Teaching with the Spirit

As you will see this is an old letter that somehow didn't get published in the blog. It has a wonderful teaching experience in it that I wanted to share with you, so even though it happened about a month ago before Barry left the Mission Training Center, I am publishing it now. ~Jenny

December 3, 2009 From Elder Barry

I heard that most new missionaries get a Latino companion, which makes me so scared that mine won't speak any English. That could be kind of tough to deal with, but for sure my Spanish will go through the roof. So part of me hopes that that is what will happen.

We had class combined with a Latino class one day this week, and it was the greatest thing ever, I understood almost every single word that the teacher said, and I gave the spiritual thought completely in Spanish. I felt like my Spanish was improving by the second being completely surrounded by Latino, so hopefully being out in the field will have that same effect.

Thanks for your email and frequent letters, they are the best... I´ll be sure to look out for drunk partiers on Christmas, because they taught us not to teach drunk people because when you are drunk you can´t feel the spirit, lame right?

Well I only have a week and a half left in the mtc, then look out Uruguay.

I wanted to tell you about my great experience last week, with the appointment with J and V.
We taught them this great long lesson, about the plan of salvation, and we really did a great job on it I thought.

Last week we had asked them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and go to church. They weren't able to go to church, but J had started to read the Book of Mormon, in the introduction. He had underlined things to ask us questions about. It was the coolest thing ever, and we were totally able to answer his questions. But as we got towards the end of the lesson, the Spirit of the Holy Ghost was really strong, and before Saturday, while we were planning, we had talked about asking them to get baptized, because this is the last time we would be able to see them ever. I turned to elder T and said, in English, should I do it? and he said yes. so I turned to our new friends and asked them if they would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. J kind of just looked at me.

I could tell he knew the importance of the matter. He just told me that this was really serious and not a game. I agreed, I said that this is not a game that this is a really important decision. He said yeah, it was really important, but not a difficult decision. My heart leapt through my chest. He said at this moment he thinks he will be baptized, his wife too, but he needs to learn more. I said that he does need to learn more, and also needs to go to church, but that it is a really great thing and that him and his family will be blessed and I really want those things for them, because I love them. Because I love them, at that moment I felt a little slice of the love of God for these great people, and it was amazing.

Then I did something I never thought I would do. I had heard stories of this from Preach My Gospel, but thought it was way too bold to ever actually do. I asked J if he would pray to God to know whether we were true messengers, and if baptism was the right thing to do. He said of course, but then I said, right now, with us. He looked shocked and then admitted that he didn´t know how to pray. Our teachers hadn´t taught us to teach how to pray yet, but I did my best, and got the point across. so he started, then halfway through he stopped and asked me for help, even though I was just feeding him the words for how to do it, the Spirit was so strong. When he was done, elder T asked how he felt, and then said that that was the Holy Ghost.

We explained a little bit the grand importance of the matter, and then I got another thought, revelation I hope. I said, we can´t come back ever again, because we have a new area this next week, will you promise me to read more and if you feel like its right, that you will get baptized? he promised me, said it was no big deal, and they said that they would go to church that Sunday. I really hope it all works out for them, I really do love them more than I could really explain... I will miss them. I hope it all works out.

This week was awesome, we learned tons of crazy stuff in Spanish, I feel more prepared, I love you a lot. bye.

I love you tons.

elder barry