07 September 2011

MTC-Peru Aug 31


Wow! Perú is amazing! Let me just tell you! I really am having a marvellous and incredibly humbling experience here. I have a native companion (se llama Hna Mamani). She is incredibly humble and very happy and fun to be around. I am constantly amazing by her love and her desire to help me. I am truly grateful to be down here to learn and grow in the culture instead of in provo. I was extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be in Provo, and I was more than a little sad to leave all of my amazing friends there (including one of my companions), but I am beginning to love the elders and hermanas here just as much. They truly are all amazing and are all called of God. Spanish is coming just as fast today as it was in Provo, but now I literally HAVE to speak spanish in order to plan and teach and just talk with my companion. I get to go to firesides and such that are in spanish and I don't even have to get the translation! :) My companion likes to learn some English, so thats kind of fun to teach, and she is cute. She always asks me how to say cute things: she now says 'I love you a lot, sister shearman' or 'you are my sister, enserio.' It is so great! She is so sweet. All of the elders are great too and we just have really bonded as we've been able to teach and share spiritual and life experiences together.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to be on a mission. It truly is the Lord's work and I am incredibly lucky to be able to be a part of it. I am constantly amazed at how Heavenly Father is changing and healing my heart, as well as how He is helping me develop as a person. It truly is a constant process that we all have to go through, the changing of a person's heart for the better in the love of Christ. I have had the opportunity to learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and I just love it; it is so simple! Have faith, repent, be baptised, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. I am so excited to share that with the people of Perú and I know that they have been prepared and will be receptive to the message that I bear, the message of the Restored Gospel.
I got to go to the Lima temple today...it was beautiful! It was such a great experience to know that I am in exactly the right place and to be able to understand spanish without translating it back into english. It was a bit tricky to say some things in spanish, but that will come with time. It truly is the House of God, and He really does reside there. What a blessing temples are! It was interesting, and a little weird to be outside the CCM and walking the streets of Lima, as well as riding the buses. It is a bit crazy, but I enjoyed it! :) We had a great experience, and things are really pretty crazy and different, but great here. In all of our classes I end up being a 'translator' of sorts, helping americans understand their latino companions as well as helping the teachers explain things in english...it is pretty great. I truly do love spanish!
I am so glad that you got to speak in a baptism! That sounds amazing. I'm sure that you did a wonderful job and that the investigators felt the Holy Ghost testify of the truthfulness of the gospel. I am sure that they understood more fully how they could feel the spirit. In my lessons I always end up saying 'yo sè que cuando lea y cuando ora y pregunta a Dios, recibirà una respuesta de Dios mediante un sentimiento en su corazòn. Este sentimiento es el Espìritu testificando sobre estas cosas.' It is truly powerful what a testimony can bring. I see it in every time that I teach, bearing witness of the truth, that you KNOW that it is the truth, and then letting that resonate with them is so strong! It is in those moments of silence that the Spirit will truly testify with so much strength to their hearts that it is difficult for many to deny that testimony and the spirit.
I don´t have much else to say. The country and the food are great...well most of the food. I think I may have eaten donkey the other day, but I am not entirely sure. Their desserts, though, are ALWAYS amazing...or at least they have been here. I have eaten more starch in the last week than I think I ate for a full year before that. It is pretty intense, but it is muy richo. I am doing well here, tired as usual, but that is the life of a missionary. When I get home I can sleep for 2 days or something...maybe.
I love you all and I know that I am where the Lord would have me be. I know that I will be able to bring the Spirit and the Gospel to many people and that they will be blessed because they listened to the words that I will attempt to speak! These people are truly prepared to hear the gospel and I know I am being prepared to teach it in a way that they need to hear it. I know that this work is the work of the Lord and that I will find a pattern for my entire life through my service here. I know that this church is true, beyond a shadow of a doubt, and I will testify of that truth to anyone and everyone who wants to listen. This is His time, and I will try to be obedient and humble and to learn and develop to be more like Him. That is my ultimate goal. I love you all. Nos vemos.
Hna Shearman

MTC-Provo Aug 6


Hola mama!
How are you doing? I hope that you are doing well. My P-day is today, Saturday, but for the remaining few weeks that I am here it will be on Friday, I believe. Just so you know.
The MTC is going pretty well, not much has really happened that I feel like I need to tell you. I have two companions, Hermana Jackson y Hermana Pethebridge. They are both wonderful sisters and I am very blessed. The language skills are going well, and I think that I will be ok down in Peru...I just need to keep studying and praying as much as possible. We taught our first "investigator" last night, in SPANISH!!! It went pretty well and I asked if he would read the book of mormon and pray to know that it is true, and he agreed. We said a prayer and explained how to pray, not using prayers that are already written or anything. He said that he thinks that he understands and he complimented us on our spanish. We were having a somewhat difficult time telling him the differenece between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, explaining that some parts of the bible were lost, but then I bore my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that I have felt the Holy Ghost bear witness of it to me, and he seemed to understand everything. Once I began bearing my testimony, the Spirit was very strong, and I had explained what the Spirit is, more or less, so I think that he knew. It was really pretty wonderful. After I bore my testimony, Hermana Pethebridge did so, and then Hermana Jackson did so as well. It was truly a humbling, but very amazing experience.
We are the only three sisters in our zone, which includes 4 other districts including ours, so that is pretty interesting. It is somewhat odd to realize how few sisters are here in comparison with the massive number of elders, but the elders are great. I really do love the elders in my zone, as well as my companions. The elders are so helpful and so kind and loving toward us, and we help each other with our language as well as with life. It's really special that we've been together only 3 days but we feel so close! It is truly a blessing to be here with all of them and to have them as my MTC "family" because they help me learn a lot, especially humility and learning to teach in the spanish language.
I have to say, I am having a difficult time writing this in English...I know I've only been here for 3 days, but I have been speaking spanish for most of those 3 days and I have begun thinking in spanish a lot as well...it's weird, but some words I don't know how to say in English without thinking for a long time. It's pretty cool though...helps me learn more and more each day. I definitely pray for help from Heavenly Father to learn both the gospel and Spanish. One of my goals for this week is to be able to pray in Spanish by Sunday, as well as to memorize the missionary purpose in Spanish (in English it is to "help others come unto Christ and receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end). I've got it down in English, so now the trick is getting it down in Spanish...but I have a lot memorized already, so I'd say it's going pretty well. We also have to have read the missionary handbook (the little white one) by Sunday...or tomorrow I suppose. Tomorrow is fast Sunday, so that is pretty exciting...I keep hearing from people, including from Scott and Dave that "Sunday will come". It is said a lot around here as well. I can't wait to see how it goes, especially being a fast Sunday! :)
My MTC address I will send in another email today because I don't remember it :/ I will send it right after this so you can send me stuff here. All-in-all I am doing very well and everything is going well. The Spirit is definitely here, and even though we are all very tired, the work continues, and the love of Heavenly Father is felt. I pray for you each day and I hope that you can feel His Spirit as well. I love you!
Hermana Shearman