Family,
Thanks for all of the emails and stuff about home and all. It sounds like things are going pretty well for the most part.
I had a couple of amazing experiences this week. The first one I had happened on Saturday. We went out tracting in an area of East Lima, named Javier Prado. (James might know where that is) I had a Latino comanion from Chiclayo Peru who is also in the MTC here with me. His name is Elder Navarro, and he is an amazing guy. So, if you can imagine this, the little barrio was on the side of a mountain, or rather a gigantic dirt hill, and took about a half hour to hike up to. We went knocking doors and did not have much success for the longest time. Finally, a few people began to want to talk to us. It was difficult because my companion and I were brand new at it, and it was just us, and a 15 year old member of the ward. The few people we talked to seemed half interested in the Restoration and the book of mormon, but they stayed and listened to us. I mostly just introduced the different topic, and then gave my testimony on it afterwards. Man, tracting is such hard work, and is very inconsistent.
The scariest part for me happened when we went back to the church building. We went in and there was a Baptism going on since it was Saturday. They asked my companion and I if we would like to attend since we were back about 5 minutes before the other elders from the MTC. So we go back to the room in front of the Baptismal font and sit. Next thing I know, a member of the ward comes up and asks my companion if he can lead the hymn. He of course said yes, and was ok with it. Then, this member of the ward came to me and asked "Can you give a talk on the importance of Baptism within the church?" I of course said yes, but immediately got so nervous. Keep in mind I only really have about 3 weeks experience with Spanish. As soon as I said yes, I closed my eyes and said one of the most sincere prayers of my life. I knew there was no way I would be able to speak on Baptism for longer than about a minute on my own. The time came and I got up in front of about 15 or 20 Latinos, most of whom were investigators and non members. I don't even recall what all I even said, but I said what I felt and it went very smoothly. Now, when Dad and James would tell me to always be prepared to speak, I wasn't expecting that to happen in the MTC, but wow, what an amazing experience!
Another experience that I had happened just last night. For some reason, one of the teachers came in and grabbed me and another guy in my district, E. Howlett. He is not my companion, but all they told us is that we would be teaching. I expected it to be another pretend investigator, like a different teacher or something. They directed us toward the front gate, where the security guard office is. We went up there and started speaking with the security guard. I began teaching about the plan of salvation since he said his family was very important to him. He stopped me in the middle of it and began to ask us questions about the bible. He first asked if we read the bible, then asked us many questions about it. One of the questions he asked was something like "How many people will Govern with Christ at the second coming? He then pulled out a bible and turned to revelations. It was at that moment that I realized that this was no fake investogator, this was a real one. A non member. Not only that, the scripture said that 144,000 will be "sealed" with christ in the 2nd coming and it hit me like a ton of bricks... This Guy is a Jehoviahs Witness. Oh Great. So he asked us a few more questions about the bible, and we actually could answer some of them. He then told us our homework was to study the bible and know the contents better, and so we promised we would read. At that time, I had a great idea. I asked him about the book of mormon, and he said he had never read it before. I explained that it was another testament of Christ, and if you want to know about all of his teachings, he would have to read also. I gave him homeword also to read 2 Nephi 31, which is the doctrine of Christ. I told him he needs to know it because I was going to quiz him on it when we spoke again. He accepted and we gave him a book of mormon and left. I later found out the reason that Elder Howlett and I were chosen was because we are the only 2 the teacher thought would be able to understand him because he speaks such mumbled and fast spanish, so that was a compliment. I also learned that not only is he a Jehovias Witness, he is studying to be a priest or minister in that church, so this guy knows his stuff. We got his work schedule and are going to teach him again in a few days.
Anyways, I dont have a ton more time, but I lov you all! Until next week!
Elder Potts
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