Hello! So this has been
probably my favorite week of the MTC, or maybe of my life haha I'm on a
spiritual high right now and it's fantastic :D
Quick news:
Broke the pull up
record officially with 35.
Became Zone Leader :)
Found out we're
getting Ipads in March
I'm learning
Portuguese!
One of our districts
is leaving on Monday :( But that means we get all the stuff they can't fit, so
early Christmas! Haha
And...God has pretty
much directed every part of my week this week and it's been fantastic :D
So let me tell you WHY
this week has been so great :D Last Sunday I had the opportunity to teach about
recognizing the spirit, and when I was preparing it I realized that there was
alot of things that I could be doing better to make my MTC stay much more
effective.
Like for example
I'm using my "prayer journal" again, except a little differently now,
and it's made a world of difference. I say a good prayer in the morning, and I write
down the things I prayed for. And I always include "help me to learn what
I need to learn, in order to be the most effective missionary" or help me
and the people teaching me, to learn whatever it is I need to learn to be able
to touch the most lives, And to help me recognize the promptings of the
spirit. So anyways I write down all the things I asked for in blue, and I leave
a space on the page, then at the end of the day I go over how God had answered
my prayer, and how he had guided my learning...and boy have I gotten some great
insights this week :D So I'm sorry if this email ends up just being about
churchy stuff..but I am on a mission..that's kinda all we do haha.
There's LOADS of
things I feel like I've been prompted to do, and practices/habbits I should
start to help in the field in the future.
One was I need to take
some time and write a letter to God thanking him for my companion. For how much
the companion fits me, and helps me grow, and is a perfect match for me at this
time. When I write it, I get more insights as to why God wants me with my
companion, and then I can go back and read it whenever I'm struggling to have
patience with him. This companion is pretty great so I probably won't have to
read it much, but I feel like this could help alot in the future.
I Learned SO MUCH
about the Atonement. MAN it's my favorite topic! I was pondering why it says in
the scriptures "preach nothing but repentance" all over the place,
and other things like it.
When it feels like
there's so many other good things we need to talk about. Annnd I've realized
that in order to be truely converted you need to experience the atonement's
redeeming power. And that all of our commitments I give investigators need to
give them a chance to experience that power. All the good converts of the
church, in the scriptures had great experiences with the atonement. Like the
Anti-Nephi Lehi's, Paul/Saul or Ammon and the sons of Mosia etc. It doesn't
mean we have to be vile sinners in order to feel the Atonement'd saving power,
we're all vile sinners in our own way. The atonement is "The root of all
Christian Doctrine" The mission purpose "To invite others..." is
all about using the atonement. Elder Nelson said when he came "True
repentance is full conversion." When we truely repent, and realize what
extent Jesus did to save us, it because easy to follow him and his commandment,
it becomes easy to always remember Him. "The root of all Christian
Doctrine" is a good talk if you want to look it up. Anyways I've had lots
of insights about that this week. And I feel really blessed to have all these
insights now, before I'm teaching real investigators. It changes how I teach,
and changes how I pray.
Oh haha another one I
got is....Portuguese! Haha you're all probably pretty confused on that one. But
when I ponder during personal study time, what I need to learn to teach
effectively...I always end up thinking how much I wanted to learn Portuguese! I
mean it's like the most useful language ever...I could learn Spanish and French
and Italian super easily if I knew Portuguese! And could travel most the
world!
Haha that was my
reason for wanting to learn before the mission...now I feel like I've been led
to want to learn Portuguese to bless people in my mission. After I realized the
desire, I prayed for help learning it. And...I found all the Portuguese
learning books just while walking around! I have a Portuguese PMG, missionary
learning book, all the pamphlets, the grammar/verb card, the grammar learning
book...the whole shibang! There's also two Portuguese speaking sisters in our
zone that want to help me learn. They're actually called to Japan Portuguese
speaking haha One of them made me a set of flash cards :D Anyways all this
stuff just kinda appeared after I started looking. And I just found out that
alot of missionaries that go to Nagoya end up learning some Portuguese, because
there are lots of factories there and LOADS of Brazilian immigrants. I learned
that after I had already learned I wanted to learn Portuguese. haha So
that's exciting! I'm going to come back tri-lingual! :D Which has always been a
desire of mine :D Of course, I'm learning Japanese first, but I figure after 4
or 5 months of Japanese, I might start cracking into my Portuguese books :D So
we'll see how that goes.
Anyways..in
conclusion. When I completely gave my life over to God. To let him be the
teacher and the planner, and the speaking, my life got waaay better. Everything
just kinda works out how it's supposed to when I take the time to find out what
exactly I'm supposed to doing. It's something I've known for a long time, but
haven't applied it as much as I should have.
Oh! And for a proverb
or two :D
頭の上は得覆え Which is pronounced atama no ue no hae o oe. It means "And why behold-est thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider-est not the beam that is in thine own eye (literally...swat the fly on your own head). haha
Alright here's another
more serious one.
ならぬ姦淫する画家人 naranu kannin suru ga kan-nin. Which is patience
is found in bearing the unbearable.
So my teacher and my
companion make fun of me, and pretty much won't let me even talk about learning
Portuguese haha. Guess I'm learning patience.
Anyways thanks for the
prayers! They really help!
aishtemasu!
Elder Coleman
No comments:
Post a Comment