Week 3

Hey Guys,

Week 3 has been good! A lot of good experiences this week! On Sunday I was able to pass the sacrament to my zone, it was so nice to do that. Our sacrament meetings are mostly in Spanish. And every missionary has to prepare a talk in Spanish. Once the meeting started the conducted in Spanish we blessed in Spanish and then after that, the president would stand on the pulpit and chose 4 missionaries randomly. Luckily I did not get picked, but after the missionaries spoke, we had a hymn and then the presidency spoke. They did their talks in English, but our President spoke and it was so amazing. He talked about how we show our love to God a Missionaries. He said that as missionaries, we should show our love and devotion to Heavenly Father by our efforts, and that we should be putting all our time so we can better ourselves in teaching the gospel, and how we should be constantly learning Spanish so that we can teach better. "Do Everything You Can to Do Gods Work" And that is how we show our love to our Heavenly Father. It motivated me so much, and i just had such a stronger desire to learn more and be better, just to show my love for him.

Later we had a Devotional, and we just watched a talk by Richard G. Scott, he talked about how important prayer is and how we should pour out our heart and soul to our Heavenly Father, every time we pray. At the end of the Video a sister missionary was going to say a prayer, and right before she did, Richard G. Scott got up and said this "Even if you feel stretched out and you feel you can´t do it, you will be given power to do it, He won´t ask you to do something you can´t do.", "The lord has called you to succeed, not fail, and he will help you. You will discover strengths and things about you that will sustain you for the rest of your life". That was such a good devotional i took 2 pages of notes on it. I know the lord is always there for me, and will give me power to do it.

One day before class started, we were throwing a ball around and then it went under a table in the back of the room. So Elder Her went to go get it, and right when he bent down to get it, he rip his pants. I just remember the sound and the pants, just basically dying, and just Elder Her´s face. I was just filled with tears of laughter. He just took off his jacket and covered the rip, and went back to the Casa as fast as he can to get new pants. Elder Her just has the funniest personality, he will just say stuff and it is funny. Yesterday he had a Staring Contest with another Elder in our Zone, and he would just go as long as he can, and there would be tears running down his face because his eyes are so dry. And as he was crying, he was just laughing, and then all of us witnessing this contest was just crying of laughter.

Elder Linton and I teach a "investigator" (our teacher) each day except Sundays and P-days, and our investigator told us one thing and Elder Linton and I, just changed our whole lesson right there. We did not have any lesson plan or anything. We just went straight off of memory, and we nailed it! The spirit was just so strong, we were talking back and forth and just testifying off of each other. And if we did not know the words, we would ask the other, and if that did not work we would find another way. And then the next day when we taught our other investigator, we had to change our whole plan again! And we did just as well, I know that we still need to improve on our Spanish, but I definitely know that we both have testimonies and can bring the spirit to our lessons. So it´s mainly just keep gaining more spiritually and work hard on getting over the language barrier. We have a lot of improvements to do and make, but I know that if we just put our trust in the lord, and do our part, he will be there to guide us and shape us into what we need to be.

On Sunday were able to watch a Church Video, and this time it was Meet the Mormons. It was really good, but I completely forgot about the last section they did in the movie. The Missionary Mom, i´ll admit, it was hard to watch that. I saw the Salt Lake Airport, and i just did not want to think about it at all. So we got back to our classroom and we are suppose to talk about the video. And all that we talked about was leaving family at the airport. It was torture to me, I really did not like hearing about that airport, and leaving families. I did not really participate in the discussion. I just knew that I really loved my family, and I got lucky when it came to a family. 

I´m all good, and i just focus on being the Best Representative of Christ. That is really the most important thing I can focus on. I know that if I do my part and do "All That I Can Do", and the Lord will sustain me as a Missionary, and as his Representative.

Elder Stabenow

1 Week Down

Hey Guys!

I have been doing pretty good here. Leaving home was a big adventure. It was very hard to leave the family, because I have the best Loving Family Ever! I was so nervous of what was to come, I did not have anything on the plan. But when I got the the CCM (MTC) I wasn't nervous anymore. So we went to have dinner, and the food here is amazing! When I finally got to my house I was the only one there for a good 30 minutes. So more people got there and I was put in a trio. So it was Elder Linton, Elder Hansen and I. But then Elder Hatch moved in the next day (He flew down on the plane with us to the CCM, but they were expecting him in the Provo MTC haha) so we split and so it is me and Elder Linton.
The first real day was just a lot of meetings just going over the rules and how a missionary should be act and look. The second day we were just thrown right into the fire! We had to teach our first lesson. Haha. We had to do it all in Spanish, so we wrote our lesson down and all we did was just look down at our papers and tried to pronounce the words as best as we can. We were instructed to take 20 minutes and just try to have a conversations with them for 8 minutes, then teach for 8 minutes, and then invite them for 8 minutes. So we got in there and started asking questions and the first one Besner (the guy we were teaching) just went and said a long answer (at least to me) and it just went right past Elder Linton and I. So after we realized that we were terrible at Spanish all we did was say "Good!" and just went right into our lesson without asking anything else. We still took 20 minutes just to read our papers. So here we teach a lesson everyday so its interesting I'm slightly improving, but I still have 5 more weeks here to improve.
Having General Conference here was such a blessing. I loved every talk that was given, I have never really took notes during General Conference but during the whole 2 days I took a total of 18 pages of notes. I learned from every talk and it was so nice and comforting. It was funny when ever any of the general authorities said anything about Mexico you would just hear people gasp because we were in mexico! I normally just didn't react Haha.
I have meet a lot of cool people down here that are living with me under the same roof. Elder Linton and I have been hanging out with another companionship Elder Harmon from Utah and Elder Her from Sacramento California. They are so fun and we just laugh and have a good time, but when it comes down to it, we can really get down to business and feel the spirit. For some reason when ever Elder Her just says something it just makes everyone laugh! It´s just his personality and I know a lot of the times he doesn't try to make us laugh! It´s probably his accent he is Mong and is learning his 4th language. Mong, English, French, and now learning Spanish haha.

Spanish is still a struggle, I feel like comparing myself to others, but i stop myself and focus on just me learning it. I was really proud of myself yesterday cause I did not loose focus while the lesson was going on and I started to understand how the concept worked. I have found out what to do and what works for me as I learn Spanish and I hope it works out!

I can already tell a difference in my life! I´m excited for the experiences I will receive. I know this is what I am suppose to do and I Know I Can Do This. Brynn gave me a rock with the word GROW in it and she told me i would be doing a lot of that. And Yes i will be. I remember the first couple of nights being hard, and I would just hold that rock for comfort so that I could get some rest. I understand the concept of GROW because I had to do a lot of that before I was out here. I am grateful for that rock to be a constant reminder to me that it is okay to GROW. I´m thankful for my family, I love you guys, I thanks for all the letters you send me, Keep them coming! It really strengthens me and helps me get through the long days. Thanks for your Love and Support!

Elder Stabenow

Mexico City Temple

Elder Stabenow in front of the Mexico City Mission

With his District at the Temple

On a bus heading to the Temple Landon with his companion Elder Liston