Week 4 has been amazing! In all honesty I am LOVING my life right now. I am finally getting along with my companion really well, and we are teaching lessons with unity, so that´s awesome. No we did not celebrate Labor Day here in Mexico, but the Mexican Independence Day is in two weeks so we practiced the Mexican National Anthem.....I still have no idea how it goes, but that´s ok.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this past week we did "Solo Español" which means we could ONLY speak in Spanish, NO ENGLISH AT ALL! So naturally I was terrified. However, those two days were super great! We planned in Spanish, played volleyball in Spanish, ate in Spanish, and did everything in SPANISH! The best part was that I actually understood probably 95% of what everyone was saying to me! I also don´t internally cry my eyes out when natives try to ask me questions! So that´s some major improvement.
Mexico is still crazy, but fun. The power has gone out quite a few times this week, which is always a good time. Elder Johansen and I went bird watching while reviewing our goals, and I cannot get over Mexican birds. I´ll send a picture of a parrot we found (Lauren might have to zoom in the picture so you can see it).
But really the main event of this week has been my spiritual growth. Life has been more or less the same for my day to day dealings, but I´ve had some really WONDERFUL experiences this week. I´ll share one of them.
Hermana Arno gave a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But in it we talked about the Atonement for a good portion of it. Alma 7:11 says,
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
Now where in there does it say that Christ suffered for our sins? Well it actually says that 2 verses later, but it is not included in the list found in verse 11. So what is verse 11 trying to tell us. I´ve had this lesson over and over again in my life, but this time it finally struck me that I NEEDED to apply this to my life. This day happened to be pretty rough for me. I was really struggling with my companion that morning, and it´s overall really complicated to explain so I won´t. I had felt so alone that morning, feeling like I had to come up with some way to make this companionship work, and I had tried everything I thought I could possibly do. But as we talked about this verse, throughout the entire lesson I just felt like I could hear, "I know EXACTLY how you feel. Now let me help you." I know that this was the Holy Ghost whispering to me comfort and peace from the Savior.
I am super out of time, so I´ll make this short. My companion and I are now friends. We don´t just tolerate each other, but we build each other up, and we help one another succeed. I wouldn´t trade him for anyone in the world because I have come SO CLOSE with my Savior this week, and I know that Elder Johansen is my companion to help me grow and become more Christlike.
So there are about 37 other things that I want to say, but alas, I must end. This email was super random, I promise that next week´s will be more focused and awesome. OK love you guys!
Elder Trevar Wayne Dahl
P.S. Elder Richard G. Scott´s devotional at the Provo MTC about Communication with God. Look it up if you want to improve your life in so many more ways than you can possibly imagine. I love this gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment