Oh my goodness have things been BUSY!! My companion and I taught our hearts out this past week. Everything was a little rocky...ok, it was WAY rocky and hard but way cool nonetheless. It didn't help that I was sick this past week. I came down with a really weird bout of weakness and sore throatyness last Tuesday and have been trying to get over it. It's almost gone but I didn't have a voice for a couple of days and have had a bit of a hard time sleeping.
Class every day is going really well. Our class schedule is actually going to change this next week because of school starting. This week is the last week for one of our teachers, so we will have a new one next week, and the other has classes that he is going to take. Our whole district was pretty disappointed because we love both the teachers we have. But, I completely understand. BYU is pretty tough and when you have a job like working at the MTC, it can be a huge weight tied around your shoulders. But, it's so crazy to think that I've been here for a month already...In another 4 weeks I will be on a plane to AZ, hopefully prepared to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people there. I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenenants a couple of days ago when I came across D&C 90:11. It talks about how the gospel will be heard by everyman in his own tongue. It was really powerful to me because, honestly, I feel like I have really been struggling learning this language. But, Heavenly Father knows all of our trials and thoughts and ALWAYS puts something there to show that you are ok. My experience was yesterday in the TRC. This was our first week doing everything in Spanish. It was HARD! Oh goodness it was rough. It's frustrating to not know how to say what you want to say. I was kinda disappointed, in myself mostly, until later on that evening. In my Personal and Language study yesterday I read Predicad Mi Evangelio in both Spanish and English and I really realized how much I really knew. It got to the point yesterday that I rarely looked at the English version, which happened when I really didn't have any idea what a word meant. This gospel is just so amazing!
Other than that It hasn't really been a crazy week. There were a couple of really Spiritual experiences that I don't have time to write at the moment but will try sometime. If not, then you'll just have to wait until I get back! :) We lost another District this past week but are blessed to get another one tomorrow. This will be the first district that Elder Harker and I will have a Zone leaders. We get to orient them on Wednesday for about an hour then take them on a tour and orient them some more for about an hour and a half on Thursday. I am way excited. I love Wednesdays here! :)
But, I really wish I could write more but I am running out of time really fast! The computers here only give you 30 minutes to e-mail everything you need to. But, I want you all to know that sé que este iglesia es verdadero. Yo sé que that José Smith fue un propheta de dios. Yo sé que Jesucristo es my hermano, mi Salvador y Redentor, y mi amigo. Yo sé que tenemos un profeta en la tierra hoy, Thomas S. Monson. Yo sé que las familias podemos ser eterna. Yo sé que podemos regresar a Dios si arrepentimos de nuestros pecados. Yo sé que El Libro de Mormón y la Santa Biblia son las palabras de Dios. Yo sé que este obra is verdadero y que nuestro mensaje traerá felizidad a esos personas que lo aceptan. I love you all and want you to know that I am thinking about you and that you are always in my prayers! Keep the letters coming!
¡Hasta Luego y Les Amo!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Weekly Update!! :)
¡Hola a todos!
So this has been an incredibly busy and productive week. My companion and I had some rough patches but worked them out so our companionship is better than ever! We were able to do a lot this week. We had more RC chats over the past few days that have really made us work. I love the RC! It really makes you think and study on real needs that people have. Elder Harker and I also had a TRC appointment. We both thought it was really choppy and rough but the person that we taught thought otherwise. She gave us a Spirituality Rating of 8 out of 10. This completed Elder Harker's and my goal to increase our rating every time we teach. We were pretty pumped. We had devotional again on Sunday and it was INCREDIBLE! It went over time for about 45 minutes but I learned SO much from it! The speaker spoke about our purpose as missionaries and broke Our Purpose down and covered it piece by piece. It really opened up my eyes to the whole reason I'm here.
