Wednesday, 27 September 2017 ~ Week #9

It is actually super weird to think that I have only been in a new country for just a little over 2 months. 2 months doesn't seem like long but it feels like I have been here for at least half of year. Regardless, I only have 11 more chunks of two months.

My main worries up to this point have been, well, not working hard enough in one day, not knowing what to say or do (especially say) in certain situations, and not having the right mindset or heart. Every day I feel like I could do more as I am serving with my companion, especially since at the moment I am still kind of the quiet companion, not always knowing how to respond or what the person talking to me is saying. And as I am going from appointment to appointment I want to talk a little more to the people on the street, but often I am a bit afraid because I either don't have anything to say or I do but I don't want to say it in fear of the response. And not having the right heart has an impact on that because I am truly anxious to open my mouth about the message of the Restored Gospel but I feel that it is overzealous to limit conversation only to preaching it, and I fear that preaching it without addressing the concerns of those who I talk to would be extinguishing the Spirit and not be teaching in the Savior's way. I know that this might seem a bit downgrading but missionaries are human too, and I feel like expressing my feelings gives a better look at what serving a mission is like.

Nonetheless, truly I am happy, and I am singing hymns and saying hello to everyone on the street, and I am excited to see how the Lord uses my strengths and abilities and turns my weaknesses into strengths. The Lord gives promises to all who keep His commandments, and it is true that when those who are called to the Lord's work, in whatever way, are changed and strengthened according to how well they magnify their calling. There truly is a law in Heaven, and there are immediate blessings in each covenant that the Lord makes with His sons and daughters.

More than this, just in general, the Gospel is truly a constant source of strength in any time. In this life we are meant to have trials and suffering and opposition of all sorts, but the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ allows for us to withstand it, as Christ suffered all of this for us. Opposition brings us to our Savior when we have faith in Him, and times of peace bring us to our Savior when we are thankful to Him. Every day, every hour of our lives, we can turn to our Savior, praying to our Heavenly Father in prayer for the strength that we need and thanking Him for the blessings we have.

Anyway, yes, I have been struggling with the language a little bit. Thankfully I have progressed from retaining 50, 60% of all the words I hear, to close to 90%! However, if I don't hear the first words of a sentence, I don't understand any of it... and this was my problem back at home anyway. So language study is a really key component to my progress in my utility as a missionary, and probably the most important thing, to be frank. And with my companion we have been struggling to contact just because of the nature of the area... A lot of people around here have not studied in school or have limited education, so they have jobs that do not pay as much, but they still have to provide for their families. Because of this, they work long hours. Many are security guards and spend one day awake and one day resting. No one is out during the afternoon usually. The night is really the key time to go out and work. And even in the night, there are people who still are not available and have only weekends. It is a bit surprising how hard it is sometimes to really find people to teach but we work with our circumstances and strive to do better every day to make use of the time.

I can't go without mentioning that part of my calling as a missionary in this particular area is to teach the members how to play piano, which is super super super super exciting for me. There are currently no members in my ward that play so for the past couple weekends I have taught about 9 people how to start, and some of the basics. It is a little bit hard how we do it because we have only one piano in the building and we teach 7 people at the same time for 2 hours but we make it work somehow. Thankfully we will get two more pianos to use so that more can be happening at once in one lesson, haha. Though this is only a weekly thing, this can benefit a lot the members here. Music is an important part of worship, and when there is even one member that can play hymns, the congregation can benefit all the more, as the Lord delights in the solemn worshop of singing hymns, and the song of the righteous is a prayer unto our Heavenly Father.

That is pretty much all I have for this week! I hope everyone who reads this has a great week too!

Elder Dredge

Elder Braden K. Dredge

Guatemala Guatemala City East Mission

Elder Cortes (from Nicaragua), trainer & Elder Dredge