to remebmer that because even our Colombian teacher who's been speaking English for 7 years still doesn't use correct grammar a lot, but we always (well, mostly) know what she's trying to say, so I can't get too caught up on the grammar stuff. I think what's going to be the hardest for me will be to not worry so much about remembering how to say certain words in Spanish, but just sitting back and listening to the Spirit and knowing that Heavenly Father will give me the Spanish words that I need to say, even if I don't recall at the time what they mean, I just need to say them because they're coming from the Spirit.

 

Cool conversion story of the week:

This girl got up in Relief Society and told us her conversion story. She used to live in DC and she was a devote catholic, her motto was "I was reared catholic, I am catholic and I'll die catholic." Well, along came the missionaries :) She said one day she was walking to karate class in a not so good part of DC and she saw these two little white boys (She's black so when she tells this story it's that much funnier because anything they say is funny :)) walking down this alley with big smiles on their face and she thought, "are they lost??" So she went up to them and asked them if they were lost. They said they weren't, but they had a message they would love to share with her if she had time. She said she didn't at that time, and she didn't want to invite them to her house because she didn't knwo them so she invited them to coffee (yeah, she was embarressed when they taught her about the Word of Wisdom... haha).

 

She said the first lesson in Starbucks lasted for 2 and a half hours! She kept asking question after question, not because she was interested in joining the church, but because she really was just interested in the beliefs of the religion. She said after the lesson she thought LDS people were pretty weird, but she agreed to let them teach her again. She gave them her number and went on with life. They kept calling her but she decided she really didn't want to hear anymore so she actually changed her cell phone number so they couldn't call her anymore!

 

Sometime later, I think at least 6 month, she was walking down the same alley and saw two more missionaries and she said she had no idea why, but something just pushed her to run up to them and asked them if they could come teach her. They said yes and the next day they went over to her house and taught her a couple lessons. The next time they went over she made them dinner and while they were eating they asked her if she'd be baptized. She said, "I'll tell you what, let's keep eating and we'll talk about this later." So they kept eating and she kept thinking about her Grandma who had passed away a year ago. Her and her grandma made pineapple empanadas the last time she ever saw her grandma and ever since then she gets these funny little signs through pineapples and she believes its her Grandma helping her throughout life (she hadn't told the missionaries this). So a little while later while they were still eating, she asked the missionaries, "What's the firs fruit you think of?" And they both looked up at her and said, "Pineapples." and she said the missionaries both looked at each other and she was all, "Being the 19 year old boys they were they both looked at each other and thought 'that is so cool we both thought of the same fruit!'" Hahaha, but then she said I knew that wasn't a coincidence, I know that was my Grandmother giving me a sign. So I said "Ok, I'll be baptized." She said the missionaries were really confused as to what fruit had anything to do with a decision to be baptized! Haha :)

 

I love hearing people conversion's stories though because they're all something super cool like that, something that just hit them like, "Oh my heck, this is the true church!" they do those every week in Relief Society and I LOVE it! I wish they would do just a whole hour of people doing that, I always feel the Spirit so strong when they're telling their stories.

 

Well, 4-square is officially my new favorite sport!!! I am known as Black Pearl in 4-square. Yeah, it's pretty legit. Hahaha :) It's so addicting. As my 4-square buddy Elder Quirante would say, "4-square isn't a sport, it's a way of life." Hahaha I love that kid, he left on Monday and I'm so sad! It stink having missionaries leave!!

 

Our purpose as missionaries is to invite other to come unto Christ. That doesn't mean just our investigators, but it means other missionaries, our teachers, our families so this I invite all of you to give thanks to God for something new EVERY DAY. Even if it's for the birds that you heard singing, or the fact that you can hear birds, if it's the fact that the sun was out that day, anything! Just give thanks.

 

Well, I must go eat lunch and then go to the temple! I will write next week and look forward to your letters :)

I love you guys!

-Hermana Roberts.