July 17 2013

I am half way through my MTC experience! I can't believe how much I have learned in only three weeks about Portuguese, good teaching skills, the Gospel, and the blessings of obedience and having faith in the Lord. I truly know that being set apart truly makes a difference in my efforts. I think I've learned about as much here on my mission in three weeks than I did for a whole three months at home. It is amazing how much the Lord has been helping me as I put my best foot forward. Some funny instances have come up with our steadily improving Portuguese, though, which always makes life a little more humorous! In one of our lessons with Bruno we wanted to ask if he would commit to baptism and asked "Queres ser batismo?" Turns out that actually means, "Do you want to be baptism?" Sister Call and I got a kick out of that! But I must say that we are light years ahead of where we were the day we arrived into the MTC, which is always a fulfilling thought.

In particular Sister Call and I have been striving to learn how to follow the Spirit in our lessons to be able to effectively teach what the receiver really needs. We've been scratching our heads for good questions to ask our investigators to facilitate great conversation and the ability for our investigators to open up their thoughts and feelings. On Saturday we had a substitute teacher that happened to be an acquaintance of mine who recently returned from Portugal-- Kyle Lemperle. Our lesson was exactly on what I mentioned above: finding out what the investigator needs and using the Spirit to meet those needs. It was a lesson I don't think I'll ever forget! We took ten or so minutes to get to know Kyle and what was going on in his life, and then as a class we had to teach him. As we planned for a few minutes as a class I proudly thought that we should talk about relying and trusting on the Lord to guide us in making life long decisions. I mean after all Kyle is in a time to figure out what career path he wants to choose, right? Well as we discussed, one Elder (who I am sorry to say that I didn't take him seriously at all) suggested that we talk about service. Just then Kyle walked in and we started our lesson off with a prayer and me sharing Proverbs 3:5-6 about trusting in the Lord, but as time went on the topic slowly shifted to service. After the lesson Kyle admitted that service after his mission was a difficulty in his life and that the message we shared was exactly what he need to hear! Wow I was on fire after that because that class was the first time I've seen that successfully happen in Portuguese! I can't wait till I'm in Portugal for several months and I can be on fire with the guidance of the Spirit! Sister Call and I applied what we learned when we taught a new investigator named Geo for the first time. Sister Call kept asking simple, yet thought provoking questions that really helped us mine out what Geo feels and thinks and wants and needs. I am excited to teach him more!