Hello all!! The second week at the MTC was a little bit less crazy, but still really busy. Time is tricky here. It seems like last Friday was so recently, yet I have done so much since then!!
The language is coming along slowly but surely. I have remembered most of what I learned in school about grammar and vocabulary and then some. Several times this week it has seemed like I haven't made a lot of progression in terms of the language, but then I remember that everything I have learned to say in our lessons in terms of the gospel I have learned here. I have learned how to pray, how to bear my testimony, and how to teach someone about any principle in Preach My Gospel. I didn't know how to do any of that before I came here!! So I'm feeling really good about my progression in the language.
We did another English fast yesterday, and we're doing a third one tomorrow. I feel like I'm getting really good at expressing what I want to say even if I don't have the words for it. It's still really exhausting to speak in French all the time, and frustrating when I forget, but I think it really does help me to constantly think in the language. Soeur Neistadt and I are getting better at communicating and doing our lessons in the language. For more than a week now we have been writing our lesson plans in English and not translating the whole thing, but rather speaking through what we want to say to each other and only having a couple bullet points written down when we go into the lesson. I think it's helping us to better feel the Spirit and follow its direction as to what we should say when answering questions from our investigators and teaching principles.
Speaking of Soeur Neistadt, she has bronchitis!! She had a dry cough for almost a week before we were able to go to the doctor and get it diagnosed. She has some cough medicine with codine in it to help her sleep, and she seems to be doing better. She's sleeping a lot more peacefully at night and coughing less during the day. We're doing really well as a companionship, and working hard to learn the language.
We've been learning a lot from our classes and practices this week. Frère Taua has been teaching us a lot more lately. He's a really good teacher! He's so inspiring and real at the same time. I feel like he really knows how hard missionary work can be, but he's still really positive about it, and he has a really great outlook on life. He's still learning English, so he asks us to correct him when he makes mistakes. Some funny ones from this week were saying "inspire, expire" instead of "inhale, exhale" and mispronouncing "investigator" as "instigator".
We've been practicing contacting and giving a quick message in class recently. Probably the most memorable and helpful activity we've been doing is practicing teaching the PMG lessons (like the Restoration or the Plan of Salvation) in 3 minutes, 1 minute, and then 30 seconds. I love this activity because it's really stretching my ability to communicate quickly and effectively in French, and to think about what the most important and applicable parts of the lesson are. We also did TRC (teaching resource center) for the first time on Wednesday. I loved it so much!! We got to practice teaching a lesson (like you might teach for a Sunday School or home evening lesson) to regular members. Our lessons help to grow their faith and our ability with the language. We were so relaxed to not have to worry about explaining things wrong or saying something that might be confusing that the French was a lot easier. We taught about developing Christlike attributes and how that can help us to progress spiritually. I was so relaxed and confident afterwards!! It was so fun to speak with return missionaries about their experience serving in Paris. We talked to one woman who just got back from serving in France a few years ago, and an old man who served in France nearly 60 years ago!!
I'll finish with some thoughts from our devotionals last week. We had an extra devotional on Saturday for the 4th of July weekend. We had a really cool flag ceremony with missionaries carrying the flags of the countries they were from or were going to serve in. We had a great devotional about how God planned for religious freedom in America. It reminded me of a book I read a few years ago, 7 Tipping Points that Saved the World. We were allowed to stay up late on Saturday night to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire a couple blocks over. That was fun, but it was a mistake! We were all so tired on Sunday morning!! Nevertheless, I learned a lot from devotional on Sunday night. The speakers used a really cool metaphor to compare the gospel to a tree. We also watched a recording of President Holland's talk "Missions are forever" from a few years ago. He talked about how it's so important to be obedient as a missionary, and how we should preach "with great power and authority," and "astonish" the people we teach with our simple and powerful testimonies of the gospel. Elder Marlin K. Jensen spoke at the Tuesday evening devotional and taught about faith. His main message was that faith is a principle of power and action, and the many miracles that faith was able to bring about in the scriptures.
In general, I'm doing really well here, and learning so much every day!! I wanted to mention for Geoffrey that I tried the pancake on a stick this morning for breakfast. It's a breakfast sausage fried with pancake batter around it like a corndog. It was pretty good, better than I would have expected!! I'm having a ton of fun getting to know the missionaries in my district and zone, and it's always awesome to meet new missionaries in the cafeteria or at choir practice.
I always love to get emails, letters, packages, whatever!! It's so much fun to hear from people and to write back. You can email me at rogers.rachael@myldsmail.net ordearelder.com. My address for packages is on my blog at soeurrogers.blogspot.com.
Je vous aime!!
Soeur Rogers
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