Week one of my mission is in the books. This week has been a little hectic but super awesome, and I'm so excited to be here. On the first day I got here they gave me an iPad just for my stay at the MTC. (I don't know why, because we don't have tablets out in the field, but whatever. It's been useful for getting onto the Portal and reading the booklets and things that we needed to read). Also on the first day I lost my key card that you use to get into all of the buildings and into the cafeteria and the dorms. I was pretty sure my host Elder (who picked me up when I got dropped off) had it in his pocket. Either way it was gone. So I had to go get another one printed and it wasn't that big of a deal. Right after I got here I dropped my bags in the room and went to class with my district. We have 8 companionships in our district, 6 Elders and 2 Sisters. They are: Elders Hart and Barden, Elders Williams and Goodrich, (myself and my companion Elder Deschamps room with those 4). Elders Rippy and Johnson, Elders Champlin and Goodwin, and Elders Hillam and Sorenson room next door. And the sisters are Sisters Southwick and Cliffor, and Sisters Aiono and Wilcox. Literally all of us have been here for just a week and we all feel like we have been best friends for years. It's so cool how service and working towards a common goal can bring people together like it has.
To my sisters, thanks for all of the "Office" quotes I have found in my bags and pockets. I'm still finding them! They always give me a good laugh. I haven't had a lot of chances to throw in some good quotes, but one of our teachers actually did on the very first day we were here. We were in a sort of group teaching session, where there was one investigator and like 50 missionaries who could all express their thoughts about the investigator's concerns. (I didn't really like this activity. It wasn't very effective because there were so many people). But anyway, the teacher just tells us "KISS - keep it simple stupid." I just leaned over to Elder Deschamps and said, "Isn't that from the Office?" Haha, we both got a good laugh, and so did most of the others in the room who understood the reference. Wednesday night we had a big orientation meeting with all the missionaries who had just arrived here, and then we met our Zone Leaders and then we went to bed. I quickly learned that there is an Elder on our floor of our dorm who basically does a stand up comedy show every night right outside our door. He's not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. But luckily the Elders in my room are, so we always have good laughs right before bed.
On Thursday we had our first real class and our first lesson with an investigator named Sarah (she is pretend, and played by our teacher Sister Esplin), but it was still good to just kind of get thrown into teaching after just about an hour of prep. That's what happens here at the MTC. We get a few hours of class per day, and a few hours of study time, and you have to use it effectively or you are totally unprepared for your lessons. Also on Thursday night we met our Branch Presidency. Our branch President is President Allen, and he is really cool. I got to talk with him for a few minutes and I'm really excited to have him as one of our leaders.
On Friday we had our first scheduled exercise time, so we went up to play sand volleyball. Well, the ball. Well, the sand was probably 130 degrees, so we played a different game on the grass. It was fun, but neither Elder Deschamps nor I thought it was exercise because we hardly moved around at all. So once we got back into our shirts and ties we had about 2 hours to study until dinner. And since we didn't exercise we decided to take the stairs to the top floor of our classroom building and sit in one of the study rooms. They have little study rooms on every floor (called "ponder rooms") and let me tell you, the top floor is the best by far. Almost nobody goes up there and the view out the windows is incredible. They also play hymns and other music while you study. We use the ponder rooms every day.
Saturday we had class for a couple hours in the morning and we got to teach Sarah again. Our lessons with her go well, but they are far from the best. I really wish that they would have taught us what we know now at the very beginning. It wasn't until that night that we had a lesson from another one of our teachers named Brother Abadillo. He's from Guatemala and he is about 5'2" and he is the best teacher I've ever had. He had us read 1 Nephi 11, when the angel shows Nephi the vision of the Tree of Life. Bro. Abadillo explained how the angel didn't teach Nephi by talking. He taught by asking the right questions. "What desirest thou? Look! What beholdest thou?" We need to frequently ask these same types of questions as we teach to gauge the needs and the understanding of our investigator as we teach. I have really tried my best to follow this counsel as Elder Deschamps and I have taught, and I know he has as well. Also, our job as teachers is not to talk. It is to invite the Spirit, and facilitate the learning of those we are teaching, as the angel did in this chapter with Nephi. I will never read 1 Nephi 11 the same. We had an incredible discussion with all of the Missionaries in our district, and after we did, Brother Abadillo said one more thing that stood out to me. He said, "Revelation is scattered among us. Pay attention to what other people say, because whenever someone speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost, whatever they say IS SCRIPTURE." That was definitely something I had never thought of before. Needless to say, everybody left that lesson with high hopes for our next lesson with Brother Abadillo. Also on Saturday we got to play Spikeball. I was so pumped. Elder Deschamps and I went 5-0, and we are as of now the undisputed Spikeball district champions.
