Excuse my spelling. It's a little stressful to only have an hour to respond so I will not spend time spelling as well.
When I came I was very well prepared in Spanish. Most of the CCM [Missionary Training Center, in Spanish] is spoken in English but I have been able to translate for other missionaries and teachers. We play soccer a lot. There is a pit we go to the has a bunch of graffiti and broken glass from beer bottles. We just kick the glass aside and play.
My back has been giving me some trouble but after I got a blessing I am doing a lot better. My first companion is great. He is 22 and is from Houston Texas. Elder Haines, he is very insightful.
Dad, I saw the person from Madison that you wanted me to see in the temple [Brother Gilgan]. The temple was very spiritual.
The MTC President Packer is soo loving. Such a great man.
The days are long and yet go by so fast. The food here is really good. We have very authentic Spanish food in the MTC. By Saturday we proselyted in the Parque de Retiro. I was with a Russian bound Elder Eardley. I was scared to contact real people. But the Lord was on our side. I had a 20 min conversation with People from Brazil in Portuguese and they understood my Spanish and me their Portuguese. I don't know how. When coming back to the MTC me and Elder Eardley felt strongly about talking to a lady. By the end of talking to her she had tears and goose bumps because she knew our message was true. It was really cool. I had a strong feeling that she will be baptized. My Spanish is getting a lot better. But when at the park it was very inadequate. But we still were able to get our point across. Elder Eardley only knew very little Spanish but he also wasn't afraid to walk up to talk to people.
Sunday I found Faustinano Lopez and Consuelo Lopez who I was asked to find by Sister Lewis who was serving in Grandville Branch (can you find an email for her?). Sister Lewis was one of the sisters who baptized Consuelo 40 years ago and Consuelo had heard nothing from them, so it was a blessing.
Today we went to a Museo, it was pretty big.
I have 6 elders I room with. It is totally inspired. The 2nd night I got to give one a blessing. He was very homesick but is doing well. There are native French, Portuguese elders as well as native French sisters. Russian bound Americans.
I was called as a District Leader and that has been going well. I will serve as a DL the next 2 weeks and then we will see. I have been picking up bits of the other languages as I go and can have a simple conversation in French and like 5 words in Russian haha. And Portuguese is little easier to understand.
There was a talk by Elder Bednar about Christ like attributes. Turning outward instead of inward when things get difficult. Think of Christ when he was going through his hardest times. Natural man is to turn inward in tough times. I challenge you to all turn outward, to love and serve others when things get hard and have the pleasure of helping someone who is struggling more than yourself.
My photos haven't uploaded and it's been an hour....[we will add to blog when we get them]
I love you family! I hope you are all doing WELL! It has been so great to feeling the gentle prompting of the spirit. I forget how gentle the prompting are. Thaniel and Olivia, good luck with school starting up. Love you! I hope Gizmo misses me haha 😀😁
Elder Openshaw
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