Hola,
I can't believe my CCM experience is already half-way over! Crazy! Anyways, things are going well at the CCM. It's becoming easier and easier to teach in Spanish. I'm learning new words every day. Some of the grammar is hard, but I can still kinda get my point across during lessons.
Speaking of which, we have been teaching two investigators a week for the last couple of weeks: Adrían (Hermano G) and Nesha (Hermana A). Our lesson on Friday afternoon was probably the hardest experience so far at the CCM. Nesha has big word of wisdom problems, so we were going to try and teach her about the word of wisdom (she actually steals alcohol from the liquor store where she works). When we got there to teach her she was drunk, and was actually drinking during our lesson. We started out explaining how to pray, and when I gave the opening prayer, she leaned over to Elder B and asked "Can I repeat what he's saying?" Then when we stared explaining about the word of wisdom, she just wasn't having it. She didn't want to listen to us, was shutting down everything we tried to say. Then she gave us the ultimatum: "If you can show me one scripture in the Bible that says not to drink wine, I will stop. I won’t drink again." My mind blanked. I was confounded. For all my study of the Gospel, for all my knowledge of the scriptures, I did not know a scripture. It was humbling. It was incredible learning experience. After our lesson, I got a distinct impression during our class. Hermana A mentioned that we need to trust in God. Up until this point, Elder B and I had been using scripted out lessons, because we didn't feel like we could speak well enough. But I felt very distinctly that we need to stop using scripts. So now we write up our lesson plans, think about what we want to teach, and then we just go in and try our best to speak by the Spirit. Our lessons have improved so much since then.
On Saturday, we experienced TRC for the first time. Instead of teaching our teachers, we teach real people. And you don't know until you get in the room with them if they are members, less actives, or real investigators. Needless to say, we were a little nervous. We ended up teaching a member, Eric. He is very active in the church, but his Dad and brother have been less actives for 20 years. We didn't really know what to share with him, so we shared a message about the restoration, and tried to explain that just as the church had been restored, his family could be as well. We encouraged him to keep sharing gospel messages with his Dad, and to just keep inviting. Also on Saturdays, we do a service project during our gym time. This last week, we got to sweep some of the areas around the Thomas S Monson building. We got to talk to the janitor a bit, he knew some English. It was fun to talk with him, and after we were done sweeping, he called us his "homies." The dude was pretty cool.
Sunday is by far the best day of the week here. Literal gifts from heaven. During priesthood, we studied the encounter in Moses 1 between Moses and Satan. We talked about how we are literal sons of God. Pretty cool lesson. Elder B ended up getting picked to speak in Sacrament meeting this week, and he gave a good talk on service. Presidente S also spoke about experiences from his mission, and about how our attitude as a missionary is super important. After lunch, we had a class with the MTC President, Pres. Tenorio. He talked about a lot of things, but he also showed us his conference address from 2007 when he was a member of the 70. It was kinda weird, and he looked pretty different. It's a good talk if you want to look it up. Octaviano Tenorio, 2007. During Devotional, we listened to a talk by Elder Bednar about 5 things that a PMG missionary needs to do and understand. But then, during our weekly Sunday night movie, we got to watch "The Testaments"!! Such an awesome movie. I always feel the spirit during the atonement/Crucifixion scenes, as well as when the Lord heals Helam, the dad. Powerful film.
We resumed our lessons with Adrian on Monday. Adrian is our nice investigator. He will do anything we want him too, but his wife just isn't on board with him joining the church. We asked him to invite his wife to our next lesson with him, and he said he would, so we'll see how that goes...Also on Monday, we had Zone FHE, and one of the departing Hermanas shared a powerful poem about how we are all stuck in holes, and we need to take stones and sticks to build a ladder to get out. But, our ladder will never reach high enough, and that is when Christ lowers his rope to us to pull us out. And once we are free from our pit, we need to feed his sheep, and tell others to build their ladders, calling down to other holes to have hope. It was really good.
On Tuesday, we had a bit of redemption. We taught Nesha again in the afternoon. We wanted to make this lesson really good after our last lesson with her. So, at the start of the lesson, I straight up told her, "We cannot teach you while you are drunk. It is impossible for you to learn from our message if you are going to be drunk when we come. You cannot feel the spirit." She looked a little surprised, and then she agreed. We proceeded to reteach her about the Word of Wisdom, and about having faith that God will provide a way for her. At the end of our lesson, she told us about her strong desire to change, and then we were able to commit her to baptism. Afterwards, Hermana A said that our lesson was "perfecto." (YES!). She also congratulated us on the progress we had made since our first lesson with Jaqueline. She was impressed at how we had decided to not use scripts anymore. Our lessons keep getting better, but there is always room to improve.
Let me conclude with what happened this Thursday morning. We had the awesome opportunity to attend the open house of the newly refurbished Mexico City temple! We loaded up on the buses, and sang hymns as we got to leave the gates of the CCM. I was once again reminded of how crazy Mexico City traffic is. They're crazy here. We got to look in the new visitor center, and I ran into a friend from BYU, Hermana J. It was so exciting to see her! I was walking down a hallway, and I hear from behind me, " Hey! Elder Mitchell!" We only got to talk for a minute but it was good to see someone from BYU.
The temple was amazing. The Mexican architecture and artwork is incredible. The temple is the largest temple outside of the US, and is one of 5 temples where the angel Moroni is holding the gold plates (just some fun facts). It's a huge temple. They have escalators. Yeah. ESCALATORS. INSIDE the temple. and not just one set, they got a lot of them. It was an awesome experience.
We'll see how the second half goes here at the CCM. Hope all is well!
Love,
Elder Mitchell
No comments:
Post a Comment