As for the language this past week, It's still been a struggle but it's coming along one day at a time. We've learned all the tenses except the Past Subjunctive tense but, we won't learn that until about the 7th or 8th week here. Last week I wrote my first talk in spanish meaning, I didn't copy ANYTHING from PME or True to the Faith. I was really proud of myself. AS I may have explained, every week at the TRC we do something in spanish. Our first week, we did really short contacts (about 3 minutes each). Our second week we did 2 longer contacts (about 7 minutes each). Last week we followed up/extended commitments for about 10 minutes. This week though, we TAUGHT the importance of prayer and how to pray for about 20 minutes. On that note, we taught our last lesson in English yesterday. Next TRC appointment, we will do our prelim. assignment then teach a 30 minute lesson in Spanish. It's going to be tough but it's going to be way cool! It's so awesome how Heavenly Father blesses us when we struggle. I wouldn't have it any other way! :)
In other news, I've been a little sick recently. Sore throat and achyness. It's been going around my district for a while now so it was only a matter of time before I got it. I've also been getting a LOT of pictures with friends that are here in the MTC. It kinda drives my companion crazy sometimes. :) HAHA. But, everything is coming along really well. They released me as District Leader this past Sunday. To explain how it works, the Zone presidency releases/calls District Leaders every four weeks. So, it was time. It was a great experience and I learned a ton! However, the fun doesn't stop there. The Zone presidency called my companion and I to be Zone leaders until we leave on the 22nd of September! We've been shadowing the old ones since Sunday and will take control of those responsibilities this Sunday. So, exciting stuff. It's going to take a bit of time but it's going to be a blast! However, I need to finish my laundry. I hope everyone is ok! I know school is starting back up really soon so those who are traveling: "BE SAFE!!" Keep the letters rolling and ¡Hasta luego! ¡Les amo mucho!
So this has been an incredibly busy and productive week. My companion and I had some rough patches but worked them out so our companionship is better than ever! We were able to do a lot this week. We had more RC chats over the past few days that have really made us work. I love the RC! It really makes you think and study on real needs that people have. Elder Harker and I also had a TRC appointment. We both thought it was really choppy and rough but the person that we taught thought otherwise. She gave us a Spirituality Rating of 8 out of 10. This completed Elder Harker's and my goal to increase our rating every time we teach. We were pretty pumped. We had devotional again on Sunday and it was INCREDIBLE! It went over time for about 45 minutes but I learned SO much from it! The speaker spoke about our purpose as missionaries and broke Our Purpose down and covered it piece by piece. It really opened up my eyes to the whole reason I'm here.
As for the language this past week, It's still been a struggle but it's coming along one day at a time. We've learned all the tenses except the Past Subjunctive tense but, we won't learn that until about the 7th or 8th week here. Last week I wrote my first talk in spanish meaning, I didn't copy ANYTHING from PME or True to the Faith. I was really proud of myself. AS I may have explained, every week at the TRC we do something in spanish. Our first week, we did really short contacts (about 3 minutes each). Our second week we did 2 longer contacts (about 7 minutes each). Last week we followed up/extended commitments for about 10 minutes. This week though, we TAUGHT the importance of prayer and how to pray for about 20 minutes. On that note, we taught our last lesson in English yesterday. Next TRC appointment, we will do our prelim. assignment then teach a 30 minute lesson in Spanish. It's going to be tough but it's going to be way cool! It's so awesome how Heavenly Father blesses us when we struggle. I wouldn't have it any other way! :)
In other news, I've been a little sick recently. Sore throat and achyness. It's been going around my district for a while now so it was only a matter of time before I got it. I've also been getting a LOT of pictures with friends that are here in the MTC. It kinda drives my companion crazy sometimes. :) HAHA. But, everything is coming along really well. They released me as District Leader this past Sunday. To explain how it works, the Zone presidency releases/calls District Leaders every four weeks. So, it was time. It was a great experience and I learned a ton! However, the fun doesn't stop there. The Zone presidency called my companion and I to be Zone leaders until we leave on the 22nd of September! We've been shadowing the old ones since Sunday and will take control of those responsibilities this Sunday. So, exciting stuff. It's going to take a bit of time but it's going to be a blast! However, I need to finish my laundry. I hope everyone is ok! I know school is starting back up really soon so those who are traveling: "BE SAFE!!" Keep the letters rolling and ¡Hasta luego! ¡Les amo mucho!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Week Three
¡Hola mi amigos!
