Into the Field: The Second Sally

Family!!! and friends.  If you can´t tell, I miss you.  Nonetheless, time flies when you´re having fun. I´ve had a pretty awesome week this week. Last week for P-Day we went to La Gavia, a huge mall in Madrid. It was simple, but it was super fun to hang out there. We took a grand tour of Ikea and ate Swedish meatballs. :) I head out into the field on Tuesday, and I´m both excited and scared. Your prayers would be more than appreciated! I had an interesting week, especially with teaching the Gospel. At the park on Saturday, I felt very strongly that the Lord is preparing people for me to teach. I had the strange, but wonderful, feeling when I was talking to some of these people that they had been prepared to hear the message, and they were searching for it. I also had so many feelings that reaffirmed my testimony of the restoration. I always believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but this week, I felt like I began to "know" it. It´s a refreshing and peaceful feeling. Probably the best experience I had this week was talking to one of my practice "investigators." As way of background for what I´ve been learning in the MTC, our motto here is "Teach people, not lessons." In other words, we are not to let a problem to be fixed overpower a person to be helped. This particular investigator was having problems with his business and began to believe that he was being punished. Instead of teaching our planned lesson, I shared a scripture in Matthew 14 with him. It’s when Peter walks on the water to Christ. Soon enough the waves come and Peter is afraid and cries out "Lord, save me!" But Christ is there. I do not think in the following verse that Christ was scolding Peter when he says "Oh ye of little faith wherefore dids´t thou doubt?" (paraphrase). He was telling him to not be afraid because he was with him. We continued to talk more, and he began to feel hope that things will get better. I had another experience with this story in the scriptures. Today I went to the temple again. It was another magical session. We even got to get a tour of the temple since it´s our last week in the MTC. When I was in the celestial room, I felt as if I should read this story again. I´ve been doubting myself a bit this week, and I was afraid to go into the field. When I read it again, I noticed something different. Before Peter stepped onto the water, he called out to the Savior and asked "bid me come unto the on the water." The Savior asked him to come out, but even so, the waves came to tear Peter down. And the Savior was still there. I know that it will be difficult to
get through this mission at times, but I also know that the Lord has called me here. I know that he has a plan for me. I know that even when the storm comes, the Savior will be there for me. I´m excited to go out into the field. One more story. Don´t worry this one is funny. Last night in a lesson, I was explaining to an investigator that by being baptized into the fold of God, that he would be protected from Satan. But what I really said was that he would be protected BY Satan... This learning Spanish thing is going to be an adventure. ;)  Love you all so much! - Kathleen

Addendum:  Just to let you know, I´m getting transferred to the field tomorrow, so I won´t be able to write you this week. My p-day is on Mondays now, so you´ll be hearing from me then. Also, I´ll have more time to write. It has been so fun to be here and I can´t wait to see what happens out in the field. I´m pretty excited, but to tell you the truth, I´m a little nervous. Please pray that I´ll be able to adapt. I met the mission president last night, and he seems great! His wife is super cool too. She´s an absolute powerhouse. She spoke in a fireside last night about the Book of Mormon and how important it is to have a testimony of it and teach from it. It is the convincing power for the Church. The president also spoke and spoke a lot about obedience, as that´s when miracles happen. I certainly intend on seeing that through

Poco a Poco

I´m doing really well. There are a lot of ups and downs, but the ups are totally worth going through the downs. The weather here is starting to change. It´s getting a little chilly, but I don´t think I need a coat yet.
Spanish is coming along. As they say here: Poco a poco. (Little by little).
I´m getting an idea that I´m going to be assigned to an area around the temple. Two of my teachers think that I´m going to be assigned to their ward. I´ll be able to live in the glory days of the MTC all transfer. ;)
I really look forward to your emails every week! I miss you guys. Luckily, not too much, but just enough to be grateful for what an awesome family I have. I'm happy everything is going well! I did get your letter and I have one to send you, but the only place where I can buy stamps is a tobacco store... So that'll have to wait. Also, I loved Elder Holland's talk as well. Also, send me as many letters as you can, I love getting them!!! Also, I was reminiscing on how much time I had left as well. I realized in 8 days I'll have 17 months left. Sometimes if feels like things are going at a snail's pace, but now I don't feel like I have any time left.

This week was pretty awesome. I was able to go to Plaza Del Sol that day. It felt like for the first time, I was actually in Spain, not some building! It was a fun experience. On Saturday we went to Retiro Park again to proselyte. I had been praying all week, and I even fasted, so that I would be able to find people who were prepared to hear the Gospel. I asked in prayer that the Lord provide at least one person for me to give a Book of Mormon to and share my testimony with, and that I would have the confidence to go about finding these people who were prepared. I was paired up with a sister from Ukraine (last week a ton of native Russian speakers came to the MTC). She was nervous, but she felt comfortable after I said I was praying for her and this experience all week. The first person I talked to on the train to the park allowed me to bear my testimony and give him a Book of Mormon. He seemed pleasantly surprised when I told him it was a gift. There was another man in the park who stopped to talk to us. He had never heard of the church, but for some reason he stopped to talk. I started to realize that the Lord has truly prepared people who genuinely wanted to hear about the Gospel. I told him about the restoration of the Church (I made a promise to memorize the first vision, so I could use it), and he seemed interested in what we had to say. He happily accepted the Book of Mormon and had asked for the number of the Church. I may never see that to fruition, but I knew the Lord has been watching out for me. I'm trying a similar thing this week. This week it's my goal to find one person who is prepared to hear the Gospel, and would agree to meet with the missionaries. (We have little referral cards for people looking for the missionaries). I would appreciate any prayers sent my way. I know when we prepare and ask in prayer for help, thte Lord will provide a way for our plans.