On Sunday we had Sacrament Meeting with our branch (our district and 4 others). Everybody was assigned on Friday to write a talk, and then at Sacrament Meeting, 2 missionaries were called up at random to speak. Luckily I was not called on, but I was prepared if I was. Sunday night I was able to convince Elder Deschamps to join the choir so we went to choir practice. He said after that he really enjoyed it, and I did, too. The conductor stopped us every once in a while and told us stories about Joseph Smith, and a couple of them I had never heard before. Choir practice was really fun. After choir we had a devotional from the Mills family, who used to be President and wife of a mission in Japan. Their devotional was all about music so they sang lots of songs with their family and a few missionaries. After that devotional we got to watch a video called "Character of Christ", which was a talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a while ago. They told us that they only show that video at the MTC, but I really hope that's not true because it was sooo good. I hope to be able to find it somehow to watch it again after I leave here. Elder Bednar told of how Christ always "turns outward" (through service and love for others) even when He has every opportunity and every reason to give in to the natural man and "turn inward" (be selfish and self-centered). Elder Bednar was very blunt in stating that it isn't about you. It's about turning outward and losing ourself in service, not feeling sorry for yourself even if you might have every reason to. One example is when Jesus had just performed the Atonement, and then the guards came to take him away. His Apostles tried to defend him and even cut off the ear of one of the guards. Jesus obviously was feeling very terrible at this point. He had literally just taken upon himself every pain, sickness, and sin of the entirety of mankind. He had every reason to feel selfish and sorry for himself. And yet he took the time to heal this guard's ear. When the natural man in him wanted to turn inward, he turned outward. Later, while Jesus was on the cross, he said to His Father, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." He didn't feel sorry for himself, or feel any bit of selfishness. He was only worried about the welfare of others. When he had every reason to turn inward, he turned outward. THIS IS THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. Elder Bednar's message was very powerful that night.
On Monday we had our first TRCs (stands for Teaching Resource Center. Basically just a 25 minute lesson with another investigator). All we knew about who we were teaching was a 3-5 sentence bio about them, so Elder Deschamps and I tried to identify their needs and plan a lesson just based on that. Our first lesson was with Viktòria. She is from Hungary and she grew up in the Church, but I guess she was never baptized and her family became inactive when she was a kid. We taught her about the Restoration and she basically knew the whole thing from when she was young. It was pretty much just a review for her, but she did accept our invitation to pray about the truthfulness of our message. She said that she prayed somewhat regularly and so she agreed to pray with us right then and there. She actually said that she was more comfortable praying in Hungarian instead of English so that's what she did. I had no idea what she said, but I'm sure she asked Heavenly Father what we invited her to. That lesson felt really good and was a good experience. We had another TRC a few hours later with a guy named Tanner. From his bio we learned that he grew up in a Christian family and his best friend from high school was a member of the Church. We also taught him about the Restoration, but that lesson didn't have the same good feeling as the one with Viktòria did. At class that night we reviewed the daily planning process, and we realized that we hadn't followed it super well when we prepared our lesson for Tanner. One of the first steps is to identify our investigators needs and plan your study and discussion around that and we feel like we didn't do a very good job of identifying his needs. So for our final lesson of the day (with a fake investigator named Scott, played be Bro. Abadillo) Elder Deschamps and I really focused on Scott's needs and planned everything around that. Scott was struggling with knowing that God is really there, so we focused our lesson on evidences that God exists, that He loves us, and that we can pray to know that this is true. I honestly feel like that was the best lesson we have had yet. We asked Scott really good questions to help us understand his thoughts, we shared some scriptures with him about how to know that God is there, and we taught him how to pray. He accepted our invitation to pray to know of God's existence and of His love. I was so pumped and so happy literally from 8:30 when we gave the lesson until we went to bed. I can't wait to actually share this knowledge and other things we know with other people who don't have it or don't understand it. I'm so excited to be out in the field and teach real investigators.
