how are you all doing!?? I have so much I want to share with you all! So first things first my companion! His name is Elder Rivas and he's from El Salvador! He is super chill and nice. But unfortunately he is hands down the hardest person to understand in the entire CCM. His super duper quiet little voice combined with the mumbled,slurred, and fast words, is a no go for Elder Millard. I probably understand 30% of what he tells me. Guys the Latinos can't even understand this guy! How is a guy like me supposed to be capable? Hahaha i think that if I learn to understand him, I will be set for the rest of the mission. So I have been kind of disappointed regarding the companionship because when I decided to switch districts, I was looking forward to having an upbeat ready to go companion that would help me learn spanish! Instead I got one who says 10 words every day. Don't get me wrong, I´m grateful for the opportunity to learn something from this. I know that I am placed with every companion I have, for a reason. I´m excited to grow from this but wowzers it has been difficult.
On a brighter note, my district!!! Guys I am in love with my district! It's just so so so cool because they come from all around the world, and I get to learn so much from each of them!! The two other Elders in my room in the casa are both absolutely incredible. Even though I can't get in much conversation with Elder Rivas, I am on a roll with Elder Bolaños and Elder Chavez. They are the real MVP's. Also my new teachers are really good too! I am blessed to with so many opportunities to learn from quality people.
So I have some words regarding Elder Bolaños who is in my same living quarters. He is such a quality guy and we hit it off as soon as we met each other. None of the three Elders in my living quarters speak any English, so I have had the amazing opportunity to teach it to them! Elder Bolaños is the only one who is taking initiative and actually trying to learn this language and I really appreciate his effort! It makes me so happy when he tries so often to say different things. And at the same time, it is the most fun thing I have like ever done haha. I've taught him all the basics and I've had him practice with some other gringo Elders. I feel like a proud father when he says "Whats up??" and "How are you doing" and the other Elders are just in awe hahaha. Elder Bolaños would say "Are you curing me" soooo often towards the beginning of the district so I did my duty and told him it is actually pronounced "are you kidding me?" and now he says it at the perfect moments and it's just the funniest things. He will also always say "Whatchu say??" and everything is just so funny because he's got his thick Columbian accent.
So it's actually a requirement in our distrct for the Latinos to be able to pray in English the first week and share their testimonies in english the second week. So it hasn´t just been Elder Bolaños who has needed my help. One common thing I have found is how hard the "th" sound is for them! It's legitimately impossible for them! My Teacher will always say "When latinos count in English, it goes: uno, dos, arbol, cuatro" because arbol means tree and whenever they try and say "Three" it definitely sounds like tree hahaha. That makes it hard during prayers because we say "we thank thee" so often and they just always say "we tank tee" hahaha but they are all progressing and it is my favorite thing in the world to hear their prayers in English every night.
So my birthday was super good! I was already in the Latino district at that time and the Elders in my living quarters woke me up by singing happy birthday in english with a little cup of cereal for me! It was just what I needed haha. That was all that I needed, the rest of the day I basically forgot I had just turned 19! But one of the best birthday presents of the day was when I got to leave the CCM to go to my comps dentist appointment. At first I was kind of annoyed that I had to go but it turned out to be amazing! It´s always fun to see the city. But get this. I had to wait for no joke two hours during my comps appointments and I was just waiting in the waiting room among the other patients. So of course I started talking to them! I ended up talking to this woman for about 30 minutes and I was able to converse really well with her! Long story short, she is going to ask for a book of mormon from her nephew who is a member, and she really seemed interested in reading it! It was such a cool experience to teach her. Even though I lacked the words for a lot of things I wanted to say, I know we could feel the spirit and who knows, maybe she'll end up getting baptized! It got me really motivated for the mission field. At times its hard to keep the motivation in the CCM because you´re not out among the people you want to teach! I am really grateful I had the opportunity to do that.
The night before my birthday, the other Elders and I were in bed about to fall asleep when we noticed the light was on in another room. None of us wanted to get up so Elder Bolaños decided he was gonna try and work his magic and say "tres, dos, uno" and then clap. When he clapped nothing happened, so I told him "es porque usted no tiene el poder". - "you dont have the power!" now it was my turn. I said "tres, dos, uno" and you better believe those lights shut off at the exact moment I clapped my hands. We were all basically in tears because we were laughing so hard. It was honestly probably the climax of my life up to this point. It´s not gonna get much bettter than that.
I got to play the piano for another devotional! And truly it never gets old! Yet again is was such a fun experience. The music directors husband came up to me after a practice and said that he has already told Hermana Kimball (my mission presidents wife) about my piano skills so it looks like I have something to live up to haha. One sad thing about this past devotional though was my terrible cough! I have been a wreck the past few days! I was sitting up on stand, next to all of the CCM president during the devotional in front of the entire CCM and I had to get up and leave for a while because I was coughing so hard. Sad day. I hope that will get better soon. Right before the choir performed, I was looking out in the audience and I made eye contact with Madeline Black! She had just arrived that day! Ahhhh it was so fun to see her, and Lexi Reeves who I worked with last summer. Joe Felix, and Luke Smith also arrived tuesday! I love living in Utah county haha.
