I'll be honest, it's been crazy, but I really haven't felt the stress that so many of the other new Elders and Hermanas are having. As soon as I was dropped off I was whisked through picking up a ton of books and then to the West MTC campus. The West MTC campus is an entirely spanish speaking campus made from half of Wyview and all of Raintree's apartments. Wyview is where we sleep and Raintree is where we eat and have all of our classes. Within 20 minutes of being dropped off I was sitting in Spanish class with a teacher who refused to speak a single word to us in English. In fact it wasn't until the third day that I heard him say a single English word.
On the first day they had all the new missionaries in West Campus go to the church and meet in groups of about 30-40 missionaries with some investigators. After watching some more experianced missionaries talk to them for a little while (thankfully in english) we were instructed to take over and continue getting to know the investigator and try to help the progress. It was really difficult because all the missionaries wanted to take different angles and although they were many great things said it was confusing. After a little bit we began to get the hang of it and several other missionaries and I bore testimony of the power of prayer. The spirit was so strong, it was amazing. I was talking to one of the MTC workers afterwards and he told us that these investigators walked around campus all the time and that we were welcome to set up appointments with them when are schedule allowed. He also said that although most of them were actually members of the church, some of them were real investigators and that we would not be informed which ones were which. soooo no pressure there....
My companion is Elder Graves from Sansberry Utah. He is a really cool guy and he is also very hard working. It's really nice because we both push each other to do better and neither one of us wants to ever slack off. Yesterday we got to teach our first lesson in Spanish. That was so hard. We barely knew how to say anything and we already had to go teach a lesson entirely in spanish. We did okayish teaching Hector about God being our loving Heavenly Father. But we did have a prayer in spanish at the end that worked out quite well.
One of the best experiences I think I've had so far, other than visiting the temple this morning, was at our People and Purpose Seminar. The normal teacher was gone and the sub was not informed that the class he was supposed to be teaching was on West Campus so he went to the Main Campus and ended up arriving very late. While we were waiting we all shared scriptures and messages that we had found to be very powerful in our personal experience. The spirit was really strong there as well.
Since I finished the Book of Mormon before entering the MTC I began reading it again and one of the thoughts that I had while reading about Nephi's attempts to retrieve the plates and how he was unable to do it until he had the Lords help was. We are here to learn and grow in our faith. As such the Lord is rarely, if ever, going to ask us to do something we are already capable of doing on our own. When the Lord asks us to do something in order to obey his commandments we are going to need his help.
If anyone wants to write me letters(like actual on paper communication) you can use my MTC address for right now.
Elder Jonathan Allen Peterson
JUL28 ARG-POS
2023 N 900 E Unit 820
Provo UT 84062
I will not be able to receive packages in Argentina but I can in the MTC until I leave on June 28th.
I'd love to hear from all of you guy's whether through letter or email.
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| My companion and I |
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| First night in the apartment |
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| Bus stop at main campus waiting to go back to the West Campus after Elder Graves doctor appointment. |
p.s. I know I've left out so much but this has kinda been one long day and it's difficult for any of the Elders or Hermanas to remember any kind of specifics. That's why we have journals, unfortunately I left mine in my apartment.
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