August 27, 2011

We haven’t visited Victoria this week. I called a couple nights ago and said that she couldn’t have us come over, but still said that she wanted to go to church tomorrow. She really needs the power of the Atonement to change her heart. She has suffered a lot and dwells on it. We met with that family last night because our ward mission leader invited them to a Family Night. We didn’t want to say anything to strong that would cause any offense, so we felt to teach lesson 2. We dived everyone up into 5 groups and had each group(couple) study a few scriptures and draw a picture to represent The Plan of Salvation. It was good because the members taught most of the lesson. We got humbled because we have been practicing lesson 1 a lot and at this point, we were thinking that we were pretty good teachers. We taught the whole lesson and at the end when we invited the people to be baptized, they responded "I don’t think you have to be Mormon to follow the Savior". It was just frustrating that after 45 minutes of trying to explain exactly the answer to that question, it obviously wasn’t understood. Even though we tried to teach just how we practiced (very very important and Jayce can testify why) it just didn’t happen like we hoped. . . Elder Tilley is not the teacher. The Spirit is the true teacher and if I am not humble and have not sought the Lord for help, then no way is the Spirit going to be there to soften a heart and to enter to change minds and hearts and lives. Instead of teaching lesson 1 or 2 or 3 now. I like to think and say that we are teaching Lesson Monica or lesson Fernando or Lesson Lilia and Sergio. That makes me excited just thinking about that. Because everyone is so different and have different likes, desires, reasons for inviting us...each lesson has to be their own, specifically designed for that person. That’s what I have loved so much about this last week. I love teaching by the Spirit. The feeling that you get when you know that people are feeling the Spirit and see them have life difficulties and pains just almost disappear from their eyes and countenances is the most beautiful thing that I think can be felt. I sure love teaching people. This assignment has defiantly helped me see and appreciate more preaching the gospel. This past week we have been preparing for the mission primary activity that we actually just got back from. Each of us had 5-7 minutes to teach the stake primary about being a missionary. You might guess that I chose "The Holy Ghost". I told the primary that I would tell them the secret to being a great missionary. In a very very quiet voice I said "Espiritu Santo". When I asked who heard me, no one raised their hand. I said it again. They started to get quiet and on the third time and little sweet heart in the front row got really excited and said "Espiritu Santo!". I then asked "If I’m supposed to follow the Holy Ghost then how can I do that if I can’t even see him". A little boy on the back right said "we can’t see him, but we can feel him". I had the little Elder (with his nametag that the presidency had made) come and help me. We did a little experiment with some candy, a blindfold, and "The Spirit". I first put the blindfold on the boy and asked him to try to find the candies. He walked around slow trying to remember how to get his direction right after having spun around a few times. After a few seconds, I took him and asked for another volunteer. With the candy on the table you should have seen how many hands went flying up (doctrine of the candy). Anyway, the little Sister missionary acted as the Holy Ghost and guided the boy to the candy. I testified about the Spirit and promised them that they would be lead to the people that needed them by following the holy ghost and by starting today to listen for him. I thought Mom you would like that story. I was really filled at the meeting. Little kids are just the greatest. We are planning for the 18th activity. It will be the following week that we celebrate it though. We are excited. We are starting to put together a little video to fire up the mission and thank them for all the wonderful work that they are doing.