Fourth Week

Disclaimer: Mark sprinkled Spanish throughout his letter this week making it a bit more difficult to read. Luckily, his dad speaks Spanish and was able to translate those words that might not be understood. The translations are in yellow and in the parentheses. Enjoy this amazing letter!


¡Hola! Elder Yates here from the CCM down en Mexico to bring ya'll the events and sentimientos (thoughts/feelings) from semana cuatro (week 4). I think that this last semana (week) was pretty decent, so I´ll compartiré (share) the best I can. Brought my journal this time (muchas gracias (much thanks) Gundersons!) to help me recordar (remember) better.

 

First, it was exciting to open my email and see 8 emails instead of the 2 or 3 I´ve gotten antes (before). Yay! my fame está creciendo (fame is growing)! I promise I'll respond to them eventually, but the emocionando (exciting) one goes first.

The clases are going pretty well for the most part. Hno Ortiz and Hno Palma are los maestros mejores (the best teachers) in the CCM, as far as I´m concerned at least. Están muy divertidos pero (they are very fun but) still know how to get things done. Unfortunately some of the hermanas (sisters) are having difficulties with eachother, so I´ve gotten to talk with the CCM Presidente a bit on como a ayudar (how to help) them; Presidente Pratt is from Arizona and has actually heard of Surprise. Got a new batch of misioneros in our zona, so we´re finally not the newest distrito. They´re about half our size, but still pretty cool and nice people.

Ryan´s birthday was this semana, pero (week, but) I havn´t been able to see him. Mis padres (my parents) didn´t even send me a pintura (drawing/painting but he meant picture) of what they did without me! Oh well, it might be for the better. Tengo amigos nuevos, y están mas bien (I have new friends and they are better) anyway >=(. Our mail box has been kind of dry this semana (week), but it should get better.

We've started to change from teaching our maestros (teachers) acting as investigadores (investigators) to enseñando (teaching) each other con profiles de investigadores (with investigator profiles), which is kind of cool. It helps entiendo como los investigadores (understand how the investigators) are supposed to sentir (feel) during our meetings, which I think is the purpose. Of course, with the having a bunch of gringos (white people) trying to hablar español (speak Spanish) with each other leads to some pretty funny situations. I'll not include them here, but maybe in an email to mi hermana favorita (my favorite sister). Posible.

Monday night was an amazing experience para mí (for me), so I'll just quote part of my journal entry so I do't screw it up too badly: "Felt the sincere desire to pray, so I did. I poured out my heart unto God like never before. I could feel Heavenly Father listening to me and His love for me to such an extreme degree sleep was a burden; I found it difficult to fall asleep as my mind reveled in the amazing experience it was. So, I prayed again, and it was also amazing. This was probably one of the best nights in my life."

One thing we really focused on this semana (week) was being lead por el Espíritu Santo (by the Holy Ghost) in a lesson. To practice, we were put in a strange and difficult situation and told to teach. We were told nada antes (nothing ahead of time), so we had to learn and discern and then teach during the seis minutos (six minutes) we were given to help the 'investigador.' Boy was that an experience. But, through mucho orando (much prayer), I sentí el poder del Espíritu Santo (felt the power of the Holy Ghost) as I was given guidance on what to say. It was amazing.

Listened to a live broadcast Tuesday night by Elder M Russell Ballard about taking advantage of the time as a missionary to learn about el Evangelio (the Gospel). It was comforting when he said that before his misión he didn't really know the Evangelio (Gospel), so I might not be so bad off. Tomorrow (Thursday I think) we're going to have a special devotional, which might mean a General Authority will visit us down here. I sure hope so. I'm also planning and joining the choir for a special number for the devotional, since the misioneros here need more bass, so it'll be something.

Had a Boliviano (Bolivian) that happened to be in the CCM come into our clase and share his testimony with us. All I can say is, the first couple months out en el campo (in the field) is going to be interesting...

Elder Yates