The rest of the week was pretty normal until Friday evening. For Friday night
Diane and I had invited an investigator and his wife over for dinner to be followed
by a relaxing evening of games and refreshments with two missionary couples. Unfortunately, at the last minute, we found out the couple would be unable to make it;
however, we were able to round up a third missionary couple and
had a fun evening. There was a lot of
laughter and I was especially happy to see Diane laughing so hard. She is always happy, but it’s been a while
that she could hardly contain herself from laughing so hard. For those of you who know the game, we were playing "The Great Dalmuti."
 |
| 1st view of the castle |
 |
| Base of the castle |
 |
| Inner court of castle |
 |
| View of town from castle wall |
 |
| Exiting castle and entering town |
 |
| Town square |
 |
| Walking the streets of the town |
 |
| A quiet street |
 |
| Sisters Griffen, McCrary, and Harouny |
When
we returned, we were exhausted and just wanted to put our feet up ... until Diane remembered that there was a
baptism for the German Ward. I almost
told her I was too tired to go, but we changed clothes and went anyway. As it turned out, it was a fantastic
experience. The sister being baptized
spoke Spanish. She had been attending
the International Ward, so that means she also knew English. Since this was a German ward’s baptism, the
main language was German.
The
first talk was given by an English speaker.
She had a German translator by her side.
Next, two of the sister missionaries sang "Teach Me to Walk" in German while the third played
the piano to accompany them. It was so
beautiful. It was like listening to
angels. (The sister on the left is from New Zealand. The other 2 are from America. These 2 on the right are in a church film. Here is the link: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.uk/article/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-mormon-missionary
Next
was the baptism. I was privileged to be asked to be one
of the witnesses.
After
the baptism there was another talk. This
sister spoke Spanish and she had a translator who spoke German. I was amazed at how much more I understood Spanish
than I did German.
The brother who welcomed her to the ward did so in German, and then bore his testimony in Spanish at the end. The
whole meeting was a spiritual feast. I
am so glad we went.
Today
in church I gave a talk. I spoke about challenges we have in life and how we
can learn Christ-like attributes from them.
I gave specific examples from my life and from Brian’s life and
Andrew’s. If it is worth anything, when
I started the talk there were a some droopy eyes. (It was, however, pretty hot and there isn’t
any air conditioning.) At the end of the
talk I noticed that all were alert.
Afterwards, a lot of people came up to tell me how wonderful it
was. Of course, as wonderful as it is to
hear their compliments, I realized that congratulating someone on their talk is
a common courtesy, so I didn’t think much of it.
That is, until Diane told me that during Relief Society a sister
mentioned that she really felt touched by the last speaker (me) and learned how
when we face challenges we can learn from them to become more
spiritually self-reliant.
Sunday
School was fun. For the past four weeks,
I’ve been teaching the Gospel Principles class.
I’ve been told that they will be calling a teacher for the class, but it hasn’t
happened yet. Today the Albanian guy who
speaks Italian (he learned it from watching TV) came. He speaks enough English
to get a taste of what I’m saying, but an Italian brother translates for him. The Elders have been trying to teach the
Albanian guy for the past month, but it has not worked out. Also
in the class was a young woman who was baptized a year ago. Her understanding of the church doctrine and
the scriptures is very weak.
So, picture this. The tables in the classroom are “U” shaped. The Elder missionaries, the Albanian guy, and his translator are on one side. Diane is smack in the middle. The young new member, the three Sister missionaries are on the other side and the new Mission President (just arrived last week) is sitting on that side, but at the end closest to me. Got the picture?
I
had prepared to teach the chapter on prophets from the manual, but before class
started the Elders asked if I could teach the first discussion, the
Restoration of the Church. I agreed,
since I’ve taught it many times before.
So,
as I’m teaching the lesson, I say a few sentences and wait for the translator
to convey it into Italian for the Albanian guy.
Then we go a little further. At
one point, I realize that the young woman really doesn’t know a whole lot. Mind you, the Albanian guy is well versed in
the scriptures. So we are working with
translation on one side of the room and explaining things in more detail--in German, at times--on the
other side of the room. At one point the
sisters were answering a question the one young woman had, so I sat on the edge
of the table next to the Albanian guy and discussed a detail of the lesson with
him. As that was being interpreted, I moved
over to the other side of the room and sat on the edge of the table and asked
if the young woman was understanding everything correctly.
This
was not a normal teacher-students classroom situation. What was funny is that later Diane told me
that the new Mission President looked a little amazed and amused about what all was
going on at the same time. Welcome to the International
Ward, President Boyer.
No comments:
Post a Comment