Week 2

December 17, 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This week was super fun and interesting: we studied and went to class and went to meetings and ate food. Okay, that description didn't come close to conveying the 'fun' and 'interesting' I was going for.

FUN:
-One of the elders was super excited at lunch because his orange popsicle was cream filled. He announced it excitedly to our whole table and our district leader walked over to get a closer look at this frozen phenomenon. But something over took his will power (cause an Elder would never do this of his own free will) and Elder District Leader opened wide his mouth devoured the Elder's popsicle in one bite. A move that even pac-man would envy. It was fabulous.

-One of the elders was teaching Sis. Powers and I the first lesson. This Elder DOES NOT like being interupted while he's teaching. Past incidents indicated to us that it would be against our better judgment to distract him at all. So there we were (after spending several hours in a tiny classroom on the brink of insanity caused by too much seriousness) listening to the Elder give a very powerful discourse. He was speaking about Christ's ministry. "Jesus performed several miracles. He cured leprosy and killed the sick...." I have no idea what he said after that. I was using every fiber of my being to keep from busting up. The Elder kept right on teaching unaware of his mistake (he meant to say healed). I held my composure beautifully, that is until I heard Sis. Powers let out a squill of laughter she had struggled so hard to supress. It was over after that. We couldn't stop laughing and the Elder just stared at us ready to shoot firey darts out of his eyes. Good times.

INTERESTING:
Our district (my 11 best buds) was asked to teach the first lesson to members of the committee that wrote 'Preach My Gospel.' No pressure. Sis. Powers and I spent hours perfecting our lesson plan. We were going to blow them away with the spirit. (That right there should have been our first clue how our lesson would go). We walk in and meet the committee members who were acting as people wanting to find out more about our church. So we begin our presentation... but apparently people have needs. After we struggled through our lesson with unreceptive investigators, the committee members we taught gave us some really good instruction. They taught us that we are not making a presentation or a speech. We are to discover the needs of the people we meet and then we are to look for ways that our message can help uplift and strengthen them. Go figure. It was a humbling and informative experience. However, I think I'll do better when I am teaching people who aren't pretending. The MTC is great, but there's only so much you can practice when teaching people with pretend problems. I'm excited to go to Texas and start, but I'm afraid cause I'm a little shy and I hate inconveniencing people. But my job for the next 18 months is to proclaim a very inconvenient, but worthwhile gospel.

LESSON I LEARNED:
-So there' a bunch of stories that helped me learn this lesson but the details of which would be way too juicy and interesting for a missionary letter so all you get is my ending conclusion:
Swallow your pride and let the Lord mold you the way He wants you. He'll probably do it by sending you messages through the most annoying methods/people possible. Swallow your pride and listen AND THEN DO.

I love you all! My favorite scripture this week is Alma 7:11-12 cause it tells you why Christ is capable of knowing exactly what we need to learn and grow.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?
(good bye in Texan)

Alyse

PS
I leave on December 22 at 6:00 AM.