It is the perfect place for a cold to spread.
Hello all of the people who love me and read my weekly throw up on a page! err Computer screen?
Okay! Welcome one and all to another week at the MTC. Things are kind of just starting to blur together. There's a lot of stuff the happens, but nothing really email worthy. I kind of just go to class. Try to learn Chinese. And then do other stuffs.
On Wednesday though I got the first vision memorized in Chinese! That was exciting! Gift of tongues is a real thing. Don't know if I can stress that enough. It's crazy.
On Thursday I bought a $23 pencil. Totally worth it. Actually though. It's allowing me to study my scriptures so much more effectively and so that is a good deal to me.
On Friday I did tutoring with a native teacher who is hear just to tutor missionaries in Chinese. We went mostly for my companion who is struggling with the language because he has no background in it. He is doing so well though. During tutoring however the teacher asked me a question and I responded and he looked at me and said "are you a half?" I have never gotten a better compliment in my life! He asked if I was half Chinese!! It felt good, but then I think he started to realize later on when I actually wasn't that good at Chinese that he had spoken too soon.
In Class we were teaching my teacher who pretends to be an investigator and we do the lessons with him. It is a lot of fun and we taught about the restoration! Because apparently I know enough Chinese to do that....... lol.
Two crazy things happened. First was that the gift of tongues only works if you trust it. My teacher said something and immediately I was like "He just asked for an example" But then I doubted that, I didn't remember ever learning the word for example, so it couldn't be that. I asked him what he said and he spent the next 3 minutes trying to explain it and use his phone to translate it for me. Only to find out that the word he had said was indeed, example. You gotta trust the spirit. But it was hard because I thought it was just me, and not the spirit. I've got a lot of learning to do on that still.
I then proceeded to make the worst language mistake that I have ever heard ever. I've never heard someone say something worse than this and if this had been a real investigator they probs woulda left the church.
So in Chinese there is a grammar structure called Ba/Bei. And so what I was wanting to stay was ren men ba JeSuJiDu xiasi
That means, the people took Jesus and killed him.
What I said was ren men bei JeSuJiDu xiasi
Which means that the people were killed by Jesus...
So yah. I taught the false doctrine that Jesus killed all the people. That was rough. My teacher/investigator looked at me oddly and started to smile. And then I realized what I had done. And quickly said it the other way.
Jesus is apparently a mass murderer in the doctrine of Elder Baird.
At the end of the lesson though we had invited him to pray. We had previously committed him to pray by himself and this lesson he had agreed to read the BoM. But this was his first time praying for us. And so as I was testifying to him of the power of the BoM and then as he started to say his prayer I just started to smile. The spirit was so strong and I was so happy that we were bringing this to him. Even though he was fake I knew that what I was doing, and what I would soon be doing was right. I knew that I could bring this joy to other people and that it could help them. It was an amazing experience.
That brings us to Saturday... My first TRC. A TRC is where you go and teach someone basically. For the weeks 3-6 you teach members. For weeks 6-9 you teach actual investigators. So today was our first member TRC. It was going to be the longest that my companion and I had ever taught before and I knew it was going to be hard. We had never met this person before and so we didn't know what they needed. So my companion and I had prayed a couple days earlier and I had said BoM, and he said trails. So we went with how the BoM helps us through trails. Getting ready we were like, our lesson is half decent. But when we started our first TRC (you do two every Saturday) We actually brought the spirit and it ended up being what this person needed to hear. She was spitting Chinese at us and I was able t understand like 60% which was great! The lesson went amazing.
On Sunday my companion and I taught priesthood. And it went amazing. We taught about obedience and as I testified about how the prophets commandments in the white handbook and as I testified I felt the spirit confirm that what I said was true. That was the first time I had felt that my testimony was like actually doing something. It was an amazing thing.
It was a good week all in all. I think they can all be good if I focus on the spirit and not myself. It doesn't matter if I'm sick or not. I can choose to be happy and not focus on myself, but I can focus on the people I'm teaching and the spirit. It's cool that way!
Shout out to my boi Jared Poulter Who got his call to Brazil!
Till next week my subservient fellows.
Love,
Elder Baird
P.S.
I heard that the pics didn't send sorry bout that. You guys have no clue how difficult it is to get emails through in this thing.
P.S.S.
Hopefully the pics send today.......!
Today's something about socks moment......
How do you feel charity to someone who annoys you? I love my companion, I really do, but man sometimes it is hard. And I want to love him more fully. And I don't know what to do. So all you past missionaries out there, how do you do it? What am I supposed to do if I want to be obedient and my companions like ehhh, what am I supposed to do If I want to focus and feel the spirit and he just wants to be rowdy and mess around. How does one develop charity? I think it's something that we all need to work on. But now for me especially. I know that this is important and it is something I want to do. Because we need to love our companions and so I need to do this. And if I can't love him, who is really quite easy going and nice, how am I supposed to love companions who are not even close to as nice as him..... Who knows!
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
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