Hey Everyone! Another week of the CCM gone by and it is going great. A lot of really awesome things happened this week and I’m excited to tell you all about it.
Okay, to start off, I’m halfway through! Today is the halfway point of the CCM (HMTC) and it is crazy how fast everything has gone by. It is crazy to think that if I wasn’t learning a language, I’d be on a flight out to somewhere today. I am NOT ready for that yet, haha. This six weeks is definitely a blessing, I feel like I am still preparing to leave everyday, accomplishing a few tasks here and there. But I know these next three weeks are going to come fast, so I’ve gotta finish up on a lot of things pronto!
Next, the language! Spanish is actually going super well. This week didn’t feel like too much progress was made but that’s probably because we focused on more the teaching aspect of missionary work this week and less of the language specifics. But activities and expectations keep rising and I know I’ve made incredible progress up to this point and will continue for the next three weeks.
Alright, now on to the big event! The first picture shows it, but I actually went up to Morgan Utah and met my companion! It was really awesome actually seeing the guy I spend most of every day with in real person. He invited me to go to a really awesome mission prep class taught by his Stake Patriarch in Morgan, so I drove up and we saw each other and went to the class together. And man, it was absolutely INCREDIBLE. Some of the best, most direct, and loving doctrine was taught in those two hours. It really gave me a lot of knowledge and courage for the future of my mission.
Funny Story
So the mission prep class had just finished up and we were cleaning up and talking to a few people about how our district likes to do get-together zoom calls just so we get to know each other outside of class, and Elder Payne just was talking and then just stopped almost mid-sentence, and he had forgotten the word for something. It was something to do with clothing so I start naming off articles of clothing but none are correct. After a few guesses, I say “just tell me the word in Spanish” and he responds, “Camiseta!” and I go, “Oh, you mean a T-shirt!” (Camiseta is T-shirt in Spanish). Everyone had a good laugh and it really shows how Spanish is getting into our minds. Plenty of times over the past week have I forgotten how to say or spell a word in English just because I think of it in the way Spanish works. I guess it’s probably a good thing that proves we are learning Spanish, but it’s a bit of a pain sometimes.
Spiritual Thought
It would be terrible of me to have learned such awesome things at the mission prep class and not share it with you all! So I’ll give you the best part. The main point of the lesson that night was about 1 Nephi 3-4 and how Nephi and his brothers had to obtain the plates of brass from Laban. We learned that in Hebrew, the word “Laban” translates to “To make bricks”. Thus, in the story, Laban was a wall of bricks that was in the way of Nephi and his brothers doing the Lord’s work. In our lives, there may be many Labans that may try to stop us, but just as Nephi was successful ONLY *after exhausting his resources* AND *trusting in the Lord*, we too will be successful if we do all we can and trust in the Lord. It is up to us to do everything in our power until we get to that wall of bricks, which is when we trust in the Lord to make a miracle happen. I know that this is true, one hundred percent. Countless times in the last three weeks have there been things I thought not to be possible, but after fervent prayer, hard work, and direct trust in the Lord, have come to be achievable.
Pictures!
1. Elder Payne and Me 2. A little fun we had after finishing a Spanish wordsearch 3. The Elders decided to tuck in their ties as a kind of joke 4. My afternoon teacher playing an investigator and using mustache on zoom 5. One of the Elders actually fell asleep in class, only for a brief second
