Well, I'm finished with week 6 and into my 7th week. Woohoo! Let's start replying to things, shall we?*
Firstly, Jordan. I forgive you for not sending much, I can't
imagine what it's like to be as busy as you are right now^^ No but
seriously, I remember what it was like in High School at the end of
Senior year, esta bien. I'm excited to see what you do with comedy, make
sure you keep me updated, brotha!
Braden. Hi.
Moving on... Chiste! Hehe, so I'm glad you're enjoying SC II,
Braden, it's super good and I would totally miss it if I didn't have the
fulness of the everlasting gospel or whatever^^ You're totally upping
my rep in SC though, which is sweet. Sounds like you rule at that game.
You've grown how many inches, you say!? Crazy stuff. And I'm glad that
you and Jordan have fun times riding in his car. =P
Will! It'd be sweet if you knew German fluently by the time I got
back. Work on it, because I want to be bilingual buddies too^^
Adam - Times are sometimes rough on the mish, it's true, but a
mission isn't supposed to be easy. If it was, we wouldn't stretch and
grow and all that goodness. Gracias por su ejemplo, diligencia, y
palabras de consuelo.
p.s. You're nuts if you think indirect object pronouns are fun^^
Mom and Dad - Sorry that you got sick! That's too bad, but I'm glad
mom was at least able to enjoy her birthday first. It's funny that you
mention the pea story, dad, because I just told my district that story
last week as well^^ If you could get Bro. Olson's email address and ask
him if he wants my emails forwarded, that'd be nice. I liked hearing
from him (he sent a letter thing through MTCdelivery.com? No idea what
site that is, but it worked^^) and was able to translate his entire
letter from Spanish to english with no help. Sure, it was a shortish
letter and I'm sure he simplified it for me, but I still felt good^^
Okay, now for everyone. I had an AWESOME TE experience with my
companion this last Wednesday night which will probably take up the
majority of the remainder of this email**.
So, we're teaching this progressing investigator named Taylor (it's
obviously a returned missionary volunteer, but this is good practice
for the field) and she is TOUGH. She's the one I've mentioned before
that tore us apart in Spanish. Well then last week we taught her in
English because she was way too hard in Spanish. Aaand, well to sum up
how we did, when we were about to leave last time we were bearing
testimony of what we'd taught about God and she said to us, "So you're
saying that you know God is a man (referring to body of flesh and bone,
creating us in His image, etc.) because a ghost told you?" And, we had
no time to recover because then she kinda kicked us out so she could go
to bed, she had school in the morning and all that.
So it was rough. This Wednesday as we were about to teach her again
I had been thinking of ways all day that we could teach her, and I kept
thinking that maybe we should just drop her. But my companion and I
prepared anyway and we went. We were both super nervous, but we had to
do it. So, we go in and start the appointment thingy.
She is always in character so there isn't any time to get advice
from the actual teacher (Sis. Lucero), we just have to go right into
things. Well, we asked her how things were, got to know her a little
better, and she told us about school. She studies Anthropology, which we
knew before and I connected to her with it because I want to study
Psychology, which is similar-ish. Anyway, she's telling us about the
challenges and how she, being a T.A., had been told recently that she
would start teaching class. A class full of her peers. So she was
nervous and it was hard but she thinks she did alright and she's both
happy and stressed about the opportunity.
Then, she asked us what high school was like for us, because she
had to write a paper on the challenges high schoolers go through. So we
told her, and mine had a lot to do with the social aspect, not enjoying
fake people and not being able to talk to people I didn't know very
easily.
After we talked about that for a bit, I said, "Doesn't it seem
interesting to you that someone like me, with all my social anxieties
(spelling?), would volunteer to go on a two year mission for my church
and talk to everyone I can about the church?" To which she replied,
"Yeah. I hadn't thought about that. That IS interesting. Why do you do
it?"
And thus it was turned to the gospel. We read scriptures and
applied them to our and more importantly HER life. Nephi 3:7 was great
for her in knowing that she can do hard things. I quoted mom her and
told her that we can all do hard things. Told her about that mantra and
varied it to say "I can do hard things with the Lord preparing a way".
Anyway, more scriptures, more applications, and I would go more in
depth but I'm running low on time. Point is, the spirit completely
guided the lesson. She was still her same old difficult character, and
had some hard questions, but when I was stumped my companion took over,
and vice versa.
About halfway through, as we were again testifying of God after a
good scripture about Him, she said, "I think I know that God exists as
you say He does. I think He has to be like you say, because I just feel
it and I WANT to know like you know."
We were smiling so big when we told her that she could know for
herself. We continued with some beautiful scriptures on prayer, Alma 37:
37, and asked her if she would pray to know as we testified of the
blessings and that God IS there and LOVES her. She started tearing up
here. The actual TE person, who knows the gospel already, started
tearing up. It was so powerful. As we ended the lesson, we kneeled down
and had her pray a wonderful prayer to her loving Heavenly Father. It
was amazing, and it was only a piece of what I will be experiencing in a
few short weeks. She went from our least favorite progressing
investigator in the TE to our most exciting one. We can't wait to go
back and have already scheduled multiple visits for the next two weeks.
I know that the church is true. I feel the burning in my chest that
is the Holy Ghost even now, as I think of how she felt it and described
it to us. I know that God and Jesus Christ live, love us, and want the
best for us. I am so happy to be where I am and to have the great people
back home rooting for me that I do. I love you all!
Con Amor,
Elder DeFreese
*Yes, I'm with my companion so much I say "we" when it's unnecessary^^
**I can do math!
p.s. Did sean get my card? Much love! Bye^^
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