I know that we all have our weakness and struggles, but I
have learned from the book I am reading that the closer we come to Christ, the
more apparent our weakness are. I am thankful for my weakness and although they
are at times hard and during the moment it is hard to overcome. The beauty of
it all is that we can overcome it! Through our Saviors help, it is possible.
"For when I am weak, therefore I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10) or
something like that. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and to grow as I
have on my mission and I know that I will only continue to grow.
We have a lot to be grateful for in this life and I encourage you to look for those blessings in your life no matter how great or small they may be. Heavenly Father is always blessing us and we have so much to be grateful for. Sometimes we lose sight of that and I know that as we recognize these blessings we will be so much more thankful for that which we have rather than that which we lack. I have realized this week that they Lord truly blesses us in so many ways and no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to give back for what we have received. The Lord blessings us 1000 times more.
So let me tell you all about my English teaching! So far it
has been great! I am so glad that I have sister nelson as my teaching
companion. We are able to make class so much fun! So I teach at Orkon
University and then Orkon Secondary School. I teach at the university on Tuesday
and Friday from 12:00pm to 3:10 pm. I have two classes on this day and I am
teaching students who are preparing to be English teachers themselves. They actually
graduate this year. They still have trouble speaking English so it is good that
we are able to help them as much as we can before they become English teachers
themselves. They are preparing to teach English to people in Russia and
Mongolia. On Friday we teach all the faculty members in the university who are
interested in learning English so that has been interesting. They know pretty
much no English so we have had to start with the very basics. We have a program
called side by side and we use a powerpoint program that has been created for
us to teach our lessons. It makes it a lot easier and doesn't require much
preparation which is nice considering we have like no time to prepare a lesson.
It has been great helping these students though. Most of them have a strong
desire to learn the language and so it is such a wonderful experience being
able to help them further their knowledge and improve their skills. The English
language will change their life so I am happy to be apart of that. So many more
opportunities will be available to them if they learn this language so i am
happy to help. On Wednesday we teach at the secondary school for 8:00am until
2:00pm and we have class back to back so it’s pretty much 6 hours of teaching
that day which is long but it’s not too bad. We have a variety of students that
range from 9th grade to 12th grade. Our youngest students are 14 years old.
Some of them can be a handful but we have learned how to deal with it and we
make class fun and they respect us. Some of the other students also help keep
them in line. It has been a great experience. Actually since I am certified it
makes me want to travel somewhere else when i get home and teach English :)
Sister Nelson
We had our zone conference on Saturday which was really neat
and afterwards. Sister Hill one of the senior missionaries invited us to her
home and her husband and her made all the sisters dinner so I was able to
talk to sis B then. She is doing great and we talked some. She truly is awesome
and I am so glad she was my MTC companion. I do see my district fairly often so
it has been nice. Elder Espinoza has been in Hong Kong the past couple of
weeks. His visa didn't come through so they had to send him to Hong Kong for 2
weeks while they are working on getting him a visa through the church. Which is
great news for him because through the church this means he won't have to teach
English at all on his mission which will be cool. I am glad that out of all of
us he has been given this opportunity. He is a great elder, he is from New
Mexico. I learned a lot from him so it will be cool to hear about all his
experiences. The rest of the district is doing well. We have all finally gotten
over the adjusting period and are doing a lot better.
The weather isn't that bad, I mean it’s cold all the time
but I am handling it really well. The coat and my scarf/ boots are keeping me
warm. The orange scarf in the picture I bought and it is super warm. I am
getting my jacket today and will send a picture of that next week. My boots
have been good. The lowest it has gotten here is negative 20 degrees but the
thing that is nice is that although it is cold it doesn't snow. There is snow
on the ground but that happens at night, it never snows when we are walking around
because it is just too cold for that but I have been fine. No complaints there,
plus our apartment is really warm as well as our investigators home so while
inside we are fine.
INVESTIGATOR TIME ;) so I absolutely love our investigators,
they are awesome and are wanting to learn the gospel. It is so amazing. It has
been fun teaching them. Right now we have 3 progressing investigators whom we
are working with and have baptisms set for January! They are always so patient
when I speak and they even help sometimes with the words and they try to
understand me. They make me want to be better and they are what keep me going.
I think about them and they keep my mind focused on what is really important.
Last night we had a lesson with one of our investigators and we had it at a
members home and while I was teaching this time I felt more confident. I spoke
more than I usually do and really tried to say all that I could. Even if I
didn't make 100 percent sense and they didn't understand me all the way. What
was important is that I opened my mouth. I have been trying to be better this
week and last night I really took a step forward by opening my mouth even
though I was scared. I realized it doesn't matter if I can’t speak the
language, I am trying and they see that, plus it is the spirit that speaks to
them, not me and I know that unless I open my mouth I won’t get better. The
members also helped me out because they understood what I was trying to say so
they helped me explain it. It was a great experience and it helped me realize
that I can do this. Little by little I will improve and I just need to have the
patience to do so.
I hope that you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Kerby
No comments:
Post a Comment