Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Week 4 at the MTC

OH WOW!
I sure learned my lesson this week ha ha. Also another lesson as well. So we are just starting to speak more Spanish now and starting to outline the lessons in Spanish. well the plan of salvation, lesson 2, is hard! And in Spanish it's worse ha ha cause there's different tenses you have to use which is confusing. So the other day we practiced lesson 2 in Spanish for the first time just winging it and it took me FOREVER!!! The language is just all jumbled right now in my mind and I still need to learn more vocab everyday so I'm struggling to get it all organized and use it right. Well I was frustrated, and for this last Sunday the 18th or whatever the topic for everyone to write their 5 min talks was the plan of salvation.! Since I was called last week, the counselors wife said I wouldn't be called again cause they like to hear from other people. So I started to write my talk and then quickly got frustrated with my language skills or lack thereof and quit. The next day, Sunday, we went to church and had opening exercises and then of course they announced the speakers right before they are supposed to speak. Well he called an elder up and then he said MY NAME!!!!!!!!!! You can imagine the shock on my face and on everyone else in the congregation! ha ha! They all looked back at me and I was just in shock mouthing to them, "DID HE REALLY JUST CALL ME AGAIN?" Everyone was like ....uhhhhh! ha ha including me. I couldn't believe it! ha ha So I was like well, I guess I have to, so I had to borrow my companion's Spanish scriptures and she was nice enough to find me a scripture because I was just sitting there flabbergasted not having a CLUE what I was gonna say! and ONLY having gone over it in Spanish ONCE!!! ha ha OH NO!!! So I took up the lil plan of salvation pamphlet that I had and opened it up to the diagram and just looked at that and had one scripture in mind and ended up not using my companions, so as I awkwardly walked up to the stand I stopped to make sure that they wanted me to talk and said...."Well I talked last week" and Brother Jergens, who is always stern and blunt and kinda intimidating said, GOOD. lol. So I had no idea what I was gonna say. At first I said awkwardly... "surprise..... para mi!! (for me)" ha ha and everyone laughed. Then I wanted everyone to know that I hadn't prepared a talk ...and to kinda rub it in brother Jergens face secretly, that I was still doing it off the top of my head. I went for it though and talked mostly about the pre-mortal life, the fall and the atonement. And I did pretty dang good! The words just kept coming to my mind and the conjugations!! Luckily I was reading about the Plan of salvation in that pamphlet before church. And the lord just totally helped me!!! ha ha I kept looking at the native speakers for the support and when I would say a word with question in my voice as to whether or not it was the right conjugation they would smile and nod at me ha ha. Then when I bore my testimony the spirit definitely came and helped any lack of speaking ability. This whole time the two counselors couldn't understand me because they both speak German and no Spanish!! I was kinda bummed because I did pretty dang good for barely going over the lesson! Then brother Jergens had to give me a hard time on the stand and kinda scold me that I wasn't prepared but whatever. ha ha. I learned the lesson to always be prepared which I normally am! But my companion told me something different. She said that she really didn't think it was to teach me to be prepared because she said that I was always prepared for lessons and everything, but that it was a lesson to trust in the Lord and not in my outlines or talks! To follow the spirit and do and say what the Lord wanted me to say! I hadn't even thought of it like that but it's totally true! Trusting in the Lord may seem hard at times because we like to know "now!" and control our lives, but just remember that the Lord is the one in control and will watch over us and we need to trust in him. So I learned two lessons that day!! ha ha.
The best way to be prepared spiritually is to always study the gospel and the words of the Lord and the prophets and understand them...then you can do anything and say what the Lord wants you to say, like what was doing....hopefully ha ha. Read D&C 84:85
I would like to challenge everyone to read their scriptures (particularly the B.O.M.) for at least 10 min each day and I promise that if you do that, your day will go so much better and more organized or whatever! Try it for a week and see how it goes!

Pues, LES AMO!!! I love you guys!
Hasta La Vista BABY!
Tawny
PS....might I add that Sunday....the line for the showers was horrendous!!! and I didn't have time to take a shower that day....so naturally....the day I don't shower and am not prepared I get called A SECOND TIME in a row to speak!! ha-ha
OH AND they called me up because they forgot that I went last week!!!! THEY FORGOT! They said I was a good sport and a trooper and so did the native speakers who thought I did really good. ha ha. I don't mind that I got called up again...just having to do it in Spanish for the first time was the only part I minded.

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