Week 4

Hello everyone!

So the big news of the week is that my companion Elder Endicott and I have been called to be the zone leaders of the CCM. We will be in charge of about 50 missionaries for the next two weeks, although the responsiblities of a zone leader in the mtc are rather mundane. basically, we are in charge of making sure people go to bed when they're supposed to and planning one sacrament meeting as well. basically they told us that we really need to be examples of obedience in the CCM, where its really hard to obey all the mission rules as well as all the rules of the ccm president. so i guess we have a lot of extra motivation now! haha we talked to our teacher hermano bejar and he said that he was a zone leader for 15 months of his mission, and that the most important thing to remember is to be an example. he said to strive to be like Christ in everything you do. and remember that even though Christ was perfect, people still said bad things about Him and still crucified Him. I should be more worried about what God thinks of me than what other people think. the new people arrived last night and there were some elders on our floor who wrote a note to them telling them to be up at 630 (they get to sleep in until 745 on day 1) and they put sheets over the doors and what not. it was super mean and i wasnt sure what i should do because we arent technically the zone leaders until today, but i decided to just go tell them that they needed to take down the sheets and change the note. and they were a little disappointed but did it anyways. it pays to stand up for you think is right. we all kind of do things to mess with the new elders, but nobody did anything mean like that. the funniest thing i saw someone do was place about 200 chastity pamphets all around the new elders side of the room. like they were everywhere. on the desks, the walls, the ceiling, under the bottom of the top bunk. hilarious, and all in good fun (i think?)

 

We got to go proselyting again! We went to a different area this time, but it was still an awesome experience. my companion was latino so it was 100% espanol for me haha. we actually got to teach some lessons and i could basically understand nothing haha. I had one cool experience though. we were teaching this lady and her elderly mother and they started arguing with each other and we werent really making any progress with her, and after about an hour of teaching, we finally just decided that we needed to leave. before we left, i got the feeling to share alma 7:11-13 so i flipped open my libro de mormon and read it and bore my testimony in very simple spanish about the atonement and how it can bless their family. they settled down and stopped arguing, and we were able to teach them for a few more minutes and they actually agreed to come back to church (we teach less actives)!! it was a really cool experience. the church is true and the spirit is so strong when youre serving the Lord!

 

One last thing-- the people here are so nice. Every group of latinos that comes though is just awesome. i was pretty good friends with the last group that came through, and one them wrote me a note in my journal and told me that he had been having a really hard time being away from his family for the first time and that he had seriously considered going home, but my friendship, which to me seemed so simple and not even a big deal at all, helped him to be able to stay out on his mission. The message is, you never know how what you say or do will effect someone, so always be nice!

 

Love you all, thanks for the updates. Sounds like BYU is kicking butt so far this year too! Keep me updated on things guys. Much love to you all,

Elder Matheson