Elder Braxton Shoemaker

Week #42: ¡Hay que aprender a comprender el espiritu!

fa, como anda buen gente!? como le va? espero que todo esté bien en sus casas. La obra aquí en Tacuarembo anda bien de bien!! Things are good here. We are finding people, and were teaching them. I am pretty happy with how things are going here, although we are not satisfied one bit!

Elder Cruz and I are learning how to work harder, and more effectively here. We had a stake conference this past week here, and we had a member of the 70 here, and also President Olsen! They both gave awesome talks. The member of the 70 (i think its Elder Levrino, or something close to that) gave a talk that really left me thinking. He's a very powerful speaker...and can explain the doctrine extremely simple.

He talked about the verse in 3rd Nephi 11, verse 3. We learn here that the people were having an experience like none other. Christ was descending and visiting them. It says, they heard a voice that pierced them to their soul, but still, they didn't understand the voice. Sometimes I think we might think "wow howd they not understand if it was so powerful?" But, we often forget the exact same thing happens to us sometimes.

Elder Levrino asked the audience, who were mostly all converts to the church, how many of them understood the missionaries the first time they met them. Every convert said they didn't understand one bit. Claudia, the woman we are teaching was sitting next to me and told me, "yeah I didn't understand one thing" Haha that was actually funny to hear...but, it made me realize it happens often to all of us.

We might feel the Spirit super strong after a talk, or a lesson, or a meeting...and we think, Man that was awesome! Then later you might think about it and maybe you realize that you can't even remember anything exactly about what was said. I think a common example of this is General Conference. We always leave thinking it was so great, until someone asks us what we learned and then we are scrambling to even remember.

The Spirit is a powerful thing, but we don't always understand it. It takes so much focus, time, and patience to understand what we are actually learning. If we can really focus in on what were learning day to day, our knowledge will grow so much faster. We are really seeing this effect Claudia right now. A while back, she didn't understand a single thing we said...but now she is reading, praying, and understanding the concepts of the Gospel. In all things (not just the gospel) we learn with TIME. I've learned this especially with Spanish. I've learned to not ask God to just give me the knowledge so that I can speak the language...but rather, I've learned to ask him for guidance in my studies, and patience with myself for when I make mistakes.

I really have grown to understandthe role of the Spirit in our lives better. We may not always understand it at first, but with time and persistence, the mysteries of God will be unfolded unto us. Que podamos aprender a seguir los susurros del Espiritu en cada aspecto de nuestras vidas.