well another week is over.. and wow holy crap what a crazy week. so starting off with sunday. sunday we went to church. there is a building with a bunch of "mini chaples" where we had sacrament meeting with the zone and the branch presidency. Sundays are very relaxing here becuase we dont have classes and everything is more spaced out, so it was a nice stress reliever finally. Though we did get "prepped" for TRC investigators. TRC stand for something important i dunno what but its basically mean we get an actual REAL investigator that comes into the building and we teach. some actually are either recent converts acting as they did during their lessons, and others are straight up real investigators. we got this guys named Johnathan. we got a slip of paper with a small picture and a few sentences about him. it was a referral from his friend and he agreed to meet with the missionaries at the MTC, and we got lucky enough to teach him.
we get a block of 20 minutes to teach at 8:15pm monday, wednesday, thursday and today (friday). there are a couple of missionaries that meet before us with him, and one after us with him. so the investigators gets to experience several types of companionships. Our Zone leaders (and our roomies) got the same guy and meet during the block just before ours. so Elder Christensen and i planned to teach lesson one (the restoration) which is basically how the church formed and what was key to that etc. We prepped really well, but i was so freaking nervous because this was a real dude, not just a teacher acting this time. its the real deal. so i basically told my comp "ya know what? im putting 100% faith in the spirit because my nerves are in orbit by now" but i was serious. i really was putting 100% trust in the lord cuz man i was so scared. it was a bit of a test for me, to see you know, if putting our trust in heavenly father really works. it was something i tended to struggle a bit with, so i was interested to see how it turned out. anyways, onto the good stuff right?
we are standing by the door (we teach in a room) and our zone leaders walk out for thier lessons, finishing up and jonathan walks out with them and struts away down the hall. i was like "is he coming back? what just happened? do we follow him?" but i guess he went to grab a drink or something cuz he walked back after a few seconds. we wave hi and he walks in... and we stand there... not sure if we are supposed to knock on his door then come in? or just walk in? so were like tryna figure out what to do and he pokes his head out like "are you... coming in?" we glance were like "ughhhh... yeah i guess i dunno if were supposed to knock" and hes like "why would you knock you saw me come in " my face was like "😐" blank. so awkward. anyways we get in, introduce ourselves and ask about his life and all those get to know you stuff. hes very artsy, into literature, music, gardening, bonsai trees, poems.... getting a picture a bit of this guy? very flamboyant, modeled for a little bit, has a fancy satchel bag thing... tad bit of a "lisp" if you catch my drift here....anywaysssssssss hes SUPER COOL. like WAY cool. instantly loved this guy, i would friend him so hard if i met him on the street, dudes a STUD. we start talking and tryna to start the restoration lesson but then we completely shift into the life of christ and who he was. this wasnt planned. like, not even close to what we planned. but i told my self id let the spirit take over 100% of this lesson so my comp and i went with it.
it was beautiful.
we talked of hardships, trails, experiences, acts of kindness, love, regrets and so much more. its was such an amazing conversation. this guy, who is VERY analytical just seemed to take what we had to say into serious consideration. hes studies many religions before. wed make a point and be like "thats intersting, i never thought of it that way but it.... makes sense in a way, yes". the spirit was so strong. it was nothing i have EVER experienced before. it didn't even seem real. a REAL investigator and my comp and i going through this 20 minutes like weve known eachother for years and had a deep life talk. its was... man i cant even describe it. my comp and i walked out and freaked out because it was such an amazing lesson. we talked for a good hour after the lesson about every deatil we talked about, how it went, what we did, what we can improve on. but we both agreed without a DOUBT that the spirit took over that one, and we just prepared ourselves to speak by the spirit.
