May 13, 2014 - El Don de Lenguas

Que paso? 

I had a way cool experience on Monday morning. My companion and I were preparing a lesson for one of our investigadores in one of the rooms in our building and I had come into the main room to get my scriptures. As I was glancing over everything for my desk, I saw both my english and spanish preach my gospels on my desk. I read the title of my big one which was my Predicad Mi Evangelio and then I looked at my little one, which is my Preach my Gospel. When I read the title of the english one, though, it said Predicad Mi Evangelio. Then when I looked back, it said Preach My Gospel again. It was such a testimony builder for me and helped me so much realize that the Lord can do anything and that I will be able to learn the language because He has sent me here to learn and to teach and bring others unto Christ in the spanish language.

The MTC has been really good! I love my companion, and the other companionship that we are always with, who live with us. The food is okay. We never really have a choice of what to eat. They just have one main course for us. Its not very good for you, but it tastes fine. There is always donuts and cookies and cake and all that junk, and it is no bueno. We ate at main campus today, and they have it so much better with hundreds of choices. 

Teaching in Spanish is way hard. So hard. It is really cool though because you really do have to speak with plainness and simplicity and rely on the Spirit to help you with the rest. We have two investigators right now. One is Mario, and he is awesome. He reads everything that we ask him to, and we just got him to pray with us for the first time last night. He feels that our message is true, and that it is the right thing, so we invited him to be baptized. He just said that he wanted more time and to know more. 

Our other investigador is Daniel. He invited us to come to his apartment yesterday just out of the blue. So we went, and just told him that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and made a return appointment then left him with a prayer. We went back this morning, and asked him why invited us to share a message with him. Then he said he did not mean to ask for a message, just wanted to talk to us and get to know us. We were like, uhhhhhhhhhhh, what do we do know..? So we just started talking about the Book of Mormon and how it was true and all this stuff that was probably overwhelming. He then told us that he had peace and happiness and a relationship with God, so why should he read the Book of Mormon? We were stumped, in Spanish at least. So we made another appointment with him for tomorrow, and told him we were just going to talk to him and get to know him, no teaching or preaching or anything. So hopefully that goes well. 

We have 10 hours of class everyday, which get really tiring. By the end of the day, we are all tired and kind of burned out, ready to go home.  But I know we will be blessed by following this schedule and learning all that we can in order to teach effectively. I kind of wish I was staying here in Provo the full six weeks because I have already met amazing people, and feel comfortable with them. But it is the will of the Lord. We have not heard anything about leaving yet, though, so we will see. 

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! They are greatly, greatly appreciated. It helps so much to have the support of family and friends. Everyone always remember to live your life like God is always by your side. Imagine that He is right next to you, because He really is. I have felt Him at my side, helping and comforting me. It is amazing. 

The Lord lives, and His spirit is a constant guide and companion for all of us. Stand for what you know to be true in all times and in all things and in all places, and He will bless you more than you could ever imagine possible.

I love you all!

Elder Parker