Holoh familia. It's been another awesome week here in the CCM. Today we went to the Temple in Mexico city! It was so beautiful. Apparently it is the largest temple outside of the US. It is also one of 5 temples that has Angel Moroni holding the Book of Mormon! While I was there we took lots of pictures and talked with the missionaries there, which was cool. I also bought some things from the bookstore that I will send home when I get to Utah. The craziest part was when this one Sister missionary was teaching us about the Book of Mormon, she says shes going to show us a demonstration on how to teach about the book and she starts speaking. The only thing I could think was "That aínt the language they taught me in the MTC"--like from the Best Two Years (movie). I was so freaked out! And then I realized she was speaking Russian! xD SUCH a relief.
Lets see, this week started out with a sick day for Hermana Sorenson. We stayed in the casa all day. She slept and I learned how to speak in future tense – which is sooo helpful as a missionary (all those "will you"" questions~). I also had some personal study which was nice. I learned some stuff about el plan de salvación (the plan of salvation). Dang I was going to bring my scriptures to share some with you guys but I forgot.
So in my district one of the two elders is from Hawaii, and he's the chillest person I've ever met- more or less. But everyday I ask him some question about Hawaii – like "do you have chocolate chip cookies in hawaii?" or "do you have christmas in hawaii?"or, and this one was importante, "do you have hawaiian pizza in hawaii"and other funny stuff like that.
One day after we got back to the casa we were talking about the best two years and were thinking about what it would be like to be fluent in spanish without realizing it, and then we also remembered that quote I put up top and somehow we decided that at some point all spanish that we've learned will vanish from our brains and the only thing we'll be able to say is "es la verdad" (it's the truth) in a heavy southern accent (see subject). Holy cow we could not stop laughing about it. The next day we were in class with our hermanastro district (not in our zone, but doesn't have any sisters and so we hang out with them) and someone said "ës la verdad" and I just couldn't handle it. Thank goodness we have patient teachers hahaha.
Last week we had TRC, which is when real live people come in and we get to know them and give them a spiritual thought. It was amazing to speak spanish with natives (who aren't our teachers or people who speak slowly so we understand), and also not to know their needs and depend entirely on the Holy Ghost to guide our questions and words. Hermana Sorenson said an opening prayer with one of the members we were talking with and as she prayed a question – with spanish, perfect or less perfect haha, intact – came to my mind and we had a really good discussion with this guy about something that he told us he really needed to hear. The Holy Ghost is such a precious gift, one that I think should be the most sincere desire of our hearts. The sister at the temple today said that yes we are learning spanish, but the most important language to learn is the language of the Holy Ghost.
In other news I have lost most of my italian and a lot of french. Sad. Oh well, the spanish continues to come very easily. Although on Sunday we watched a video about an Italian man who read the Book of Mormon without knowing what it was and was converted to the church but didn't know where to find the church. Anyways there was a lot of italian in there and the next day i struggled real bad with spanish pronounciation – specifically with the word "leccione" because the word in Italian is "lezione" and anyways it was difficult.
We are teaching our two teachers now and they are pretending to be investigators. They are based on real people though, so it does feel real. I love our teachers though, they are so great.
So this week the only other district in our zone left for the field. We are the weirdest most loneliest district now. We are the only district in our ward too. We do hang out with our hermanastro district though (step brother) pretty often. Last night for FHE we played ninja and mi companera totally won the whole thing.
On Sunday after relief society Hermana Limb and Hermana Smith asked me to sing with them in sacrament meeting, which was so fun! We sang "Mas cerca Dios a Ti""Nearer my GOd to Thee"in spanish and three parts. I really like singing hymns in spanish.
In one of our lessons with our investigator G we asked her if she had any questions about our last lesson, which was about the restoration. She then proceeded to speak spanish. Really fast spanish and we were just like, uhm....¿que? and so she repeated herself like 5 times and all we kept hearing is that she talked to her cousin's wife and then she said Brigham Young and |esposa| and we finally got it. She was asking us about polygamy! I had nooo idea how to answer that in espanol, and hermana sorenson and i just sort of looked paniced at each other. But the words came and it was a good reminder that the real teacher is the Holy Ghost and all we need to do is invite people to learn and exercise their faith.
So the Book of Mormon is true! There's like a promise in the back and stuff that if you really want to know if it's true God will tell you. And guess what, it actually works! haha. But that scripture is such a blessing. Moroni 10:3-5. The thing I love to teach people is that God wants them to know the truth, and all they have to do is ask with a sincere heart and real intent. This week has been a really precious week with learning from the Book of Mormon. In Ether 6 I learned about how merciful our Heavenly Father is to give the brother of Jared light. "And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them."
So the trip we are making here through mortality is necessary, we have to do it. We could have had to just do it in the dark, but God, becuase of HIs perfect mercy, has given us the light of the gospel through the Book of Mormon and prophets on the earth today. Not only can we be happy in eternity because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, but we can also have peace and happiness in this life too. I feel so blessed for this light in my life, and the gratitude the people of Jared showed in that verse was really meaningful to me.
I also had the chance to do personal study in Enos this week. I spent the whole hour in that chapter and it was amazing the truths I learned from studying by the spirit. Faith changes you and makes it so you are more able to do more for the Lord. Matthew 9:17 and Enos 1:8 – the "go to" part :)
Last thing. We watched a devotional given by Elder Holland this week and he said that he doesn't know when the Savior will come again, but that he knows the second coming is happening NOW, that it started in 1820 at the beginning of this dispensacion. This is the dispensacion that will end by handing the earth over to the Savior, this is the one that prophets looked forward to. They kept working even though they knew that their dispensacion would fail because they knew that ours would not. The gospel will never be taken from the earth again!
