I'll just apologize for this being so late getting out! I was preparing to travel out of state and I didn't get it posted! So sorry! I should have a new letter sometime tomorrow. I hope that anyone that is able to read his letters is enjoying them as much as I am! I am very blessed to be a part of his family.
Well, now I've been here for almost a full month. Its really quite strange to think about. This week, we watch the first group of Elders and Sisters leave that got here after us. Its really weird to see them come and go as we are staying here. We found out over the weekend that an extra bunk is going to be added to our room, actually, most of the Elders rooms will get an extra bed. They are closing down a residence building for renovation and apparently a lot more missionaries are coming in too. Its going to get pretty crazy here with a bunch of extra people. Even through the inevitable chaos that will ensue, we are still looking forward to some aspects. We'll see how it goes when it actually happens.
The weeks are going by so fast now. Its ridiculous to think that it was only a week ago that I wrote last, or could go to the temple and all the other things that happen on P-Day. We're 4 weeks in, 8 more to go. That seems like an eternity, but I know that it is necessary. We still have so much to learn.
This weekend was really good. Saturday was our first experience with what is called Training Resource Center, or TRC. What it is, is volunteers that come in that speak the language. We are assigned a topic to teach about the week before. On Saturday, we just go in and teach a 20 minute lesson. These volunteers aren't doing role play though. They are being themselves. We were certainly nervous going in, but it turned out to be a really great experience. Another cool part about TRC is that we taught with different companions. I got to teach with Anh cả Robison. That was very cool. Our topic to teach was about how they could receive answers to their prayers. Because these volunteers were being themselves, we didnt expect to have to teach a whole lot about how we pray or other basic doctrine. We were very surprised then when in our first lesson, the volunteers didnt know anything. They asked questions about God. Who He was, where He lived, who Christ was. We thought that maybe they just didn't understand what they were supposed to do, or we just didnt get what TRC was about. Well it turns out that in the papers we were given as a recap of what the volunteers thought about our lesson, we learned that the one who was asking these questions is actually a non-member. Whoa! I'm glad that I didnt know that before hand, or I would have really been freaking out. So, there ya go, I've taught my first non-member. Crazy.
Sunday meetings were very good and spiritual. I learned a ton. I enjoyed the normal Sunday Temple Walk as usual. It's great to get a short break from the MTC and all the work associated with it.
Yesterday also went very well, particularly with our investigator Chú Cường. We went in the morning to set an appointment with him because we had forgotten to do so after our last lesson. We were surprised however that he wanted us to teach him later that night. Uh oh. We were planning on teaching him on Wednesday. We are now teaching about the Plan of Salvation, but we are learning the vocab as we go because we have never taught this doctrine before. We weren't prepare to teach it. But we decided to just try our best and see what happens. We planned out our lesson. We shortened it to just talk about the Atonement and to commit him to baptism. When we taught, it went so well. Then we commited him to be baptized. He said no because he had already been baptized. We explained about the restored Preisthood authority and about being baptized by immersion. We asked him again.... and we couldn't understand what he said. We had him say it again, and even say it slower, but it was beyond us. We picked up on certain parts, but we'll have to see where things go from here. It was quite deflating to have such a great lesson and then it go poorly for the sole reason that we didn't know what he said. We later learned that one of the words he said was "gradually" so that is surely a good sign.
Well that's all the time I've got to write.
Love,
Anh cả Manhardt
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