Motivated by the Spirit

Dear Familia,                                                                                                                                         

Okay so this week it´s probably going to be a little shorter just because it´s already late and I just found time to write. Things have been crazy this week. We have read the fourth missionary talk and we want to apply it in a big way, so we have made a commitment to be the most hard-working and the most innovative assistants the Lima North Mission has ever seen. Therefore, this week we went to 8 of the 12 zones. We started on Tuesday and went to two zones a day to do special district meetings every day until Friday. Every day we started the meeting at 9 and ended at 12 then the other meeting from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. We were absolutely wiped last night when we had finished.

Well this week I also found out how much better it is when we can look for the spiritual guidance that others need and not only rely on our own knowledge or judgment. On Tuesday we headed out to the closest zone other than our own and attended their district meeting. Well, the basic district meeting starts with a hymn, a prayer, the 5 goals of the MPLN, a spiritual thought and a 5 minute talk in English. After that we split up into the actual districts for a training directed by the district leaders. After maybe 45 minutes of that we get back together in the zone and the zone leaders have an hour to train. We took that hour and gave trainings, the basic goal being to give the same message to the whole mission. 

Elder Barrientos started off with a good training about obedience and how to take correction gracefully (not sure how well that translates, but it´s basically being able to be corrected without getting upset about it). It was really good, then came my turn and I started to give my training about planning to have success. I started off with a quote that says that if we don´t have plans, then our goals are only dreams. I detailed the life of the author (Antoine uhhhh forgetting his last name he’s a French pilot.) and applied it to the mission and how we have to plan if we are ever going to make our desires and goals for our area come to fruition. It totally bombed. It came off really dry and I felt like nobody paid any attention and basically I just didn’t feel the spirit during the presentation. We still had to give another training in the afternoon in our own zone and I was really worried it would come off the same in every zone of the mission. Bueno, we started with the leadership meeting and we kind of gave it to the zone leaders for not being better examples (the whole zone has gone down fast in terms of indicators and we think it´s because the leaders concentrate more on visiting their missionaries than on their own area). After that I knew I wouldn´t give the same training as in the morning, but I didn’t know what I would say to the zone either. Well Elder Barrientos had decided to talk to them about their indicators being a measure of how dedicated they are to the work and during his whole training I could feel how bad they all felt, not because he was harsh, but because he was telling them the truth.

I got up and honestly didn’t have more than one verse I found when I flopped open my triple while listening to Elder Barrientos. Alma 31:34-35 It´s Almas prayer for help to bring the Zoramites back to the church. We read it and then I noticed that he asked for two things: power and wisdom to be able to help them. I centered the entire training on those two and how we can become powerful missionaries if we do the little things and trust in our calling. The spirit filled the room and I gave a really heartfelt testimony about the power of these missionaries. They could see that we have great confidence in them and when they aren´t living at their privileges then we are disappointed. I finished up with Alma 31:23 about how the Zoramites went back to their houses to do things in their own way and they didn’t talk about God until the next week. I pleaded with them to let that day be the turning point and not just go back to their areas to do things they had always been doing them and it worked. The missionaries left really excited and empowered to get to work and be better. 

I ended up using that training during the week, it was the one more motivated by the spirit!

I´m pretty fine with everything. My shirts are starting to all open at the collar from use but I´m not sure if I want any more super nice ones from CTR (I saw the price tag and it scared me a little bit:/ ). For that reason I might end up sending you an email and going to buy some from a store here. Haven´t decided what to do about that yet, any opinions? Other than that things are great maybe a notebook with tear out lined paper, I can´t seem to find the lined paper I had and they don´t make it the same here. Honestly I don´t know what I want or if peanut butter M&Ms would make it without going bad. Just a thought. I´m here all day so munchies would be nice :) 

Wilson Llanos was called to be the first counselor in our bishopric about three weeks after I got here...I see him all the time, or mostly Sundays and in activities. But yeah I see him.

Quaker is oatmeal, don´t get me wrong, but here they make it as a drink so they use very little actual granola flakes and I think they usually strain even those out so it’s like a milk based drink with cinnamon and a few granola flakes...

I love you all and I hope that you are letting yourselves be guided by the spirit every day!

Love,

Elder Nelson