On Sat, Oct 21, 2017 at 9:17 AM, race mcbride race.mcbride@myldsmail.net wrote:
😂Hola Familia y mis amigos,
It's been less than a week and now everything in class time, free time, and mealtime is complete Spanish!!! It's kind of crazy how quickly it's all coming through. These first few days have flown by with my companion and I running from class to class and prepping a ton of lessons and talks for Sunday and our investigator; I'd be lying if I didn't say it wasn't a little stressful from time to time but it is never unmanageable and is often just a catalyst for good hard work for my companion and me.
I'm really loving it here, I've collected an awesome group of solid guys that are all super helpful when it comes to planning, Spanish, or just detoxing during downtime. Oh, and you'll never believe who I found out was in my class...Nathan Shah or Elder Shah I guess I should say, the same Nathan that we used o go beach camping with on Pendleton forever ago. when I walked into class and saw him we were both yelling and saying "NO WAY" making everyone else super uncomfortable but that was ok.It was a super exciting moment for us both.
I was super stoked to get everyone's emails and to hear from them it's really a huge blessing this first week, and as my time here progresses it will only be sweeter and sweeter to hear from you. A few things I realized I was missing upon arrival was laundry detergent and an SD card to USB converter for the computers, luckily I found one that allows an SD plugin but in the field, I wont be so lucky. My companion I mentioned in my first email is super rad his name is Elder Donaldson and he is a crazy basketball player. He's about 6' tall and super lean, he's got red hair and wears glasses. Also, just a side note super hairy arms..... I'm talking almost as hairs as my legs and that's saying something. we work together super well, I have really big plans and ideas for lessons that he is able to tone down to a level that is really easy for others to understand and he's been excellent at teaching me how to be a bit more simple and reserved which is a HUUGGEE blessing for our lessons.
Upon discovering two nerf guns hidden in my luggage by a loving father and sisters my companion and I proceeded to terrorize the fourth flour (Our dorm in other words) behind us lay a trail of confused elders and lots of nerf balls. Later that night as we sat in a district meeting (a meeting of all companionships in our dorm) with the DP (District President) he assigned one of my good friends Elder Robinson to be our district leader. while he was being set apart elder Donaldson and I snuck into his room and took our stations. As he hid behind the cabinets I proceeded to take cover in Robinson's closet as soon as he walked into the room Donaldson sprung into action releasing a flurry of nerf balls at the DL who was taken by surprise and said he almost had a heart attack, however, I stayed in the closet. After Donaldson left the room, Robinson ready to change into normal clothes after a long day and ambush let his guard down and opened the closet door where I was lying in wait.I fired the first shot and the look on his face was that of sheer terror as he screamed and fell over on the ground leaving all of the other elders in the room in tears laughing. It was super fun and he was a really good sport, also having a companion willing to do stuff like that is super awesome.
We met with our investigator yesterday and talk about the atonement and how it could help his family come back together. He said that his drinking has caused his wife and kids to move away and didn't know how to deal with it other than by drinking the stress away so elder Donaldson and I stepped in and told him that Christ understands our pains and afflictions and is there to help us if we come unto him and allow him to....... and that was about all we could prepare in Spanish so when he asked how Christ could take the sins of the world on himself my companion and I looked at each other and knew it was going to be an "awesome discussion", as we struggled through the rest of the discussion trying to no avail to get the message through in a way that made sense the craziest thing happened. I could understand every word he said.... not only that I was out of nowhere able to read the scriptures in Spanish and understand every verse as though it was my native language, It was truly a gift of tongues moment. With this new found understanding did not come the ability to speak as well, but in our broken Spanish we were able to settle minor questions and concerns as well as set an appointment for tonight.
I love this gospel and know that it is for everyone, It is simple and easy to understand so much so that two young elders having two days in Spanish training are able to talk about it with a fluent speaker and bring its spirit to the hearts of those in the room. I love you all and can't wait for next weeks news to report.
-Elder McBride