so the next lesson comes on wednesday, our zone leaders had to meet with new missionaries, so jonathan wanted us to take thier block, so we got 40 minutes of time with him, instead of 20. so we thought, sweet! it was a great first lesson, and he had questions about who christ was, lets take the time and plan for the life of chirst lesson. and so we did. knowing we had more time we pulled up scriptures and things like tthatall ready for a nice long lesson. we had the same mentality though, to let the spirit have 100% control over the lesson. we get in give jonathan a high five (he didnt like handshakes for some reason, but high fives are hip and cool, so we were cool with that LOL) and we start talking, asking him about questions form the last lesson and were starting to lead into the life of christ and my comp takes our teaching book (preach my gospel) and flips to the page of "the plan of salvation" he gives me a quick look, glances at the book and i get the queue he had prompting to teach this. i obliged and we started. now, the Plan of Slavation is a, when studied, a pretty tough concept with ALOT of information and teachings. but, we had 40 minutes. elder christensen just took over, he HAD this DOWN. he was litterally speaking as is god was working his mouth, and im sure it was true. i sat there, testified of what i could and elder christensen just nailed it. johnathan took it so well. he had some very tough questions but becuase we had extra time, we could take that question and really discuss it. he just jkept saying "yeah.. interesting but it makes sense" or " yeah... that seems just of God " it was AMAZING. so we ended the lesson and he was very happy, and said he would give praying a shot. he went from not believing in god to praying with him in 2 lessons. one hour combined total. we ended in a prayer and we went for a high five, but hes was like "no... im hugging you guys you are amazing" HE HUGGED US. YES. I WAS SO HAPPY. we left again, squieled like little girls about our lesson, talked about it for hours and then went to bed. next lesson, thursday was equally amazing. i tried harder to make sure i taught more of the lesson (comp liked to be dominant, dudes a genious tho) and we planned to teach the life of chirst (for real this time) and we actaully got throught the lesson, and he took it amzingly. this time though, each room has a small camera to teacher can evaluate your lesson. this lesson was evaluated. apparently it was TAHT good, the teacher in the computer room told the rest of our zone to watch our lesson beacuse it was aperfect example of a lesson. we hda no idea they were watching us, but the spirit was so strong that lesson. we explained repenteance, the holy ghost, prayer, faith and a few other things that Christ taught. he took it so well that when we asked him for the closing prayer he obliged adn was excited to. his prayer was simple, but beautiful. the dude is a walking christ. we neded in ANOTHER hug and everythone in the zone was like "even thru the computers the spirit was so strong in the computer room. it was amazing" so its been a very spiritual week. i love Jonathan, hes a great guy, and im saddened our last lesson with him is tonight. i hope to get a picture with him, and maybe an email to keep in contact with him.
listen to the Spirit and put your trust in god. thats what i learned this week and its so FREAKING true it doesn't even seem real at times. but it is. its real.
i head out wednesday at like 3 am, which sucks but that means im on my way to Oregon! exciting! im ready to get out of the MTC haha... love the people but man its so exausting! anyways, getting short on time and laundry is done! i love and miss you all!
- ELder Schick
(ps: i miss monday Pday on teh field, so i wont get another email in probably till next monday)
we get a block of 20 minutes to teach at 8:15pm monday, wednesday, thursday and today (friday). there are a couple of missionaries that meet before us with him, and one after us with him. so the investigators gets to experience several types of companionships. Our Zone leaders (and our roomies) got the same guy and meet during the block just before ours. so Elder Christensen and i planned to teach lesson one (the restoration) which is basically how the church formed and what was key to that etc. We prepped really well, but i was so freaking nervous because this was a real dude, not just a teacher acting this time. its the real deal. so i basically told my comp "ya know what? im putting 100% faith in the spirit because my nerves are in orbit by now" but i was serious. i really was putting 100% trust in the lord cuz man i was so scared. it was a bit of a test for me, to see you know, if putting our trust in heavenly father really works. it was something i tended to struggle a bit with, so i was interested to see how it turned out. anyways, onto the good stuff right?
we are standing by the door (we teach in a room) and our zone leaders walk out for thier lessons, finishing up and jonathan walks out with them and struts away down the hall. i was like "is he coming back? what just happened? do we follow him?" but i guess he went to grab a drink or something cuz he walked back after a few seconds. we wave hi and he walks in... and we stand there... not sure if we are supposed to knock on his door then come in? or just walk in? so were like tryna figure out what to do and he pokes his head out like "are you... coming in?" we glance were like "ughhhh... yeah i guess i dunno if were supposed to knock" and hes like "why would you knock you saw me come in " my face was like "😐" blank. so awkward. anyways we get in, introduce ourselves and ask about his life and all those get to know you stuff. hes very artsy, into literature, music, gardening, bonsai trees, poems.... getting a picture a bit of this guy? very flamboyant, modeled for a little bit, has a fancy satchel bag thing... tad bit of a "lisp" if you catch my drift here....anywaysssssssss hes SUPER COOL. like WAY cool. instantly loved this guy, i would friend him so hard if i met him on the street, dudes a STUD. we start talking and tryna to start the restoration lesson but then we completely shift into the life of christ and who he was. this wasnt planned. like, not even close to what we planned. but i told my self id let the spirit take over 100% of this lesson so my comp and i went with it.
