1. Do you and your companion do "companionship inventories"? That was the term when Dad was a missionary for the weekly meetings where you'd talk about your relationship, how things are going, and then make plans to improve for the next week. We still do those. We've forgotten to do that the last couple weeks because weekly planning changed just a bit, but we do it throughout the week too. Elder Gonzalez and I get along pretty well, and we're getting good at teaching in unity. I've really enjoyed it. We are pretty open, so we just address issues as we go. We also try to do a formal one when we can.
2. Tell us some interesting things about your current companion and his family. (Is your companion, Elder Gonzalez, staying for this transfer too?) Yep he's still here and I'm super happy about that! He's one of the best Spanish Elders I think. I feel very grateful to have him. He's super personable, and he's definitely Mexican haha. He was born in the DF [Distrito Federal, or as it's called now, Ciudad de México], and he came here with his parents when he was a baby. His parents both own companies and he actually taught his dad about finances and he is really good at stuff like that. His Spanish and English transfer a lot (limes are lemons to him, he says "right now" the way a Hispanic would use "ahorita", stuff like that). He's from Southern California. He has served here in Norwood, then in Wilmington, and now he's back here with me! He's been here forever haha. He's also the kind of guy I would totally go into business with. He's also kinda short, and super Mexican. He also lost a ton of weight on his mission.
3. Have you forgotten your German and Japanese now that you're doing a deep dive into Spanish? How good is your Spanish now? Ja, I habe alle mein deutsch vergessen. And the Japanese mostly too. I remember little grammar things, but the majority of my vocabulary is gone. My Spanish is basically the same it's been for awhile now. I learn more vocabulary and I improve at understanding different accents, but it's not significantly better as far as I can see. I would consider myself fluent though, at least I think. I don't have troubles really with the language, though I still need to practice a ton.
4. Is there any missionary time dedicated to doing family history work or helping members or investigators do family history work? Have you found any ways to use family history research in your missionary work? We can use it when we are able to, but we don't really get to use it much. I really want to use it more, but it hasn't been super useful yet. Basically I only really have used the app. And for that only once or twice.
This week has been one of building up. We kinda got dropped by a lot of people, but miracles have come out of the woodwork, and we are doing well. We started an English class, and it's actually getting a ton of support! I have no clue how to teach English, but it's been fun and it seems like it's going OK so far.
We have a ton of support from the wards here, and there are a few investigators who are looking a lot more promising than we thought. It's pretty amazing to be out here and see how the Spirit affects people! Most of our lessons lately have been very Spirit driven. I'm also doing better at teaching with the scriptures. My ideal situation is where I could answer everything and teach every point with a scripture. I'm not even close yet, but I'm getting there, poco a poco [little by little]. We had one lesson that was mostly scripture to teach the Plan of Salvation, and it was super powerful. It leaves us much more room to testify, and it's much more powerful.
I've also realized a big thing about humility—it's not thinking that you are nothing, but realizing that God is everything. When we talk ourselves down we are being prideful. When we realize how much God has helped us and how much better we are with Jesus Christ, we are being humble, like Ammon. That's what I want to work on, true humility. It brings so much peace and joy to realize how blessed we are, and though we aren't worthy of it, God loves us unconditionally and makes so much more of us than we can make of ourselves.
I don't really know of any other things. I'm a much better cook now, it's super fun and delicious. We eat really well here, one way or another :) Black beans have also been really fun.
I love you guys so much. Thanks for all the support you give me.
Love,
Elder Liddle
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