Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Elder Zach Taylor - July 31, 2013

 

Elder Taylor
 
 
So this past week has been pretty darn great. I mean, nothing THAT exciting has happened, but I guess you'll just have to hear about it anyway. 

Last week we did our first service project here at the MTC, which was cleaning up the main administration building. My companion volunteered us for the fun job of wiping down the stalls in the bathroom. What a party. It actually wasn't too bad, but lets be honest, there are a lot of more enjoyable ways to do service. 
The Spanish has been coming along pretty well this week. Last week I memorized the missionary purpose, the first vision, and D&C 4 in Spanish. I feel pretty cool when we recite it in class and me and the teacher are the only ones to not have to pull out our scriptures. 
Another thing that happened was that we got a new teacher. He was actually our previous "investigator", which was cool. But we had all heard from the other districts that that would happen, so it kinda ruined the surprise... oh well. His real name is Hermano Miller. He's such a good teacher, and really fluent in Spanish. I have a hard time believing he didn't know it at one point. On Monday, he taught us a really good lesson about why we need the Atonement. He asked us if God is all powerful, why couldn't he just forgive us of our sins without having to sacrifice his son? Was it really necessary? We read in Alma 42:13-15 and it was amazing what is there that I had never noticed before. I'm excited to have him as one of our teachers for the next few weeks.
One of my other teachers, Hermana Christiensen, has been teaching us a lot about the meaning of our purpose as missionaries. She's really a great teacher and has gotten me SO pumped to go teach in Argentina.
I have another teacher whose name is Hermano Larson. He's crazy. He's supposed to be our language councilor or something like that.. but he's fluent in 6 languages!!! It's pretty crazy. I think they were Spanish, English, Mayan, French, Italian, Portugese.. and i think German. I could be wrong, but it's still pretty crazy! And he doesn't just know a little bit, he's FLUENT in all 6 languages.. it's so cool!
I saw that Jacob's companion got to say the prayer in the devo last night, so that was awesome to see Jacob and him sitting up on the stand. Random, I know, but cool. The devotional was really good, actually. The speaker talked about how our missionary work is not going to be easy, but we need to prepare ourselves for those moments when we find someone who will accept the gospel. He shared a quote by Winston Churchill, "What a tragedy it would be if that moment should find him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour." I'm definitely not going to be unprepared for that moment. 
Well, that's pretty much all I have to say for this week. Not a lot of funny or entertaining stories, but it's been good! I've seriously never felt closer to Heavenly Father for such a long period of time in my whole life. It's great! Well, nos vemos!
Elder Taylor
I didn't answer your question... my companion is from Sandy, Utah. 
 I do feel like the Spanish is coming along too! My classes go until 9:30.. well actually that's just personal study time. We can't go back to our dorms until 9:30. The actual classes end at 5:15. I feel like I understand pretty well.. my teachers speak pretty quickly, but I'm sure it'll be faster in Argentina. Here's my testimony in Spanish (excuse the accents):
 
Yo se que el Evangelio es verdadero y que el servir un mision va a ser un bendicion en mi vida. Yo se que mi mision va a ser dificil, pero con Dios, yo se que puedo hacer todas las cosas. Yo se que le idioma va a llegar a ser mas facil como yo practicarlo y usarlo cada dia, y que Dios puede ayudarme. Yo se que estan personas en Argentina que estan buscando por el Evangelio, y yo tengo que ser el persona que traerlo a ellos. Digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen. 
I know it's not long, but it's pretty cool to be able to speak Spanish so much! this is great.. haha I'm loving it!



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