So another week has come and gone. The time schedule here is kinda weird. The days seem to take FOREVER to get over with but the weeks go by so fast. It honestly seems like yesterday when I wrote my last post! But, I guess it's better for time to go fast then to seem like it won't every end right? :)
We had a very busy week this past week. We taught our last lesson on the Restoration in ingles last week and started teaching lesson two yesterday at the TRC. We did pretty well but, once again, there is still room to improve. We start teaching in Spanish in another week and a half so my companion and I have started preparing for that. All in all, every lesson we teach helps us develop more and more! We had a couple of awesome firesides this past week. Last Tuesday, President Merrill J. Bateman came and spoke to us then this past Sunday, Brother Richard Heaton, the Administrative Director over the MTC, spoke to us. Both talks were phenomenal! Also this week, companion and I went to the RC (Referral Center) and started doing chat. We actually talked to someone that seemed really interested and we even set up a follow up appointment for yesterday but...it fell through. Instead, I was able to talk to a kid about the church. Rather...he wanted to talk about how we were wrong, that there is no such thing as revelation today, and how the scripture in Revelations about "Thou shalt not add anything to this book" verse will curse us when we die. But, it was interesting. I learned so much afterward when I did some research on the questions he asked. So, interesting week I guess you could say! :D
Spanish has been coming along great. I've kinda got to the point where I know enough to understand what I'm talking about when I contact people. The words actually have meaning instead of being just words! It's amazing! HAHA! My district and I actually did a half day English fast on Friday and have two more this week: one tomorrow and one on Friday. I'm pretty excited. We learned the Preterite (Past event) and the Imperfect (background, past detail) tenses this past week so, slowly our knowledge is growing. Some Elders are struggling more than others but, all in all, we are doing really well together. I took on the goal last week to memorize 20 new verbs a day. It's a lot of work but I've been pretty successful so far. Right now I'm at about 95 verbs out of the pool of 300 I'm drawing from. My companion and I also memorized the First Vision in spanish last week in prep for our first lesson in spanish. So, things are falling into place. It's just amazing how the spirit blesses you when you try your hardest!
In other news, this week has a bit of a rough week for me. Some of the elders in my district, to be honest, have probably never studied as much as they've studied here. As a result, the conversations in the classroom when it is our study times are slowly becoming more and more worldly and less focused on our Purpose. I've really been struggling with one particular elder, who happens to be going to my mission, who has a bit of an aggression problem. He likes to be belittling sometimes and has a very poor attitude about a lot of things. To be perfectly honest, he needs to re-read Elder Bednar's talk on being offended! :) But, I've been trying to help him with it the best I can and not create a situation where there will be contention between us. It may take until the mission field until he changes. If that's the case, it's going to be a lot harder for him to do it out there than it will be for him to do it here. But, the choice is his! I was able to go to the temple again today and, once again, it was FANTASTIC! I love the peace, joy, and increase of knowledge the temple brings when you attend. It really makes you realize the power of this work. It's just incredible! Speaking of temples, the MTC is going to get a direct connection to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication next month!! I'm really excited!
And lastly, an experience that I must share with you all. This past week, my whole zone, about a total of 60 Missionaries, ate 4 cereal hoppers full of cereal this past week. That is the equivalent of 12 bags of cereal. It took us 25 minutes, 239 bowls, and 2 big milk dispensers to complete the task. I myself had 6 bowls of cereal and I tell you what, I will NEVER do that again. But the memory is great nonetheless!
But, my time is almost up! I hope everyone is okay and that things are going great for them. You all are ALWAYS in my prayers!
