This week has flown by yet again. I don't know what it is that makes everything seem to go by so fast. Maybe it is the lack of sleep or the large amounts of food but all I know is that the days are now flying by. This week especially because we have been teaching every week and the grammar we have been learning has been intense. I'm starting to realize the public english education I received wasn't good at all and I now know better grammar in Armenian than english.
Anyways! Last Thursday went without much event other than our first TRC which, for those of you who haven't been in the MTC, is where we teach return missionaries who speak armenian. Elder Morely and I were definitely not prepared at all to teach and were not looking forward to the experience at all thinking that it was going to be painful to try and understand someone fluent in the language and expecting us to teach them an actual deeper doctrinal lesson to uplift and edify their spirits. But we went in and both of the RM's we taught were so friendly and nice. The first one walked up to us and gave us the biggest hug ever because he was so excited to see us and be there. Automatically loved him. Even though our lesson wasn't that great and our speaking really wasn't that great, it was really cool that they both took time out of their schedules to come let us teach them and to feel the Spirit. Pretty cool if you ask me. If I end up staying at BYU after i get back, i might have to look into that. So that was the highlight of the evening of thursday other than receiving mail from everyone. I know understand how my little buddy Jack Williams feels when he receives mail. SO EXCITED!
So continuing with my week, Friday was kind of a downer because I realized I was missing out on Emily's birthday which made me kinda home sick and miss everyone but thankfully everyone in my district are really supportive here and cheered me up the best they could. But still. Hope all is well in NOLA! So Friday Elder Morley and I taught our investigator Samvel and it went so well!! We taught him about how prayer can help him and his family. Even though at first he thought that meant that God would give him money to feed his hungry kids, he finally understood that he would be blessed in other ways. So he accepted our invitation to pray with his family until we met with him again. And that is that! Saturday I found out that I am 1/5 missionaries ever to be sent to speak Armenian outside of Armenia! I was so stoked about that but I also realized that I would probably either be stuck with the same Armenian speaking companion in Cali for long periods of time or be stuck with another language speaking companion. Guess time will tell! But Saturday Elder Littlewood and I realized that he is now on my..... umm...... 'schedule' at around 2 o'clock. Some may not understand this but people that know me, will.
Sunday was yet another typical Sunday consisting of boring meetings and blah blah blah but to my surprise, I didn't even fall asleep in any meeting! Probably because our Branch President, President Mickelson, didn't speak in sacrament who is very monotone in his speach and is just a bundle of joy to listen to....... But instead we were taught by one of his counselors, Brother Laney, who is like the Master scriptorian and can connect scriptures and make talk references to conference like none other. To give you a little hint at how intense he is, his scripture journal is probably 15 pound binder with papers that are as this as maybe 1 and a 1/2 dictionaries. Crazy! He likes to pick on me because somehow he knows Grandpa DeBry and so yeah. I get called on a lot which helps me to stay awake. Sunday night we also had a very good devotional by Brother Allen. I know this is bad to say but I honestly can't remember the exact topic but I just remember it was very good and intense. So look it up! Monday was the day that I realized how enthusiastic my teaching companion, Elder Morley, is about this work. While we were planning our lesson for Artur he would just get so excited and want to do so much with him and it kinda took me back a second but made me love him even more because he is goofy and is a very good missionary. But because we planned so well for our lesson, our lesson with Artur was so awesome! We taught him about the Holy Ghost and used an object lesson with my nerf hoop and ball and making him try and make the basket (eternal life) without the light on (the holy ghost) and then we had him do it with the light on and he really understood it all. So when we asked him to be baptized he said that he would when he understood a little bit more of our doctrine which was amazing because no one else had a response like from their investigators so we were on cloud 9 after our lesson to say the least :)
Tuesday I received word from Mom about the hurricane in NY. We haven't heard anything officially about the storm but just what people's parents have sent them in emails and such. It sounds massive and I hope everyone is okay that is there so if anyone would like to keep me updated via dearelder.com, it would be much appreciated! I hate being kept in the dark with this kind of stuff going on in the world. But second thing, while our district was at lunch some elderly man came and sat down with us at our table and just started talking to us and it wasn't until a few minutes into the conversation that we realized it was President Brown, the MTC president! So that was kind of cool. He is very knowledgable and liked asking scriptural questions to fill our lunch time. Then later that night we had a devotional with Elder Clarke of the 70 and it was such a good talk. He talked about how we as missionaries need to help those we serve, our ward, our family, our ward leaders, and so on. Very informative and powerful. And lastly was yesterday. Morley and I taught Samvel again and followed up on his committment to pray with his family. He said it brough peace to his family and so we are definetely ready to go into deeper lessons. I am starting to make friends with other elders not from our Zone from gym and some other elders on my floor so that is nice to not be stuck with the same people all the time.
Time here in the MTC really has been great. Yes it is busy and stressful and mostly busy but it is really great learning this language and speaking it everyday, teaching these investigators and getting to work with other great elders. who have been bugging me lately some of them but others I have grown closer to. But unfortunately my time is up for today so farewell for now. Hope all is well with everyone at home and like I said, i love getting mail :) I love you all.
Elder Tanner Clark DeBry
No comments:
Post a Comment