Teaching in Spanish and the Blessing of an Apostle

Hi everyone!

Thank you all for your love, thoughts, and prayers! It really makes a difference for me and I can see the blessings in my life that result from it. I definitely couldn't have learned this much spanish in 6 weeks at any other point in my life, it's becoming more and more obvious how much the Lord has been and is helping me!

Yesterday I had the realization that I'm way excited to get out to the field, even though I can't speak spanish very well and I have a feeling that it's going to be the most challenging thing I've ever done, I'm excited to share the gospel with people. I realized that it doesn't really matter how well I can articulate my message, it's all about my attitude and getting the spirit there to touch the hearts of those listening. I have about 3 weeks left here, which I plan on using as well as I can to finish my preparation, but when the time comes for me to leave I think I'll be ready.

Yesterday I was teaching the first lesson with my companion to the sisters in our district (all in spanish of course), and it was a cool experience because I was really excited to share the message of the gospel with them and my spanish was flowing well. They had stepped out to think of a scenario as investigators, and they decided to be sisters whose mother had died and their dad had remarried, and they didn't like the new woman. When we started teaching about eternal families they brought up their concern, but while doing so they used a couple words I didn't know and I thought that their dad had killed their mom, which was really funny after the lesson but didn't really change what I would have said. :) Also at one point in the lesson, I think we had just been discussing prophets and dispensations, I got excited and jumped straight to the restoration through Joseph Smith, but I haven't had the time to really study the spanish from that part of the lesson, because my companion usually does it, so I started struggling with which of the 2 past tense forms to use and whether to use Ser or Estar, (both mean "to be"), and just then my teacher came to the door to observe the lesson, and of course my mind completely froze at that point. Then my teacher started laughing, I'm not sure if it was me or if it was a couple elders in the hall telling a joke (Elder Carter and Scavo, were out there, and so this is quite likely :), but I was completely thrown off and my companion had to pick up the pieces and go back to the earthly ministry of Christ. :) It was a really good lesson though, considering, and I really felt energized again about sharing the gospel. Most of the pretend investigators we practice on here have about the same scenario, they're catholic, read the bible a little bit, and have a small problem with the word of wisdom. It gets a little bit old teaching them, because it's a really boring scenario and so nobody can kid themselves that it's a real teaching appointment. So it was after this that I realized how excited I was to go into the field and preach the gospel even if I couldn't speak very well. :)

Last Tuesday we had our regular fireside given by Elder Richard G. Scott. It's the first time we've had an apostle since I've been here, and it was an incredible experience. Elder Scott asked the congregation to raise their hand if they were currently learning a new language, and probably 80% raised their hands. Then he said that to make it easier for us, he bestowed upon us with his apostolic privileges the gift of tongues. That was really cool, and it's made a noticeable difference. He also blessed us with protection from harm and death on our missions conditioned on our obeying our rules, commandments and covenants, and using good judgment. That's really comforting too, and it gives me a really good reason to avoid doing stupid things. :) It was so cool to have an apostle there, his comments were so much more specific and directly applicable than in much larger meetings, and I got a lot of really good notes that should help me throughout my mission.

I love you all, the church is so true! I'm doing great, again thank you for your prayers and thoughts!

Amy, thanks so much for the letter! I wish I had more time to reply!

Also, thanks to the Roark Janis family!

Todo es bien!

Elder Damon Janis