Seventh Week in the MTC

We can't believe it's been seven weeks either! Here is what Derek had to say today.

"Crazy no, seven weeks, and I´m almost out of here. I´ve got to say, it´s a little sad to be leaving this place. It´s been great, my comp, my district, my teachers. Everything´s been great, minus the food, but other than that it´s been awesome and I´ve had some really good experiences. I just hope I can remember them and apply the things I´ve learned here to my teachings.

As for the rundown of the week, Friday was a tough day... Probably one of the toughest I´ve had here, but suffice it to say that after a lot of praying, pondering, and meditating I´ve come out of it quite a bit better than before. It´s like in that Joseph Smith movie, I guess my pride or something brought me low, and now the Lord has lifted me higher.

As for a cool experience, this Sunday in the fireside the speaker was awesome. He really focused us on what we need to focus on when we´re teaching our investigators. He said we need to get in line with what God is already doing with the investigator. It´s not like it´s a surprise to God that we´re going to be talking to that particular person today, He knows, and He´s been working with the person, we just have to be able to figure out what he´s been doing and get in line with it to help the person improve their relationship with God. It was a cool lesson, and he also had five missionaries that are recent converts come up and tell about the things they felt, their conversion story and such. It was amazing! They are definitely going to be powerful missionaries. Haha I almost wish I were a convert, it seems like they've got more power in their teachings, haha and then of course I remember I am a convert, just of a slightly different sort."

"Oh some things I've been studying, there are some good talks about the Holy Ghost "Communion with the Holy Spirit" by James E. Faust and "The Unspeakable Gift" by Joseph B. Wirthling. Oh, and something I've learned just sitting here typing. There are a bunch of natives around and I can barely understand a word they're saying. Yeah, I kind of feel like my Spanish skills have diminished this week for some reason. Not sure why, I've been speaking pure spanish still, but yeah, not feeling it. It's definitely going to be a bit like jumping into a freezing lake when we have that first lesson with a native El Salvadorian in the field. And I know how that feels, not looking forward to it. I've even been trying to try listen to conference talks with native speakers, I can understand them, but they definitely don't talk as fast as in a normal conversation. It's crazy, and yeah, I'm going to need that Don de Lenguas, because I definitely cannot speak Spanish as well as I need to... "