This week has been great. It has been a challenge adjusting to the new area. But I am loving it at the same time. Many of our investigators do not speak English as their first language. We are teaching people who speak Spanish, French and Thai. It is so neat to teach them. There are members who are so amazing who come with us to lessons and help translate and break the language barrier. I realize while teaching these people that the spirit is so important. There is no way that we would ever be able to get our message across without the help of the spirit.
Maria (Spanish) She has struggled with starting to read the Book of Mormon. We had Adrienne, on of the young women, come with us because she speaks Spanish and helped us translate. She is great! In the lesson we started reading the Book of Mormon with Maria and I think she really felt the spirit. She told us how it is very similar to the Bible in the way she feels when she reads. I really hope that she will start to read on her own and feel the spirit testifying to her that it is true.
Ananyanee (Thai) Her husband is a member and she has come to church for a while but without a Christian background, there are so many things that she doesn't understand. We have been going over the restoration with her very slowly. We teach her by using the pamphlets in Thai (which a member found for us and printed out), and the pamphlets in english. We also use a lot of pictures and try to explain things to her in very simple terms. It is really neat to hear her responses when we teach. It was also really challenging to try and explain to her who Jesus is. Hopefully we will continue to help her understand.
Johnathan (French) He has such a strong testimony of his Savior. He loves anything that talks about Him. He is only 18 years old, but it seems he has gone through many things that have strengthened his testimony first-hand about Jesus Christ. We read the Book of Mormon with him in our last lesson and it was so good. We would read in English and he would follow along in his French Book of Mormon. Then he would repeat back in his broken English what was happening in the book. I love teaching him because he knows the routine of our lessons. He even asked if we could start with a prayer before the lesson. :) We asked him to pray to know about the Book of Mormon and if it was true. He said he already believes it is true because it talks about Jesus Christ. He is great.
Exchanges were great. I went to Springfield Illinois with Sister Berret. I can't believe at how much they love Abraham Lincoln there. There are really cool murals painted on the side of buildings of him. There is also a neat museum there with his tomb. I didn't get to go there but I heard cool things about it.
I have also come to love the members in this ward. I feel so welcomed and I always feel at home when I am with them. On our way back from exchanges we met at a gas station so we could swap companions again. i was putting my luggage in the trunk and I noticed there was a lot of food in the back seat. I asked sister Edgel where it came from and she said that a Sister Price just decided to make us dinner that day but she had to give it to us that morning because she was going to be busy later that day. She had given us a crock-pot full of 6 chicken breasts, 9 rolls, a huge bowl of salad, a whole bottle of salad dressing, and a big jar of applesauce. We felt silly driving around with all that food. On our long drive back to Champaign, we were getting really hungry. We stopped in Monticello and decided to eat some of the food. Brother Carter is the chief policeman there and he offered to let us eat at the station so we didn't have to eat in the car. I never thought that the first time I would step into a police department would be as a missionary carrying in a plate full of food and eating it in their back room. haha it was so crazy. then later that night we were out with a member, Joanna, trying to see some people but our appointments fell through. We needed to make some phone calls and she offered to let us do it at her home so we wouldn't have to sit in our cold car to do it. Her dad is the Ward Mission leader. We went into their home and we were able to make all of the phone calls. Joanna made us hot chocolate and I even got to play the piano. She even made some copies of the music I liked. The members here are the greatest. I love them. and they do so much for us. There are many more examples of how wonderful the members are and how much they sacrifice to help us in this missionary work.
Cool fact of the day: The Stake President is President Bednar! Yes he is the son of Elder Bednar and he looks just like his dad. He was visiting our ward as stake president this past sunday. I didn't get to meet him but it was neat to see Elder Bednar's son.
Love you all!! You are the greatest. I am sorry but I don't have pictures to send this week. I sent so many last week that I took a break from taking so many. I love you all.
Here is my address if you missed it from last week:
2503 W Springfield Ave Apt. G6
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