Also, I translated sacrament meeting this week. It was great since the only two speakers were really prepared to help me. Elder Poggemann was very kind to me and Sister Wills/Denisa had their talk printed out with scriptures already found for me so it was easy to translate since I could look at what the thoughts were ahead of time. The second talk was interesting. Sister Wills is the Young Woman advisor and started the talk. Denisa is the only young woman that comes with any sort of regularity. She is normally super shy, but she had the courage to get up and give a mini talk within Sister Wills' talk. She even gave it in English which is her third language. I was at first surprised by the change in her, but then I gave it some thought. Sister Wills is such a great example of charity. Charity changes us. Even though Denisa is shy and has not previously been too interested by the church, Sister Wills constantly loving her even when Denisa didn't care made her decide to give it a try. She got ready to go on a trip to the temple with Sister Wills and she loved it. They had a great time and Denisa felt the Spirit of God tell her there that this was right. It told her that this is where she wants her family to be and this is where she will be the most happy. Feeling God's love and His approval for what she is doing gave Denise the courage to take more steps forward and begin to change. She stood up in front of a group of people who she was nervous around and spoke about how amazing the temple was in her third language. She told me after about how shaky she was and she was terrified. She did so great and you can see in her eyes that she is happy. She was always a bit upset and sad before this trip, but since then, she has a light in her eyes. It comes from the love that she feels from Sister Wills and our Loving Father in Heaven. I was grateful for the lesson I saw from this. Helping people be happy is only going to happen when we love them like God does. It doesn't matter to him what we are like, if we want Him to care, if we listen, if we try at all to do what he asks. He loves us still. That love is what makes me want to be better and it is what changed Denisa so much.
For anyone that is having a hard time, I invite you to pray somewhere quiet, out loud. Ask God to help you know what He thinks about you. Then go to church to have the sacrament. That is the bread and water. It is a representation of Christ's sacrifice. If you do that, honestly trying to find out, God will speak to you in the most profound and personal way. And what he will say is that He loves you more than anything, and whatever you are struggling with, He, the most powerful being in the universe, is there to help. That is my promise as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love you all and I want to give a shout out to Brittany and Jesse. They just had their first daughter, Adalae, and I am so excited for them!
Starší Pace
Some additional information from his responses to me...
It snowed this week, I was so stoked even though we had to run in our suits for about two miles to catch the bus and we still missed it. Snow is awesome.
This was a better week. Sunday really lifted my spirits. Most of the week was good, but Saturday had me really frustrated. I was getting on myself for some shortcomings that I repeatedly have. But our last lesson that night helped me to think it through more and realize what the problems I needed to change were. I did my best to prepare for church, especially the sacrament, since I knew I would need the Spirit as I tried translating. Church was then one of the greatest spiritual meetings we had despite a few incidents which we will not go into. Just stuff between a few members. I finished off church by getting to talk to this little eight year old girl named Dominika. She is so great. She is one of my favorites. She shared her skittles with me and gave me a little pep talk. It was pretty awesome.
I don't think that Elder Armstrong would only speak Slovak with me that frequently. It really stresses him out and our conversations are limited. He really likes our conversations so I don't think so. We
have talked about it before and I have gotten him to agree to a monthly English fast with me, but any more than that I don't think he is going to be excited about. It is a good thought. I wish we would.
That would be the most beneficial.
I was just realizing that I am starting to drop the word "the" and other articles since they don't exist in Slovak. Also, is "realizing" spelled with an s or a z? I can't remember and the British spelling is killing my gut instinct.
We both had studied "Charity" this past week and here are his thoughts from his studies.....I liked his view on correction from Heavenly Father as a form of charity...
I did get through it all, and I thought the cold within poem was
good. It was interesting to think about at least. I agree that the
attribute of charity really is central to the gospel. The Atonement was
an act of perfect charity, and in Moroni, we learn that without charity
we are nothing. I think charity comes partly from a relationship with
Jesus and a relationship with His sacrifice. If we understand, or strive
to understand what he did for us, we naturally and filled with
gratitude, hope, and forgiveness. These will then drive us to forgive
others, to teach them this message of hope, and to brush off any mean or
unfair thing that happens to us. Knowing that it will all be made right
through Christ and knowing that He is willing to change us with His
love is what makes us so willing to love others.
Charity
is a changing element. As I think of an example of this, I think of
Sister Wills or Brother Nettleship in our branch. Sister Wills is the
Young Woman advisor and she goes to visit all of the young women even
though only one ever comes to church. Her parents take her. But,
recently, Denisa, this girl, has had more of an interest and has taken
great steps forward. Sister Wills loves her so much and does everything
imaginable to help her that Denisa is willing to try things for Sister
Wills. They recently prepared to go to the temple and were able to
perform Baptisms for the dead. The Change in Denisa is amazing. She is
happier, was more confident, and even gave a talk, in English, this
week. Sister Wills through her unending Christ like love and service was
able to help Denisa see what our Savior wants for and feels about her
and that is what led to her changing and going to the temple. From
there, God's love made some more changes. Our love takes people to the
love of God and gives them the courage to change.
Charity
is hard for us to accept sometimes. In His perfect charity, Christ
corrected his apostles on several occasions and He corrects us as well.
This may be through His servants or through revelation. If we aren't
humble and reject the love He shares, we will only see the correction
and we will be offended. This was the case for Laman and Lemuel. If we
humbly accept, then we feel His love since we see He wants us to be
better
We
can work on charity by doing little charitable acts. Just like any
other attribute, as you do it, you develop it. Like dad says, "that
which you persist in doing becomes easier, not that the nature of the
thing has changed, but your power to do has increased" I would change
the end in this case to say that the nature of the thing hasn't changed,
but you have. It is like studying the Book of Mormon. It
is a lifetime pursuit. We learn more and enjoy it more the more we go.
It is an everyday effort. If we try to be charitable once a week, we
won't be charitable. If we try getting our spiritual nourishment from
reading once a week, we are being daft. It won't work
Those
are my thoughts. I did my best to describe my thoughts on the example
of Sister Wills' charity, but I don't think it all came across. Sorry
about that.
This is from Elder Peck's letter this past week. He and Tyson are always such a great support system for each other...Here is Elder Peck's view on how Tyson did with translating...
ELDER PACE TRANSLATED SACRAMENT MEETING. He did a right good job translating the entire sacrament meeting. He was not even phased. He was able to translate everything with out even struggling at all! He is a great speaker of the language and I learn a lot from Elder Pace with the Language. Since Elder Pace and I are taking over the translating for Sacrament meeting, that means I am back on deck for Next Sacrament Meeting. I can already feel the butterflies.
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