On Sunday we had Sacrament Meeting with our branch (our district and 4 others). Everybody was assigned on Friday to write a talk, and then at Sacrament Meeting, 2 missionaries were called up at random to speak. Luckily I was not called on, but I was prepared if I was. Sunday night I was able to convince Elder Deschamps to join the choir so we went to choir practice. He said after that he really enjoyed it, and I did, too. The conductor stopped us every once in a while and told us stories about Joseph Smith, and a couple of them I had never heard before. Choir practice was really fun. After choir we had a devotional from the Mills family, who used to be President and wife of a mission in Japan. Their devotional was all about music so they sang lots of songs with their family and a few missionaries. After that devotional we got to watch a video called "Character of Christ", which was a talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a while ago. They told us that they only show that video at the MTC, but I really hope that's not true because it was sooo good. I hope to be able to find it somehow to watch it again after I leave here. Elder Bednar told of how Christ always "turns outward" (through service and love for others) even when He has every opportunity and every reason to give in to the natural man and "turn inward" (be selfish and self-centered). Elder Bednar was very blunt in stating that it isn't about you. It's about turning outward and losing ourself in service, not feeling sorry for yourself even if you might have every reason to. One example is when Jesus had just performed the Atonement, and then the guards came to take him away. His Apostles tried to defend him and even cut off the ear of one of the guards. Jesus obviously was feeling very terrible at this point. He had literally just taken upon himself every pain, sickness, and sin of the entirety of mankind. He had every reason to feel selfish and sorry for himself. And yet he took the time to heal this guard's ear. When the natural man in him wanted to turn inward, he turned outward. Later, while Jesus was on the cross, he said to His Father, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." He didn't feel sorry for himself, or feel any bit of selfishness. He was only worried about the welfare of others. When he had every reason to turn inward, he turned outward. THIS IS THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. Elder Bednar's message was very powerful that night.
On Monday we had our first TRCs (stands for Teaching Resource Center. Basically just a 25 minute lesson with another investigator). All we knew about who we were teaching was a 3-5 sentence bio about them, so Elder Deschamps and I tried to identify their needs and plan a lesson just based on that. Our first lesson was with Viktòria. She is from Hungary and she grew up in the Church, but I guess she was never baptized and her family became inactive when she was a kid. We taught her about the Restoration and she basically knew the whole thing from when she was young. It was pretty much just a review for her, but she did accept our invitation to pray about the truthfulness of our message. She said that she prayed somewhat regularly and so she agreed to pray with us right then and there. She actually said that she was more comfortable praying in Hungarian instead of English so that's what she did. I had no idea what she said, but I'm sure she asked Heavenly Father what we invited her to. That lesson felt really good and was a good experience. We had another TRC a few hours later with a guy named Tanner. From his bio we learned that he grew up in a Christian family and his best friend from high school was a member of the Church. We also taught him about the Restoration, but that lesson didn't have the same good feeling as the one with Viktòria did. At class that night we reviewed the daily planning process, and we realized that we hadn't followed it super well when we prepared our lesson for Tanner. One of the first steps is to identify our investigators needs and plan your study and discussion around that and we feel like we didn't do a very good job of identifying his needs. So for our final lesson of the day (with a fake investigator named Scott, played be Bro. Abadillo) Elder Deschamps and I really focused on Scott's needs and planned everything around that. Scott was struggling with knowing that God is really there, so we focused our lesson on evidences that God exists, that He loves us, and that we can pray to know that this is true. I honestly feel like that was the best lesson we have had yet. We asked Scott really good questions to help us understand his thoughts, we shared some scriptures with him about how to know that God is there, and we taught him how to pray. He accepted our invitation to pray to know of God's existence and of His love. I was so pumped and so happy literally from 8:30 when we gave the lesson until we went to bed. I can't wait to actually share this knowledge and other things we know with other people who don't have it or don't understand it. I'm so excited to be out in the field and teach real investigators.
Today, Tuesday, is P-day. Most of our district went to the temple this morning. Elder Williams wanted to go do some sealings instead of an endowment session so he and Elder Goodrich and Elder Deschamps and I went to go do that. It was the first time for each of us, and though we could only participate as witnesses and as sons being sealed to their parents, it was awesome. I can't wait to go back sometime and do it again, and I can't wait to go be sealed for myself someday. The promised blessings of the temple are incredible, and I'm glad we got to go there today.
Anyway, I miss all of you guys, but I don't tend to dwell too much on missing home, especially when we are hard at work. I'm excited to be here, and I'm even more excited to go and serve in Alabama. I love you all
Much love,
Elder Beach
Elder Beach
Me and Elder Deschamps.
A view from the ponder room on the top floor of the MTC.
All my MTC roommates.
My MTC District.
