Week 2: Christ loves and cares for every single one of us.

Week 2:

*CUIDADO*

NO DUERME CON LATINOS SI COMEN EN EL CCM!!!   (It gives them really bad gas)

Pues... Well, I only have 4 more days in the MTC. That was kind of fast, ha-ha! Next time I write I’ll be out in the field! There are three classes here in the CCM with about 100 missionaries total. The gringos are here for 6 weeks, those that know a little Spanish move up to 4 weeks, and the Latinos only come for 2. The food is pretty good. Lots of chicken and rice. And spencer, just so you know, I tried everything they had at least once. 

My district has 9 missionaries. The best way to describe my district is with a parable: We are like unto a large mug of hot chocolate with one marshmallow. So yea I’m the only white person in the two-week course. So much fun.

The first day when I woke up I had no idea what was going on. My companion jumped down from the bunk above me looked at me and said something really fast in Spanish. Which I did not comprehend in the slightest. He’s from Venezuela. They talk super fast and use a lot of slang. But so do the people in Barranquilla, so its good practice for me.

After the first day of being disoriented I started picking up on the Spanish a lot better. All my classes are in Spanish as are the devotionals and church and yea pretty much everything so the only time I speak English is at lunch or when we have our one-hour of futsal every day. So I have lots of time to practice. I taught my first lesson last Friday and we’ve been teaching an investigator all week. (a teacher pretending to be an investigator, and pretty rude one at that - she pulled out her phone in the middle of the first prayer.)

On Tuesday, I gave my first real blessing in Spanish. It was kind of crazy because we had just had a class on Sunday of how to concentrate oil and bless in Spanish and I actually gave one on Tuesday. Tuesday morning we had woken up at 5:00 am to go the temple and at breakfast my companion had a seizure. He apparently has epilepsy and didn’t take his pill the night before. So we stayed home that day. I gave him a blessing at his request that morning. Then at lunch, when everyone was back from the temple, he had another seizure because his pill hadn´t digested yet. (I know this because I saw it in his puke) So we went back to our room and a doctor came and checked him out.  Later he had another one, but this time he didn´t throw up. So I just held his head so he didn’t get hurt and told the president later. But his medicine stayed down so he’s all-good now!

I have been teaching English phrases to a lot of the Latinos in my district at night. Last night I helped Elder Paz write a note to his novia. It was really cool when they first asked me to help them because the first thing they all wanted to be able to do was to bear their testimony and learn how to pray. It’s really cool to see how many humble faithful servants god has in South America. They don’t have much as far as the world but they have a lot of faith and no fear to share the gospel with those that need it. 

Spiritual thought:  Alma 7 11-13 

These are my favorite verses on the atonement. The atonement of Christ really is the keystone of the plan of salvation. Without it we would have no hope at all of returning to live with our Father in heaven. I know without a doubt that He loves and cares for every single one of us. He knows everything about us knows-what we need, what we want, and what’s best for us. He made everything possible and all we have to do is rely on him. But sometimes even this can be hard for us. I challenge you to continue to read and study more about the atonement. We may never understand the love he has for us but the more we seek to learn the more we will understand and the more we will feel godly sorrow for our sins and seek to become more like him. 

Be good  

Hang loose 

Don’t eat the yellow snow.

Sincerely,
Elder Burk