¡Los amos mucho y hasta luego! Don't forget to write!! :D :D
Elder Klemme
So another week has come and gone. The time schedule here is kinda weird. The days seem to take FOREVER to get over with but the weeks go by so fast. It honestly seems like yesterday when I wrote my last post! But, I guess it's better for time to go fast then to seem like it won't every end right? :)
We had a very busy week this past week. We taught our last lesson on the Restoration in ingles last week and started teaching lesson two yesterday at the TRC. We did pretty well but, once again, there is still room to improve. We start teaching in Spanish in another week and a half so my companion and I have started preparing for that. All in all, every lesson we teach helps us develop more and more! We had a couple of awesome firesides this past week. Last Tuesday, President Merrill J. Bateman came and spoke to us then this past Sunday, Brother Richard Heaton, the Administrative Director over the MTC, spoke to us. Both talks were phenomenal! Also this week, companion and I went to the RC (Referral Center) and started doing chat. We actually talked to someone that seemed really interested and we even set up a follow up appointment for yesterday but...it fell through. Instead, I was able to talk to a kid about the church. Rather...he wanted to talk about how we were wrong, that there is no such thing as revelation today, and how the scripture in Revelations about "Thou shalt not add anything to this book" verse will curse us when we die. But, it was interesting. I learned so much afterward when I did some research on the questions he asked. So, interesting week I guess you could say! :D
Spanish has been coming along great. I've kinda got to the point where I know enough to understand what I'm talking about when I contact people. The words actually have meaning instead of being just words! It's amazing! HAHA! My district and I actually did a half day English fast on Friday and have two more this week: one tomorrow and one on Friday. I'm pretty excited. We learned the Preterite (Past event) and the Imperfect (background, past detail) tenses this past week so, slowly our knowledge is growing. Some Elders are struggling more than others but, all in all, we are doing really well together. I took on the goal last week to memorize 20 new verbs a day. It's a lot of work but I've been pretty successful so far. Right now I'm at about 95 verbs out of the pool of 300 I'm drawing from. My companion and I also memorized the First Vision in spanish last week in prep for our first lesson in spanish. So, things are falling into place. It's just amazing how the spirit blesses you when you try your hardest!
In other news, this week has a bit of a rough week for me. Some of the elders in my district, to be honest, have probably never studied as much as they've studied here. As a result, the conversations in the classroom when it is our study times are slowly becoming more and more worldly and less focused on our Purpose. I've really been struggling with one particular elder, who happens to be going to my mission, who has a bit of an aggression problem. He likes to be belittling sometimes and has a very poor attitude about a lot of things. To be perfectly honest, he needs to re-read Elder Bednar's talk on being offended! :) But, I've been trying to help him with it the best I can and not create a situation where there will be contention between us. It may take until the mission field until he changes. If that's the case, it's going to be a lot harder for him to do it out there than it will be for him to do it here. But, the choice is his! I was able to go to the temple again today and, once again, it was FANTASTIC! I love the peace, joy, and increase of knowledge the temple brings when you attend. It really makes you realize the power of this work. It's just incredible! Speaking of temples, the MTC is going to get a direct connection to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication next month!! I'm really excited!
And lastly, an experience that I must share with you all. This past week, my whole zone, about a total of 60 Missionaries, ate 4 cereal hoppers full of cereal this past week. That is the equivalent of 12 bags of cereal. It took us 25 minutes, 239 bowls, and 2 big milk dispensers to complete the task. I myself had 6 bowls of cereal and I tell you what, I will NEVER do that again. But the memory is great nonetheless!
But, my time is almost up! I hope everyone is okay and that things are going great for them. You all are ALWAYS in my prayers!
¡Los amos mucho y hasta luego! Don't forget to write!! :D :D
Elder Klemme
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Semana numero dos :)
¡Hola a todos!
So week number two was definitely not as crazy as the first week. Our language training has slowed a little bit and we have finally gotten into our normal schedule that we will have for the next six weeks. We have about 8 hours of class a day (4 hours or so of Spanish and about 4 hours of gospel study). It's amazing how much you can learn in a time of two weeks. My companion and I taught in the TRC yesterday and the lesson went incredibly well. We got a 7 out of 10 for the spirituality of the lesson we taught so we have some things to improve on but, that's why we are here for six more weeks :). Our entire district went to the Referral Center on Saturday and did Outbound-English Calls. What we basically do is call people who requested videos or Books of Mormon or Bibles and confirm that they received it. I can honestly say that I have received my first rejection of my mission! :) I had called this lady from...I think it was Texas... trying to see if she received her copy of the Book of Mormon. I literally got out "My name is Andrew from The Church of Jesus Christ..." when I heard an "Oh..." and a "click" on the other line. It pumped me up so much! I was so nervous because I didn't know how I would take my first rejection but it went really well! The Devotionals here are really good. This past Tuesday, Robert K. Dellenbach came and spoke on the power of the Book of Mormon. This past Sunday was not very good though...It was the Director of International MTC's and to be honest...I'm not really sure what he spoke on. The whole Fireside was really irreverent on their part and kind of inappropriate but, oh well, there were still some good points!
