Elder Harris' letter #2

Hola familia,

I just want to start by saying that I really miss all of you and I love you all so much.

The MTC is such a great place; I can feel the spirit everywhere that I am, even the lunch room!!! Learning Spanish is actually really hard but I know that the lord does give us any challenges that he doesn’t already know we can handle. Aubrei, Haleigh, Saydi, Mom, Dad, Grandma Harris, Grandma Murphy, Sister Hatch, and Aunt molly Thank You so much for all the letters and packages it really means so much to me.

Let me start with talking about the food here. The food is not bad actually. I think that it is a step up from being at school, but they pump the food full of vitamins so... you do the math. I have PowerAde with every meal and I eat cereal every morning. Best part of the MTC is that the milk is a limitless supply!!!!!

My companions name is Elder Johnson and he is from Connecticut. We are like polar opposites. He is reserved laid back and quiet, on the opposite end I am really loud and outgoing and I like to talk to everyone that I meet.

Yesterday was our first TRC which means that it was the first time that we got to teach the first discussion. TRC stands for Teaching Resource Center. The first thing that we get to do while we are there is to greet someone in Spanish, we talk to them, ask them how they are doing and teach a little in Spanish about the gospel. Then we ask if we can “come back another day" and teach them more in our native language. He then leaves and comes back about 5 min later and we teach them the first discussion. Elder Johnson and I were so pumped to get in there and start to teach.  We then found out the person that we would be teaching was a twelve year old girl. We pretty much threw out our entire lesson plan because everything that we were going to teach was way too hard for a little girl to understand. We went into the lesson relying totally on faith, and let me tell you the Spirit came through for us. We explained the doctrine in the most simple ways that we could think of and if there were any big words at all, we explained what they meant. Like for example, dispensation, prophet, and ministry. It is an amazing how well the spirit uses you as a tool when you really have no idea what you are going to say.

On Tuesday of this week we had Russell M. Nelson come to speak to the missionaries and it was the best talk that I have ever heard. He basically spoke right to me, telling how to be the very best missionary that I could possibly be. He told us that we as missionaries should be like Lions in the wild that we should be alert and “hunt down our prey". It truly inspired me to really seek after my investigators, and to strive to let the spirit guide me when I am in the field. I learned that the armor of god is not always armor but the very things that I wear every day, like the white hand book is my shield and scripture is my sword. My suit is my breastplate and so on. I loved the talk, that I wrote about 3 full pages of notes on it.

Just a quick word about Spanish, I know that I would always tell how much I hated speaking the language when I was in high school. Well that whole thought process is already way out the door. I can seriously bear my testimony better in Spanish then I can in English, because I only know how to say the most basic things.  It makes my testimony that much more powerful because I can only say exactly what I know. For example I know Christ lives, I know he loves you, I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet.  Also another really funny thing is that I have never been really good at spelling and I can already spell better in Spanish then I can in English. I cannot wait until I am so good at Spanish that I can write a full letter to you without any mistakes. Side note, super cool, I have to write a talk in Spanish for this Sunday on how charity and love should be full.

I love you and will continue to write.  - Jaren