Hey! The CCM (MTC in spanish) is great. The past 7 days have been amazing. My whole life has just flipped around for the better. I know I am not the best I can be at all because I still have two years left to grow even bigger. I don't know why people don't like the CCM, it's so spiritual and it is just so fun!! My companion is Elder Hansen your not going to believe this but he is just like my brother Jacob except he is 10 times slower and talks 10 times less. Most relaxed kid I know. The other day he was telling a story about animals and this was his story. "My mom took in a stray cat once." That's all he said to me like that whole day and when I asked him to finish his story he was like "thats all I had to say." He is way cool though. My other roommates are Elder Foster, y Elder Lythgoe!! He is my favorite. We do splits all the time together. He is super funny and chill!! He was a temple worker in the san diego temple. How sick is that?
My district is way sweet. Everyone is way chill!!! Elder Passamore is from Cali and he is the biggest Cali bro surfer. He has been in the Volcom house and everything! Big surfer!! He is so funny and knows the gospel well!! Then there is Elder Rindlessbacher (love that name) he is my favorite. He has such a strong testimony. He came here two years ago and had to return home early. He came back again a couple weeks ago and on the first week he broke his leg. So he had to be here another 3 weeks, but then he got another missionary call from President Monson saying that he is now in a spanish speaking mission. He just got moved to this district and is in here for another like 7 weeks!! He is a little older, but I really admire him because you can just tell he wants to be here and he really has the strongest testimony ever. You just know he loves the gospel and loves it here.
So spanish blows! I have taught 4 lessons to my investigator Ana in spanish. First lesson sucked. I didn't understand a word she said and I didnt understand a word I said!!! Second lesson went a little better. I asked her to be baptised, wish I did it on my first lesson, but got rejected. To be honest even though she's a real member pertending to be an investagator of the church I was sad to hear her say no. Then 3rd lesson we taught her how to pray because she would just randomly stand up walk into the corner of the room and start praying. Honestly weirdest, funniest, thing I have ever seen. The first time I prayed to start the lesson she just stood up and did that. When I finished my prayer she just kept going for like 20 min. I didn't even know what to do because I was happy she was praying. She would pray to the trinity though, which a lot of catholics do. We fixed all that. She prays good now, like normal. Our 4th lesson we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would pray about it to see if she should, but she commited to at least reading 1 verse =) It doesn't sound like a lot but it really is a lot coming from her!!! It's a little frustrating when teaching because I'll feel the spirit to say something and my companion will just say no in the middle of saying something, because he is scared that we wont know how to answer her question in spanish or something. It totally takes the spirit away. It's really frustrating!!
If there is one thing I have learned here it's - we are not here for us!! We are here for our investigators. Everything we do is for them and their needs!! I mean yeah we may not be able to communicate that well, but we need to know her or his needs to help them get a better relationship with their Father in Heaven!! It is frustrating some times not being able to understand them 100 percent, but thats why all my efforts go to the investigator. Personal study I study doctorine and scriptures that will help Ana get closer to Heavenly Father. When I'm doing language study I study the vocabulary I will be using in my next lesson to help her. That's why I am here. I'm not here to just increase the members of this church. I am here so that we can bring people closer to their Father in Heaven so they can live with him again!!
The other day we were practicing and I was teaching my companion, pretending to be an investigator (germon). I was bearing my testimony on why we should be baptized and how much our Heavenly Father loves us! As I was doing this the spirit just hit me and I thought of my family and friends and how much I love them. I want them to be able to live with our Father in Heaven too!
Elder Daniel McKenna
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