October 27, 2011

This week has been kind of wild. And yes I'm staying healthy.  But we found a new theme scripture for the MTC food, Jer 4:19-21

19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

 Anyway, so last Thursday or Friday when we were teaching Rob, we were thinking about dropping him.  Then some of our teachers talked to us about how we could change to see if that anything would work.  So we wanted to change our lesson plan quite a bit but our teacher said we were up first for teaching so we dropped our old plan and didn't really make a new one.  But when we went in there (our lesson was on the Book of Mormon) I asked him how his reading was going and he said he had some questions, mostly about why Nephi was commanded to kill Laban, so I started to explain that to him and as I was talking ideas just kept coming and the Spanish was no problem.  I felt bad because my companion said like two sentences through the entire lesson but I was just rolling.  The Spirit is an incredible thing. Sometimes it is hard to notice it just because we're always feeling it but everyone can notice when its gone. 

Last night during class it definitely wasn't there.  We don't really know what it was but it got to the point that our teacher stopped class and told us to fix it and left the room.  So we all just started praying and reading the scriptures.  I was in Mosiah 3 so I just opened up to that and started reading.  That chapter is all about the Savior and after a few minutes Elder Burkey stood up and asked if we could just have a testimony meeting.  Every single one of us in our testimonies in one way or another talked about how were not working hard enough.  So then we had a district prayer and made a few new goals and reaffirmed our old ones. 

When our teacher walked back in we said we weren't ready yet and he was so happy because he knew that we were doing the right thing and the Spirit was definitely back by this point.  When we invited the teacher back in we continued our lesson, which was about gaining revelation through church attendance, we started reading scriptures about it and we learned so much, it was incredible.  Everyone was bringing up new ideas and many of these scriptures that I've read dozens of times took on an entirely new meaning.  After this we kind of had another testimony meeting and this one had everyone in tears. 

 I don't want to really talk about it in the email but Elder Mitchell is having a pretty rough time and we would all appreciate it if you guys could keep him in your prayers.  But our teacher is incredible.  Hermano McKinnon is a little better Spanish teacher but Hermano Guillen (that spelling doesn't look right but oh well) is so in touch with the Spirit.  He's a convert of just a few years and he already knows the Book of Mormon better than I do.  He is one of those people that I honestly would be amazed if he isn't called as a general authority someday.  If he wasn't so in tune with the Spirit he probably wouldn't have stopped the class last night.  We often have floater teachers in the class just helping out and when he stopped the class and they went in the hall Hno. Acana asked Hno. Guillen why he stopped the class and he just said he felt like he should.  That one little choice completely altered the entire night for everyone in there.  It went from being a bad night to being one of the most Spiritual experiences I have ever had.

Love you guys,

Elder Pearce