Mortality is almost over. Woah. In Jacob 5 it talks about those servants who helped the Savior in the last time in the vineyard. We are those servants and the Lord needs all of our effort.
Read the Book of Mormon, ayce lah verdahd.
Love you so much!
Hermana Ogden
Lets see, this week started out with a sick day for Hermana Sorenson. We stayed in the casa all day. She slept and I learned how to speak in future tense – which is sooo helpful as a missionary (all those "will you"" questions~). I also had some personal study which was nice. I learned some stuff about el plan de salvación (the plan of salvation). Dang I was going to bring my scriptures to share some with you guys but I forgot.
So in my district one of the two elders is from Hawaii, and he's the chillest person I've ever met- more or less. But everyday I ask him some question about Hawaii – like "do you have chocolate chip cookies in hawaii?" or "do you have christmas in hawaii?"or, and this one was importante, "do you have hawaiian pizza in hawaii"and other funny stuff like that.
One day after we got back to the casa we were talking about the best two years and were thinking about what it would be like to be fluent in spanish without realizing it, and then we also remembered that quote I put up top and somehow we decided that at some point all spanish that we've learned will vanish from our brains and the only thing we'll be able to say is "es la verdad" (it's the truth) in a heavy southern accent (see subject). Holy cow we could not stop laughing about it. The next day we were in class with our hermanastro district (not in our zone, but doesn't have any sisters and so we hang out with them) and someone said "ës la verdad" and I just couldn't handle it. Thank goodness we have patient teachers hahaha.
Last week we had TRC, which is when real live people come in and we get to know them and give them a spiritual thought. It was amazing to speak spanish with natives (who aren't our teachers or people who speak slowly so we understand), and also not to know their needs and depend entirely on the Holy Ghost to guide our questions and words. Hermana Sorenson said an opening prayer with one of the members we were talking with and as she prayed a question – with spanish, perfect or less perfect haha, intact – came to my mind and we had a really good discussion with this guy about something that he told us he really needed to hear. The Holy Ghost is such a precious gift, one that I think should be the most sincere desire of our hearts. The sister at the temple today said that yes we are learning spanish, but the most important language to learn is the language of the Holy Ghost.
In other news I have lost most of my italian and a lot of french. Sad. Oh well, the spanish continues to come very easily. Although on Sunday we watched a video about an Italian man who read the Book of Mormon without knowing what it was and was converted to the church but didn't know where to find the church. Anyways there was a lot of italian in there and the next day i struggled real bad with spanish pronounciation – specifically with the word "leccione" because the word in Italian is "lezione" and anyways it was difficult.
We are teaching our two teachers now and they are pretending to be investigators. They are based on real people though, so it does feel real. I love our teachers though, they are so great.
So this week the only other district in our zone left for the field. We are the weirdest most loneliest district now. We are the only district in our ward too. We do hang out with our hermanastro district though (step brother) pretty often. Last night for FHE we played ninja and mi companera totally won the whole thing.
On Sunday after relief society Hermana Limb and Hermana Smith asked me to sing with them in sacrament meeting, which was so fun! We sang "Mas cerca Dios a Ti""Nearer my GOd to Thee"in spanish and three parts. I really like singing hymns in spanish.
In one of our lessons with our investigator G we asked her if she had any questions about our last lesson, which was about the restoration. She then proceeded to speak spanish. Really fast spanish and we were just like, uhm....¿que? and so she repeated herself like 5 times and all we kept hearing is that she talked to her cousin's wife and then she said Brigham Young and |esposa| and we finally got it. She was asking us about polygamy! I had nooo idea how to answer that in espanol, and hermana sorenson and i just sort of looked paniced at each other. But the words came and it was a good reminder that the real teacher is the Holy Ghost and all we need to do is invite people to learn and exercise their faith.
So the Book of Mormon is true! There's like a promise in the back and stuff that if you really want to know if it's true God will tell you. And guess what, it actually works! haha. But that scripture is such a blessing. Moroni 10:3-5. The thing I love to teach people is that God wants them to know the truth, and all they have to do is ask with a sincere heart and real intent. This week has been a really precious week with learning from the Book of Mormon. In Ether 6 I learned about how merciful our Heavenly Father is to give the brother of Jared light. "And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them."
So the trip we are making here through mortality is necessary, we have to do it. We could have had to just do it in the dark, but God, becuase of HIs perfect mercy, has given us the light of the gospel through the Book of Mormon and prophets on the earth today. Not only can we be happy in eternity because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, but we can also have peace and happiness in this life too. I feel so blessed for this light in my life, and the gratitude the people of Jared showed in that verse was really meaningful to me.
I also had the chance to do personal study in Enos this week. I spent the whole hour in that chapter and it was amazing the truths I learned from studying by the spirit. Faith changes you and makes it so you are more able to do more for the Lord. Matthew 9:17 and Enos 1:8 – the "go to" part :)
Last thing. We watched a devotional given by Elder Holland this week and he said that he doesn't know when the Savior will come again, but that he knows the second coming is happening NOW, that it started in 1820 at the beginning of this dispensacion. This is the dispensacion that will end by handing the earth over to the Savior, this is the one that prophets looked forward to. They kept working even though they knew that their dispensacion would fail because they knew that ours would not. The gospel will never be taken from the earth again!
Mortality is almost over. Woah. In Jacob 5 it talks about those servants who helped the Savior in the last time in the vineyard. We are those servants and the Lord needs all of our effort.
Read the Book of Mormon, ayce lah verdahd.
Love you so much!
Hermana Ogden