it was beautiful.
we talked of hardships, trails, experiences, acts of kindness, love, regrets and so much more. its was such an amazing conversation. this guy, who is VERY analytical just seemed to take what we had to say into serious consideration. hes studies many religions before. wed make a point and be like "thats intersting, i never thought of it that way but it.... makes sense in a way, yes". the spirit was so strong. it was nothing i have EVER experienced before. it didn't even seem real. a REAL investigator and my comp and i going through this 20 minutes like weve known eachother for years and had a deep life talk. its was... man i cant even describe it. my comp and i walked out and freaked out because it was such an amazing lesson. we talked for a good hour after the lesson about every deatil we talked about, how it went, what we did, what we can improve on. but we both agreed without a DOUBT that the spirit took over that one, and we just prepared ourselves to speak by the spirit.
so the next lesson comes on wednesday, our zone leaders had to meet with new missionaries, so jonathan wanted us to take thier block, so we got 40 minutes of time with him, instead of 20. so we thought, sweet! it was a great first lesson, and he had questions about who christ was, lets take the time and plan for the life of chirst lesson. and so we did. knowing we had more time we pulled up scriptures and things like tthatall ready for a nice long lesson. we had the same mentality though, to let the spirit have 100% control over the lesson. we get in give jonathan a high five (he didnt like handshakes for some reason, but high fives are hip and cool, so we were cool with that LOL) and we start talking, asking him about questions form the last lesson and were starting to lead into the life of christ and my comp takes our teaching book (preach my gospel) and flips to the page of "the plan of salvation" he gives me a quick look, glances at the book and i get the queue he had prompting to teach this. i obliged and we started. now, the Plan of Slavation is a, when studied, a pretty tough concept with ALOT of information and teachings. but, we had 40 minutes. elder christensen just took over, he HAD this DOWN. he was litterally speaking as is god was working his mouth, and im sure it was true. i sat there, testified of what i could and elder christensen just nailed it. johnathan took it so well. he had some very tough questions but becuase we had extra time, we could take that question and really discuss it. he just jkept saying "yeah.. interesting but it makes sense" or " yeah... that seems just of God " it was AMAZING. so we ended the lesson and he was very happy, and said he would give praying a shot. he went from not believing in god to praying with him in 2 lessons. one hour combined total. we ended in a prayer and we went for a high five, but hes was like "no... im hugging you guys you are amazing" HE HUGGED US. YES. I WAS SO HAPPY. we left again, squieled like little girls about our lesson, talked about it for hours and then went to bed. next lesson, thursday was equally amazing. i tried harder to make sure i taught more of the lesson (comp liked to be dominant, dudes a genious tho) and we planned to teach the life of chirst (for real this time) and we actaully got throught the lesson, and he took it amzingly. this time though, each room has a small camera to teacher can evaluate your lesson. this lesson was evaluated. apparently it was TAHT good, the teacher in the computer room told the rest of our zone to watch our lesson beacuse it was aperfect example of a lesson. we hda no idea they were watching us, but the spirit was so strong that lesson. we explained repenteance, the holy ghost, prayer, faith and a few other things that Christ taught. he took it so well that when we asked him for the closing prayer he obliged adn was excited to. his prayer was simple, but beautiful. the dude is a walking christ. we neded in ANOTHER hug and everythone in the zone was like "even thru the computers the spirit was so strong in the computer room. it was amazing" so its been a very spiritual week. i love Jonathan, hes a great guy, and im saddened our last lesson with him is tonight. i hope to get a picture with him, and maybe an email to keep in contact with him.
listen to the Spirit and put your trust in god. thats what i learned this week and its so FREAKING true it doesn't even seem real at times. but it is. its real.
i head out wednesday at like 3 am, which sucks but that means im on my way to Oregon! exciting! im ready to get out of the MTC haha... love the people but man its so exausting! anyways, getting short on time and laundry is done! i love and miss you all!
- ELder Schick
(ps: i miss monday Pday on teh field, so i wont get another email in probably till next monday)