Teaching REAL People | August 17, 2017

August 17, 2017 Lauren 0 Comments

Hola! Yes, you read that subject right...we taught real people this week! They sent us to the university to do some contacting. I was so nervous at the beginning and we weren't really sure how to start talking about the Gospel with someone but we finally worked up enough courage to talk to a guy sitting in a parking lot. After a little bit of just getting to know him, we started talking about who we are and what we do. We told him about the Book of Mormon and after we bore testimony of it, we asked if he wanted one. And then he gave us his answer at about a million miles an hour and we had no idea what he actually said. But we got the vibe that he didn't want one because he was shaking his head and kept mentioning the word Bible, so Hermana Rich just looked at him with a blank face and slowly slid her Book of Mormon back in her bag and said "Oh okay...adios!" It was hilarious and super awkward. So after that we learned how to end a conversation with someone and that a lot of times we need to tell them to speak a little slower...but other than that it was really successful! We brought 4 copies of the Book of Mormon with us and gave them all away! We also gave away about 4 pamphlets and contacted 6 people. We are going again tomorrow for 3 hours so we have a goal to contact at least 20 people and give away at least 5 copies of the Book of Mormon (although we'll probably be able to give away more...people are super interested in and willing to talk about religion and God here, so they often say they'd like to learn more about the Church). It felt awesome to be able to do some real missionary work, I loved it! I can't wait to go back.

Tuesday was really sad here because all the older missionaries and the native speakers that we arrived with left for the mission field! Hermana Ceballos who lived in the room attached to ours was one of the people who left, and I was so close with her, so that was really hard. I was so sad! But we're going to stay in touch and I told her I would visit her in Panama after our missions! After they left, the CCM felt really empty because there were only 3 districts here until the new missionaries showed up yesterday. There's a lot of them! We only got 5 more hermanas, but the CCM is just about overrun with elders. One of the new sisters is from Trinidad! She is going to serve in Jamaica but she was telling me all about Trinidad and how much I'm going to love it. I'm still the only hermana going to Trinidad...kind of sad! But there's some elders that are going too, so that's good. Getting new missionaries means that my group is now the "old" group of missionaries! It's really scary to think I only have 3 more weeks here. I'm going to be sad to leave, I love the CCM and the Dominican Republic!

The temple opened back up this week! This is great for 2 reasons: (1) We get to go every week on P-day now! We went this morning and it was amazing. And (2) people from all over the Caribbean are coming to visit again so they can go to the temple, which means it's always busy here and there's always new people to meet and talk to (my favorite!). There's also a ton of super cute little kids running around that love to talk to and play games with the missionaries...it's the best!

We watched a devotional from President Uchtdorf this week and he talked about how we need to have faith as missionaries. One story he told us that I really liked was about a missionary who worked super hard and pushed the missionaries he was training to their limits. He was always going up to random people and sharing the Gospel with them on the streets, even if they didn't seem interested at first. One of his companions was often embarrassed by how forward he would be when they were out contacting, but one morning the companion saw as this missionary was getting ready that he looked at himself in the mirror, pointed to himself and said "I fear no man!" This missionary did this every day before they left the apartment. President Uchtdorf talked about how if we put our full trust in God and fear no man, we will have great success as missionaries. My companions and I have started doing that every morning and it really works! When we go to the university tomorrow, I will talk to anyone and everyone because the Spirit of the Lord is with me, so I have no reason to fear! DyC 68:6!

My favorite part of the week: I was talking with some of the native speaking hermanas and Elder Rodas from El Salvador was sitting close enough to hear and afterwards, he came up to me and asked (in Spanish) "Do you speak Spanish?" I told him that I was learning here at the CCM and he said "Wow, it's really good, I thought you were fluent!" WOOHOO! That's probably the best compliment I've ever received in my entire life. I was so happy! I practice as much as possible with the people who live and work here, so I guess it's paying off!

That's about it for this week, sorry if it's not too exciting. Most of my life is spent sitting in classrooms memorizing scriptures and teaching "investigators" so these are the highlights! But I love class and my district and my teachers! Although we found out yesterday that Hermano Raymond, our night teacher, is moving back to Haiti tomorrow...so sad! It's good though because his family lives there and he has a job through the Church to reforest Haiti (he's an agricultural engineer). So we will be getting a new night teacher either tonight or tomorrow!

I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you so much! Have faith in the Lord and read the Book of Mormon!

Love,

Hermana Davidson

P.S. I had my first big bug experience this week! We were playing volleyball and the ball went into the grass next to the court and when one of the elders went over to get it, he called us all over and there was a huge centipede there! I almost died. It was about 8 inches long (no joke) and moved like a snake. I took one look at it and ran to the other side of the volleyball court...no me gusta.

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