So yesterday, my teacher asked me to come and be an investigator for the new batch of missionaries that had just arrived, so during service time, I changed into normal clothes, without my tag, and had to look as much like an investigator as possible. So I ended up being the investigator for two different group and it was so much fun! But guys. Let's just say I was probably the worst choice to be an investigator. They usually try and make it hard to know if the person is a fake investigator or not but I was sooooo obvious haha. Heres why. 1) I had played piano in the devo the night before. 2) I only have mountain view shirts so everyone knew that I was from orem and was probably mormon. 3) I knew at least one of the missionaries in each of the classes I was the investigator for and it took all of me to not burst out laughing when I saw them. Haha Madeline was just in the back laughing the entire time. Moral of the story, they should not pick people from utah county to be investigators if they´re trying to make it seem realistic hahaha. Good times.
Every day since I came into this district, Elder Bolaños would sing "and I........ will always love you" and it is the funniest thing. Probably not an hour goes by without that song. There are so many other ones that they ask me to sing and it´s so hard to control myself because that´s a way I can connect with Latinos! We definitely jammed out to let it go, by passenger, and mine by bazzi, and all of their other favorites. But only for a few seconds and then we'd go to hymns haha. I love my district so much. There is an Hermana names Hermana Genis and she makes me laugh soooo hard hahaha. She has the female equivalent of a Mason Peterson laugh for all of you who know Mason hahaha. We are so bad for each other because we will just laugh for so long haha. There is an Hermana Gonzalez in our distrct who is fluent in english and soanish so she has been super helpful too. My district is the best.
We had an Elder named Elder Gonzalez who had to go home this morning. Yesterday we had such a powerful testimony meeting regarding repentance. We were all bawling the entire time. Elder Gonzalez is doing a hard thing to go back home and make things right. But it´ll be worth it when he returns. I really value all of the testimonies in my district, and I was able to understand all of their testimonies when we all talked about repentance. This is what it's all about. We invite people to repent and come unto Christ. I hugged Elder Gonzalez in tears for at least three minutes after his testimony. He is so strong, but he needs the support of his peers and family and God to get through this. I´ll never forget last night.
Things are good here in the CCM! I get to run with Garrett Faragher sometimes which is good, it still rains so hard so much hahaha. I get at least ten quarter size mosquito bites every night, and most of our free time in our living quarters is chasing those buggers around and trying to kill them haha! I have woken up in pain from those bites, and from my cough but I feel strengthened to still be completely compatible to push forward and get to work.
Today I got to go to another dentist appointment! this time I brought a book of mormon! I was able to talk to two different people and it was so amazing! It was so frustrating to not be able to speak my mind clearly but I was able to give away a book of mormon to a guy who is genuinely interested now! A CCM worker who drove us to the dentist said that my ability to just talk to everyone is going to be what brings me success in the field. It´s been such a cool thing to already be out preaching to the people outside the CCM walls while I'm still in the CCM!
And I´m gonna need another drumroll...... I´m zone leader again!!! HAha i thought I was off the hook! Me and Elder Rivas are now the zone leaders over four district! Three of which our latin! I´m looking forward to working again in this position.
We got to go to the Mexico City temple today and it was so awesome! It was so cool to do the session in spanish. It's a beautiful temple!
I am so blessed to be in a Latin district. I am sooooo happy I made the change. I have developed amazing relationships with all of the people in my ditrict. I love them all so much. They have so much experience in different cultures that I love to learn from. Out of the 11 people in my district, so many of the countries in south america are accounted for. I love them all so much, and I love my mission so much. I have felt the spirit so strong here, especially in the scriptures.
To be straight up, I have always had a hard time with prayer, I struggle to find it´s power and influence, but the power is always manifested in the incredible scriptures. And particularly the Book of Mormon. So many verses have struck me so hard. It´s crazy how sometimes you can read a verse and it wont really mean anything but then youll read it at a different time and it can change your life.
I recently came across Alma 56: 44-48 and it hit me pretty hard. Helaman was giving a speech to the strippling warriors before battle and he said "Therefore what say ye my sons, will ye go against them to battle?" now they had never fought before, but they cared more about the lives of their fathers than of their own. and helaman said "yea, they had been taught by their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them." the strippling warriors said "we do not doubt our mothers knew it". I am so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing mother. She has taught me that God will deliver me if I do not doubt. I am ready to go to battle because of her. I am ready to face any challenge with her help, and the Lords help. Guys we all have trials and struggle, but if we do not doubt, god will deliver us. I testify that is true. He has given us the scriptures as a guide in our lives. We also have our amazing families and wards to help out. I know all of you can overcome anything, if you do not doubt. So what say ye, my family and friends, will ye go against them to battle?
Elder Millard
No comments:
Post a Comment