Hi Everyone!
I am now serving with Elder Alvarez, (All-ba-dess) who comes from Bakersfield California and knew Spanish all his life. He's fresh and new from only 3 short weeks at the MTC and is ready to learn and ready to work!
He's about 6'3", which is really interesting because we look funny with me being the trainer, but he's confident and social and doesn't have a problem with opening his mouth.
He's a great guy and is very teachable, I'm enjoying being able to show him a good example of how to be obedient and invite the spirit. I'm doing everything I can to give him the best possible training, so that he'll have full agency and responsibility for how he decides to be as he develops as a missionary.
We're working a lot on teaching the first lesson (the restoration) in English, because he's much more comfortable with the gospel in Spanish and even spoke purely in Spanish at the MTC (he's fluent in English, was born here in the states, but always went to a Spanish branch so his gospel vocabulary in English is smaller).
I'm excited to serve with him because we'll be able to bring the spirit to our lessons and really make an impact on the area! I'm so glad I got to stay here for another 6 weeks, I think the Lord has more for me to do and I'm excited for the opportunity!
Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week is that I got the chance to go to Denver to be trained by the Mission President and the AP's on the new 8 lessons, the trainings that the Brethren are giving all the missions right now.
It was an incredible experience, with 12 hours of classes on Monday and 7 more on Tuesday, and the spirit was strong and told me some things I can improve on and how to help my area. I'm excited to implement the instruction and become a better teacher, this is exactly what I've needed to get to the next level of missionary service.
Something Dad would be interested in is that the format they taught us for asking questions is almost the same as the system he's developed, asking a search question before the principal or scripture, then a question to analyze it, then an apply question, then a testimony question, where the investigator ends up sharing his own testimony about the principal.
For example, talking about prayer you can teach it to where they end up bearing testimony that God can answer prayers, and after that you can commit them to pray if what we've taught is true.
It's pretty cool, I've been trying to use the principal since Dad told me about it, and it really does work!
We've finally got an investigator in Aspen! It's the friend of the 2nd counselor, a lady in her 50's who's searching. She's got a lot of questions, we met with her at the beginning of the summer and had a good talk but she's been on vacation for months, but we have another appointment for next Tuesday!
I think she might be the key for opening up the work here, if she's baptized the branch will get more motivated and see that it's possible!
We're going on splits with the Branch president in Spanish regularly, also with the 2nd counselor who served a mission in Ecuador 14 years ago and is loving the chance to do missionary work again. We put a family of 3 on date this week, hopefully we'll be able to prepare them and help them get ready, the spirit told us to invite them to be baptized but there's still a few commandment issues to work out.
We're excited, God is really blessing us and helping us in the work, I'm so grateful to be a missionary and I love the gospel! It's true and it's the most amazing thing in the world, keep praying for us that some miracles will happen!
Love,
Elder Damon Janis
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