Preparation is Key!

7 July 2011

Hola Hermanos y Hermanas,

Como estan?!! I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July this week. At the MTC, we had a special fireside to celebrate our freedom in this wonderful country..and then they let us go outside and watch the Fireworks that were going on over at the stadium of fire. That was so awesome. But it was really weird, because they let us stay up till like 11:00. We are use to going to bed earlier than that... but it was worth it. The fireworks were saweet!!!

As for my district, we are now down to 6 of us. 2 Elders in our district left this morning to go to the MTC in the Dominican Republic. One more sister will also join them in that MTC in a week or two. But...we are starting to become very close in our district. haha oh we have lots of fun, and we work hard too of course!! :)

On Tuesday, we made it our goal as a district to speak spanish ALL day long, no
English. That seriously was the coolest day ever. It was like a switch went on with my spanish. I figured that ya know, this is a great opportunity for me to really speak the language and learn a lot...so I spoke as much spanish as I knew all day long and I was so confident about it. In our class that day, I said the opening prayer and my teacher was amazed...after we said Amen, he said that my prayer was like 98% perfect. Wow.. it was the greatest feeling ever. And I know that it's not me that is speaking. The spirit is helping me so much, it is undescribable. Such a wonderful feeling though. The gift of tongues is real. So, I am going to continue to speak as much spanish as possible for now on so that I can be as prepared as possible before I get to Omaha, Nebraska!! And the other day before a devotional, I sat right next to some sisters who told me that they are also serving their
mission in Omaha.

It was one of those "wow...cool" moments! haha you know what I mean. Anyway, that was cool. :) They are going English speaking but they said that there are 18 other missionaries in their district who are also going to Omaha. Yeah!! whoot!

This week, my companions and I (We are a 3-sum) learned about the importance of Preparation! We teach 2 fake investigators 2-3 times each week and on Monday I
think it was... we taught one investigator in particular and it just didn't go well at all. All three of us just felt like we were speaking by ourselves and not with the spirit. We talked about it after the lesson and realized that we need to do better at preparing. Before teaching this lesson, we just all reviewed our own notes and chatted with other Elders in our district. And then right before teaching the investigator, we said a prayer. but we realized that we could do better. So, yesterday, before we taught the same investigator, we spend about 30 minutes beforehand preparing the last of all things that we needed to be prepared and be more worthy of the spirit. We began by having a companionship prayer. Then, we took 5 minutes by ourselves to ponder upon our investigor and try to receive revelation for them. Afterwards, we shared our ideas with eachother and created an outline of everything we would talk about in the lesson. Once we did that, we prepared for as
many answers as we thought the investigator would give us for our questions. Then, we ended our preparation by having another prayer. And we immediately saw blessings from this. Right when we walked into our classroom after preparing the last things, we were going to drop off some of our stuff and our teacher showed us pictures of our fake investigator snowboarding...which was a specific thing we were going to
relate a gospel topic about to that specific investigator. And then, when we met with our investigator, we said a prayer before doing anything else. and, the whole lesson was just unbelievable. It was as if the spirit just took off. seriously. Everything that the investigator was needing answers to, we had answers for. And the spirit was so strong. My companions cried and I got all choked up too in the lesson. And, I had the strongest feeling to commit the investigator to baptism...so I did, and he said.....YES!! haha yeah!! woo hoo. I have never liked hearing that word so much in my life!! We were all so happy.

So.. when we are prepared, the spirit can bless us. I know that is true. Like the scriptures say: "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear!" We taught this lesson in English because it was our first time teaching this lesson and we needed to make sure we made up ground from our last visit...so our next lesson with the investigator tomorrow will be in spanish.

I can't explain the things I am learning here at the MTC. Probably more than anything I have learned here in the MTC is that God's love for each one of his INDIVIDUAL children is SO amazing. he wants nothing more than for us to be happy in this life and to return to him. The church is true. God lives! I know it!

As for a crazy story, in gym this week..we played basketball of course. But, in the middle of our time there, an Elder just started screaming... and we were like "what is going on?" We turn around and we see this Elder's foot in the air that is like 90 degrees facing the other way. Apparently he landed on someone's foot. Yeah, NO BUENO. That scared me way bad! I talked to the Elder today...he dislocated his ankle
and fractured it in 2 places. Based on what the doctor says tomorrow will determine what happens with him. I wish the best for him. That is just so sad. But the gym is closed for the next two weeks for cleaning, so that will be good for us to forget about that injury and play some sand volleyball :) So...that was a scare for the week...but all is well.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember that you are a child of God and that he loves you more than you could ever imagine!! The church is true!! Get out in the sun and enjoy this amazing weather. Summer is the best!!

Sincerely,
Elder Vawdrey