Ahoj, moje rodino!!!
Jak se mate? I trust all is well on the homefront - the mission front is doing just great! It's amazing how time flies here - I'm over halfway done with the MTC already! WOW! To think, that in less that 1 month I'll be in the Czech Republic - it's exciting to consider and I'm ECSTATIC to get over there. I hope you got my letter with the photos - did you deliver the Jensen's letter by any chance? In any case, know that all is well here and I am truly loving this work.
Sestra Bean has recovered and his back in our regular schedule, which is wonderful. She said thanks so much for your prayers and putting her on the temple prayer roll. She was out for a couple of days in the sick bay for recovery, but is doing well, and I think that there will be no delay for her in getting to the Czech Republic with all of us. We are all so happy for her!
A new tradition was born yesterday in our district - we were sitting in our classroom during language study, all having a little bit of "cabin fever" in our blood, when I heard Sestra White and Sestra Bean start to sing hymns together. After their song, we asked if we could join them - so with Sestra Bean on soprano, Sestra White on alto, Starsi Smith on tenor, and me on bass we started just singing a couple hymns all together - it was so wonderful and brought us all some peace and sanity, which is always good. They don't allow us to play music from our iPods here, including hymns, because of problems they had in the past, so it's so nice to get a taste of good music through our singing. We actually sound pretty good to boot!!! The harmonies are very nice, and I think we're going to try to make this a daily tradition.
Gym continues to go well here - for the past couple of times, I've gone outside with Starsi Salas, Gabrielsen, and Heath. We all run 2-4ish miles together, then stretch our for a bit. Starsi Salas and I also like to throw a frisbee around together afterwards and talk, which is a lot of fun. We've become great friends, and we also like it when Starsi Gabrielsen and Heath join us. We all are so different, yet still have so much in common. How cool!
The language continues to go well - at times, when I think of the enormity of the task of learning Czech, I get a bit overwhelmed - but it's at those times that I have to remind myself that I've only been speaking Czech for 5 weeks, and it is a miracle that I know what I do already - the Lord truly is mindful of his servants. A couple funny and neat language/teaching stories from the week:
On the 2nd, we taught Milan again, which went very well. We talked about repentance and the infinite nature of Christ's atonement for us. The funny part, though, was at one point in the lesson, I wanted to say "through the atonement, we can overcome sin...", but after I started the sentence, I couldn't remember the verb "to overcome"! So i said "Skrze usmireni, muzeme..." then, after breaking, I punched the air a couple times (with sound effects of course) and said "hrichy!" Everyone laughed, and Milan understood the principle, which was good. We all had a good laugh from that one, though.
Last Thursday, we also taught in the TRC, which was wonderful. We were nervous going into it - we were teaching on revelation through church attendance all in Czech - but as soon as we prayed and entered the practice rooms with the Czech Return Missionaries, my fear melted away. How wonderful is the power of the Spirit! At one point, however, we were teaching a Czech RM, Dan, and I bore my testimony about Sacrament meeting and revelation. I had a definite gift of tongues experience - I don't even remember thinking in English and translating it in my head like I usually do. I think I actually thought in Czech. Wow - 4 weeks?! Really?! The Lord must be on my side - I could never do that alone. I don't even remember everything I said - but I said it. In Czech. The spirit was very strong - what a powerful experience that was.
I've been working on setting more challenging goals for myself to stretch my learning - and it's working! Last week, I had the goal to finish the end of Romans and 1 Cor., read in the BoM daily, finish Preach My Gospel while taking notes in the margins, and memorize completely both the singular and plural declination charts, on top of preparing for teaching our investigators - and somehow I did it all! The Lord is truly helping me in every respect here - it's very rewarding to set challenging goals that I'm not quite sure I can finish, then to accomplish them.
Our teaching with Jarka is going well also - she really has wonderful desires to follow God. Here in the MTC, we have to remember to "teach people, not lessons." I think we're getting better at that. Investigators of the Church and potential investigators won't care how much we know until they know how much we care. (I love that line!)
One goal we have as a companionship in our teaching is to speak more evenly and in tune with the investigators individual needs. I have a tendency to speak a lot...oops...haha, you know me - I just love to talk, and get so excited teaching the Gospel! But this is a learning experience for ALL of us, and so we're working hard to balance our talking time. I have to remind myself often, but I am truly astounded and humbled at the task I have of learning Czech - I have learned SO much, yet still have so much left to learn. I can already predict myself arriving in Czech and having a "Best 2 years" moment when we get there - "What language was that, (Starsi)?" "That was (Czech)" "Oh man, am I in trouble, cause that aint the language they taught me in the MTC." Haha - But i just continue to learn every day and try my hardest.
I love getting your letters so much - they make my night every time I sit down and read one! Thank you for that, and the balloons - they're fun to play around with. The address book sounds great - could you also send Kate Connor's address with it? I have a letter to send her :)
Know that I love you and I love this work - it truly is the work of Heaven. Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God, and Jesus is the Christ - our advocate with the Father. I love my Savior, and I love missionary work!
Until next week,
S laskou,
Starsi Mullen
No comments:
Post a Comment