Familia!
Week Five.... So crazy. Time is FLYING. Not a whole lot has gone on this week. The MTC is usually a pretty mild place, not too many crazy things happen, but I love it here.
The Spanish is coming along slowly but great as usual. This week Elder Nelson and I taught five different "investigators" which was a little bit of a challenge. Teaching so many people has really shown me how much Spanish I actually know. There really isn't too much time to plan lessons, so we just go in with a general idea of what we are going to teach and hope all goes well. During a couple of the lessons we felt like we should completely switch up what the original plan was and surprisingly it went pretty well. We were able to express all of our ideas completely and make sure that each person we were teaching had a solid understanding of what we were saying. I am so thankful for the help that I have been getting to learn this language. Without the constant help of the Lord and the Holy Ghost as a constant companion, there would be no way I would be progressing in this language this fast. The Lord truly does help his missionaries.
One of our "investigators" that we have taught for a while has been Miguel. Miguel is one of the most stubborn people that I have ever met. He has taken the missionary lessons for three years and has no desire to be baptized, but he keeps inviting the missionaries back weekly. It makes no sense. Elder Nelson and I were getting pretty frustrated because it didn't seem like anything we said was important to him. Nearly every lesson that we taught we were kicked out of his house in some way. It has been stressed a lot that we need to teach people, not lessons, and so we took this pretty seriously this week. We prayed a lot to know what to teach Miguel and we both felt like we should talk about challenges in this life and why they are important. We talked about how to gain knowledge in this life there are three steps that we need to go through. First, we must have faith. Second, we will have a trial. Third, we endure the trial, and then finally we are blessed with knowledge or blessings in our lives. We based this off of Ether 12:6 (I think) which talks about how you won't receive a witness until after the trial of your faith. We both prayed a lot about this specific lesson plan and both felt really good going into it. Surprisingly, Miguel listened the entire time. We talked about how when trials really are a blessing in our life, because we are promised that when we endure them, we will grow. It was such a testimony builder to me. I know that Miguel is just a person played by one of my teachers, but none the less, the Lord knew it was important to Elder Nelson and I to know what to teach him. I am so thankful for this opportunity to be on a mission. It is so comforting to know that answers are just a prayer away. My testimony of this has been strengthened so much. I know that God wants us to know what to do in this life. He wants us to feel of his love and guidance. God is waiting to give us blessings and answers. All we have to do is pray and have faith and they will come.
Yesterday I was talking with some elders and found out that they were going to the Marshall Islands. I said that my best friend Elder Mickelsen was there and one of the elders that was there was from the Marshall Islands said that Dalt was the Zone leader over his home area and he knew him pretty well. He said that Dalt was an awesome person and he had made a big impact on his life. It's awesome how missionary work has spread across the entire world. Its awesome that because of missionary work, a young man from Rupert Idaho can play an impact in someone's life that is all the way across the world. I know that I am only going a couple states south of Idaho, but I know that there are people there that I can help. I know that there are people that need to hear the message specifically from me, and I am so thankful for this opportunity that the mission has given me.
Sunday we watched a devotional from a couple years ago by David A. Bednar. He talked about the Character of Christ. He talked about how when we sin, or when we are selfish, we are turning away from Christ and looking towards ourselves. He talked about he importance of caring for others and how the way that we can become like Christ is through service. I have been spending a lot of time studying about Christ and the more I learn, the clearer it is to me that Christ's entire life was really just for us. He was a perfect being and the way to return to live with His Father in Heaven was set. However, He didn't want to be the only one to experience this miraculous joy. He lived his life, so that we could all experience these same blessings. He truly satisfied the demands of justice for us so that even though we make mistakes, we can be perfect through him. The reason why I am on a mission is getting clearer and clearer every day. We make decisions for four reasons: out of fear, for a reward, because it is a duty, and because we truly have a desire. I always knew this mission was a duty. Every young man has been asked to serve a mission. However, each day I am out here it turns more into a desire than a duty. I love this Gospel and it has changed my life. This message truly is a message of joy and I cannot wait to share it with the people in Tempe
I love you all, Take care.
Con Amor,
Elder Jurgensmeier
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