A super funny thing to do to the Brasilians here is to have
them say "world, word, ward". They just look at you with the most
lost expression on their face because to them, it sounds like the same exact
word. Hahaha
So in my last letter, I mentioned that I was going to try to
wake up early to study. Every day, except for the day we went to the temple, I
woke up at 5:00 am to study my scriptures for an hour. I grabbed my scriptures
and a chair, went out in the hallway, and started to study (not just read)
under a dim light. Even though I was pretty tired throughout the day, it was
worth it. My mind was clearer and I was able to study (during personal study
time) the things that would help me the most. It was a huge sacrifice because
as a missionary, you need all the sleep you can get, but I figured I could
sleep as much as I want after these two years :).
Today at church, for some reason the AC wasn't working and
it was ridiculously hot. We STILL had to have our suits on. They opened a
window and turned on a fan, but that hardly did anything. Someone then told me
that this will be nothing compared to what it is like in Teresina.
I had TRC this week and we were investigators. I had to be
the main investigators in one of the rooms and I was kind of nervous because I
didn't think my Portuguese was good enough. I ended up doing a really great job
and the elders teaching me did a really great job as well. There was this funny
TRC this week. Some elders in 39-B (the other half of us that came out of
Atlanta together) played a super funny harmless prank on these two weekers.
Right when it started, and they all sat down, the investigators (my friends
from 39-B) offered the two elders some cracker type thing. They put it on the
table and said in Portuguese, "if you eat this, you will die." Having
no idea what they said, the two elders said, "Oh, thank you!" and
started to eat them. Just how smooth and perfect it went, made it that much
funnier. We were all laughing so hard because these guys were so clueless. The
guys from 39-B went up to the two elders afterwards and told them what they did
and they started laughing because they thought it was the funniest thing as
well.
Dad, so about the mission prep class you're doing . . .
something that I thought was really helpful is knowing when to transition
between each elder so the lesson flows real nicely. Have them learn the first
lesson about the restoration and then get them to plan out who will say what
and so forth. And then have them flip the roles, so each elder will get a
chance to teach the other side of the lesson they didn't get to the first time.
They need to know BOTH sides of the lesson, because here in the CTM, they
stress the point of "teaching people, not lessons". Yeah, sure, it's
awesome if they can teach a planned lesson, but sometimes they'll need to teach
about something they didn't plan before hand.
Another thing we do is a simple mock investigator session.
One companion teaches another elder that becomes an investigator. That one
elder, who is the investigator, thinks of a friend back home and becomes that
friend or person he knows. We usually try to pick a friend that has some sort
of problem or questions about the church. The companionship then teaches this
investigator as if it was the first visit. So all they're trying to do is
figure out the problem, get to know what the person knows about the gospel, and
then go from there. We usually don't teach a full-on lesson. It's just the
first visit, so maybe also have them quickly introduce the Book of Mormon and
invite the investigator to read and pray about it.
Another fun thing that I think you guys would get a kick out
of would be doing something like TRC where you teach a lesson while being
recorded. A good situation for that would be that it's just a follow-up visit
to see how the investigator is doing. The investigator has already been taught
the first lesson or so. It turns out that the investigator hasn't been reading
the Book of Mormon or praying because they don't have enough time. The companionship
then has to teach why the Book of Mormon is so important, the importance of
prayer, and then maybe teach how to pray. This would be good practice for the
young men to stay on their toes. We've done this situation so many times here
so it's just natural for us. It would also be good for them to see body
language, posture, and how they looked when they reacted to certain situations.
I hope that helped. It's not a whole lot, but it's some
super basic things that'll have them be ahead of the game when they serve a
mission. Oh! Another thing - teach them some "confusing" scriptures.
I'm sure you can talk to some super scriptorian about more scriptures in
detail, but there are some scriptures out there that are confusing (and I'm
sure you already know this). For example . . The Lord's Prayer in Luke 11:2-4.
The Lord says that when you pray, always use this prayer. You can counter this
with the first sentence in 3 Nephi 13:7. Another one is John 17:20-23 and
Mosiah 15:2-5 where it talks about the trinity and how Heavenly Father, Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one. Dang, so I don't have my scriptures on me
right now, but you could use the scriptures where Christ is being baptized.
Anyways . . . I hope you get my point with this.
So real quick, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy
came and spoke to us today, Elder Costa. It was really awesome.
Love you!
Elder Steed