The language is coming along pretty well. It's a lot of information to retain and learn in such a short period of time but the Lord truly blesses those who do their best. When my companion and I taught at the TRC yesterday, we had to contact 2 people for 8 minutes each in Spanish. Let's just say, we TRULY believe in the gift of tongues. The contacting went fantastic! I understood (for the most part) what they were saying to us and we were able to respond back (even though it was a little rough). The spirit is absolutely incredible! I can honestly say I study spanish for about 5 hours a day and learn so much! I have really learned that the key is to pray for the spirit before EVERY study session, done in Spanish of course. It's so fantastic...I can even begin to explain! :)
In terms of random information. We are finally getting a new district in our Zone tomorrow so, we will no longer be the youngins in the group. All of the Elders are really excited to welcome them and to help them. During our District Planning Session yesterday, we made the goal to use them to teach to and to speak to in Spanish. We all found that when the other districts in our Zone did that when we were here, it really made us feel welcome and confident. So, it's really exciting!! On another note, I saw Elders Finley and Hanks this past week, both of which came in on Sunday. It's seriously so cool to see so many people I know here. I know I already said this but it truly is a testament of the power of this work!! But, I've gotta finish good 'ole laundry but, I'll send a new post next week, PLUS, pictures should be up by this week!! Keep the letters coming and remember, dearelder.com is a way easy to send letters!! ¡Los Amo mucho!
P.S. Hermana Larsen, I received your awesome postcard and goodies yesterday. I wanted to write and say "Thank You" but, I hope this works. Thanks again and hope to hear from you again soon!! :)
So week number two was definitely not as crazy as the first week. Our language training has slowed a little bit and we have finally gotten into our normal schedule that we will have for the next six weeks. We have about 8 hours of class a day (4 hours or so of Spanish and about 4 hours of gospel study). It's amazing how much you can learn in a time of two weeks. My companion and I taught in the TRC yesterday and the lesson went incredibly well. We got a 7 out of 10 for the spirituality of the lesson we taught so we have some things to improve on but, that's why we are here for six more weeks :). Our entire district went to the Referral Center on Saturday and did Outbound-English Calls. What we basically do is call people who requested videos or Books of Mormon or Bibles and confirm that they received it. I can honestly say that I have received my first rejection of my mission! :) I had called this lady from...I think it was Texas... trying to see if she received her copy of the Book of Mormon. I literally got out "My name is Andrew from The Church of Jesus Christ..." when I heard an "Oh..." and a "click" on the other line. It pumped me up so much! I was so nervous because I didn't know how I would take my first rejection but it went really well! The Devotionals here are really good. This past Tuesday, Robert K. Dellenbach came and spoke on the power of the Book of Mormon. This past Sunday was not very good though...It was the Director of International MTC's and to be honest...I'm not really sure what he spoke on. The whole Fireside was really irreverent on their part and kind of inappropriate but, oh well, there were still some good points!
The language is coming along pretty well. It's a lot of information to retain and learn in such a short period of time but the Lord truly blesses those who do their best. When my companion and I taught at the TRC yesterday, we had to contact 2 people for 8 minutes each in Spanish. Let's just say, we TRULY believe in the gift of tongues. The contacting went fantastic! I understood (for the most part) what they were saying to us and we were able to respond back (even though it was a little rough). The spirit is absolutely incredible! I can honestly say I study spanish for about 5 hours a day and learn so much! I have really learned that the key is to pray for the spirit before EVERY study session, done in Spanish of course. It's so fantastic...I can even begin to explain! :)
In terms of random information. We are finally getting a new district in our Zone tomorrow so, we will no longer be the youngins in the group. All of the Elders are really excited to welcome them and to help them. During our District Planning Session yesterday, we made the goal to use them to teach to and to speak to in Spanish. We all found that when the other districts in our Zone did that when we were here, it really made us feel welcome and confident. So, it's really exciting!! On another note, I saw Elders Finley and Hanks this past week, both of which came in on Sunday. It's seriously so cool to see so many people I know here. I know I already said this but it truly is a testament of the power of this work!! But, I've gotta finish good 'ole laundry but, I'll send a new post next week, PLUS, pictures should be up by this week!! Keep the letters coming and remember, dearelder.com is a way easy to send letters!! ¡Los Amo mucho!
P.S. Hermana Larsen, I received your awesome postcard and goodies yesterday. I wanted to write and say "Thank You" but, I hope this works. Thanks again and hope to hear from you again soon!! :)
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