September 24, 2012
Dear Family,
This week we have been working really
hard finding new people to teach really focusing on the Spanish speaking
people. It is kind of sad
because we will see an English speaker and not talk to him or
her because if we do then they might end up being a great
investigator and take up a lot of our time when we have a goal to open a
Spanish branch. I know we are supposed to talk to everyone but we are
both Spanish speaking so we try to speak Spanish as much as possible. It
seems to be working too. Almost all
our lessons this week were in Spanish and we had 14
lessons. At the beginning of the week I went on exchange with Elder
Broadbent from Hershey. It was really
fun but it ended up raining all day which was bad because I really
wanted to get Elder Broadbent motivated to find new
people. We still ended up going tracting in the rain and
we found some really cool people for the Hershey elders to teach.
One lady was a Cuban and at first she was not willing to listen to us but then
we started talking to her and asking her inspired questions that caused
her to think and feel the Spirit and by the end of the conversation she offered
us a drink of water. Within minutes, it was really great to see her
change towards us and our message. Elder Broadbent and I work really
well together and I wish we could serve together sometime, because I feel we
could do some great things. We are very similar. I think that is why it is so easy to
teach with him because we think the same way, haha. We also
both have the first name Tanner, which is crazy. Being on
exchange with him is so stress free that it makes it hard to go back to my own
area. We exchanged back on Wednesday at district meeting. I taught
district meeting on prayer and the atonement of Jesus Christ and how they work
together. I feel that it went well but I am still trying to figure out
how I can motivate Elder Broadbent and Elder Kunes. They are both old in the mission and Elder Kunes
is a little trunky. This causes Elder Broadbent not to work very hard
either. I am glad to be with Elder Lozano and this week we will be
speaking only Spanish so we will see how it goes.
We had a lesson with Rebecca
this Friday and, as usual, when we got there she had lots of
food prepared; fried chicken, carrot bread, corn, rice, lasagna and some
other things. It seems that every time we go over there she gets
more and more fancy with her food choices, haha. She is great!
Anyway, we ate and talked and then after we ate we started teaching
the rest of the plan of salvation. Sambo was there and ready to
learn. She asked us as soon as we got
to Rebecca's house if we were going to finish our lesson that we had
started last time. We started teaching by first finding out what
they remember about what we had taught last time and they all remembered a
lot, even Rebecca. Sometimes, I'm not sure if Rebecca fully understands
what we are talking about because it is hard to understand English but
she knew quite a bit about the plan of salvation which made me
happy. After testing them and reviewing, we
started teaching about the atonement and expanding on it then we moved
on to talking about the spirit world. They were all intrigued with the
spirit world especially Sambo. We used these fancy pictures that Elder
Lozano had received from a missionary serving in New Jersey who
had a talent for art. We finished out the plan of salvation talking about
the Resurrection, judgment and the three degrees of glory. It was fun to
teach and Sambo kept asking inspired questions. I wish she would follow
her heart because I know that she knows it is true. She is just holding onto the worldly
things. I have faith that she will be baptized one day. Rebecca finished the lesson with a great prayer
that brought the Spirit.
The Lebanon ward is helping us out a
lot but they are hardly feeding us! The members are starting these
things called cottage meetings where they are supposed to invite
their friends to their house, teach a short lesson and then work to
develop friendships. It sounds like a good idea but we'll see how it goes.
Tonight is our first night that we will
be having the cottage meetings.
We have two investigators that we are
preparing for baptism, Linda and her daughter Christine. They have
been to church once but we haven't been able to get them back or teach
them this week. Linda has a very busy work schedule that makes it hard
for her to come to church but Christine doesn't really have an excuse. We
should be having a lesson with them this next week and we should be able to set
them with a baptismal date. They know it is true because they have told
us that they know it is true. I only worry that they will struggle with
the word of wisdom and tithing because Linda likes to drink coffee and tithing
might be hard because they kind of live check to check. We will be
teaching them the word of wisdom in the next lesson and I hope that they will
be willing to accept it and be able to come to church this week.
I hope everything is going well at home!
I love you!
Elder Mouritsen
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