Elder Justin Peacock: Week 4: Plan of Salvation

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Week 4: Plan of Salvation

Hola,

Just got back from the temple, I did initiatories, so that's why this email is a little earlier than normal. But, I just have to say that I love being a missionary. Just walking to the temple, which is barely outside the MTC, everyone says hi to you; people wave to you as you drive by. It's so cool haha. Also, at the temple I ran into a friend of Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Bruce. His name is Leo Weidner (I think) and he said he is a very good friend of theirs and he loves my Grandma and Grandpa, so that was also pretty cool.

Anyway, this week has been a good week. The task this week was we had to help an investigator move, talk about families and teach them how to pray all in Spanish. I think Elder Jacobs and I both did very well. Our Spanish seemed good. After that, we got to teach the "investigator" about the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. I definitely feel a lot more comfortable teaching the second lesson now then I did 2 weeks ago. Next week should be the most challenging though....The whole 1st lesson in Spanish. From here on out there is no more teaching in English...Which I'm excited and nervous for because I know the language will start coming a lot faster, but I also know that it will be a struggle at first as I wont be able to express everything I want to say in the lesson.

Umm...so as for the progressive investigator, Julio, we ended up not inviting him to the baptism because it just didn't feel right, and we really haven't brought up baptism yet...which I know is something I need to work on in my teaching. But anyways we planned on teaching him the Plan of Salvation on Monday and inviting him to be baptized...except he didn’t show up. Which was very disappointing. I'm convinced that it honestly is just the “teacher” that forgets, not the “investigator”. [Julio is actually a teacher who is role playing as an investigator] It's also a bummer because now we have to teach him in Spanish so it's going to be a lot harder to get him to progress when we don't understand a lot of what's going on. But the point of these is to learn, and I definitely am.

This week I also saw a couple friends who are new to the MTC. I saw Elder Elliot Adair on Sunday during our temple walk. We talked for a little and got a picture. I also saw Elder Collin Gingrich within the first half hour he was here because his host was still with him. So that was fun.

We had one district leave this week...the one that was reassigned to the states as they wait for their visas. My first zone leaders were in that district so they will be missed. We also got a new district of Elders and Hermanas going to Honduras.

This week I have nearly read the entire book called "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard. I love it. I started on Sunday and I have about 15 pages left, and Mom and Dad you know I am not a big reader. It basically goes over all our beliefs in a way that is very easy to understand (great book for those who don't know much about the church as well).

Oh, and another thing that's been big this week is tie-trading. It's the coolest thing to do now haha. I've made a few upgrades myself. However, Uncle Steve will be pleased to know that I have not yet found a tie that compares to the Hair Tie he left me...so that tie is still in my possession. I have a feeling it will be for a while because I don't know how much uglier it can get haha. [More to follow on “HAIR TIES” for the uninitiated]