 Now for funny stories! As background information, all my teacher are native Spaniards. This makes for some funny language barriers between all of us. One of my teachers was playing an investigator who is a stockbroker, with family problems. The first lesson was INSANE. The teacher (not the "investigator") was waiting for a friend to come and take his car keys, but in the middle of our lesson his friends came to get the keys. My teacher tried his hardest to stay in character, and pretended his friends were the investigator's wife and daughter. My companion and I thought thtat this was weird and we asked him about it when he came down. He said that they were his girl friends as in just the teacher's friends. We thought he said it was the investigator's girlfriend and the investigator was trying to pass them off as his wife and family! I kept thinking: I can't deal with this! I'm teaching an adulterer?! it's only my third week in the MTC. Hermana West and I, and two other sisters, started yelling at poor Hermano about how we can't believe that the investigator is an adulterer! One of the sisters said, "If Jose is an adulterer, so help me, HE WILL FEEL GOD'S LOVE!. Finally, one of our teachers came in and translated for my other teacher. The situation was resolved. That's all!

It´s kind of strange how the Spirit works. We watched a devotional two weeks ago about following the Spirit. Elder Bednar spoke and said that there´s not much use to fretting about whether or not you´re following the Spirit. He said that if you are a "good boy or good girl," keeping the commandments, keeping your covenants, and doing the best you can, the Spirit will guide you. Even though you might not know it.

I actually had an experience like that this week. Hermana West and I were teaching the investigator I talked about last week. We planned on teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end).

I had come across a scripture in my study a few weeks earlier: The story of when the woman with a blood problem touched the Savior´s coat. I decided to share it with him to drive the point home that through faith on Jesus Christ, we can be cleansed from sin (or anything for that matter). When I shared the part that said, "Daughter, thy faith hath made the whole," I felt the Spirit pound into my chest very suddenly. I have no idea how to describe it other than it felt like someone suddenly gave me a very warm hug. I knew I did something right.

We continued in the lesson, and I noticed that my teacher, who was playing the investigator, wasn’t paying much attention. I asked what the investigator was thinking. He couldn´t stop thinking about the story. We bore our testimony about what the atonement can do for us. The spirit was very strong.

When we got back to our classroom, our teacher gave us feedback. He said that scripture was meant for him. Our teacher was grateful that we shared it. I had originally planned that scripture for another investigator a few weeks ago, but I didn´t know when I was using it, that it would help a real person. He loved the story because even though there were tons of people in the crowd touching the Savior, he stopped for this one woman. He knows all of us. As long as we are willing to show faith and come to him, he will heal us.

One more story from this week:
We went to the temple today. A bunch of new, native Spanish speaking missionaries showed up, and I got caught up in their temple group, so I got to do the session in Spanish. This was my 20th session, and it was different than any other session I´ve been to.

I can´t say much, but I felt the spirit so strongly. I felt a strong impression about how our loving Heavenly Father has a plan for us. I felt so strongly that I have a place in this plan.

A Peach!!

Family and friends!

 

 

Week two at the MTC has been a peach!
I´m super busy with classes, but I´ve had some breakthroughs. This week started out hard. I didn´t quite have the confidence to think I could do this, but as time went on, I started to see that I could. We had an "investigator" this week (he was really my teacher).

Hermana West and I taught him about the atonement, and we could really feel the spirit guiding the lesson. I bore my testimony about the atonement, and how I know that the Savior had suffered for our pains, afflictions and sins. Because of this we could be comforted and become clean. We can have the slate wiped clean and start over. I lead him to the Mosiah 18: 8-11, and he asked what would impede someone from being baptised. We let the question hang for a minute, and I asked him if he would be baptised. He agreed.

Even though this was a training experience, I felt like if I could even have this experience once on my mission, all the hard parts could be worth it. I felt like I was walking on air the rest of the week.
The rest of the week was filled with classes and not a lot of notable stuff. This Saturday, we go to Rotiro Park again to proselyte, and I have prayed all week that the Lord would provide someone who is prepared to hear the Gospel. I would love it if you prayed for this as well.

So much love,
Hermana Sykes

I would LOVE letters

Hey family!
I've missed you guys, but thankfully not too much. The first week or so in the MTC has had a lot of ups and downs. I really like my district, and my companion is really nice. Her name is Hermana West and she´s from Alberta Canada. We actually have a lot of people from around the world represented here- US, Canada, Mozambique, Angola, Portugal. In a few weeks we´re going to get people from Spain and Russia. There aren't a lot of us here, probably no more than 30 people.
Mom, Dad, It´s great to see you are doing well. It sounds like the temple dedication was great!
I´m in a room with the other girls in my district, and we´re getting two more in a few weeks (visa waiters), which will make 6 of us.
So far I've learned a lot of Spanish. My companion and I have taught a lot of discussions in broken Spanish. Some of the lessons have been amazing and some of the lessons have been disastrous. But thankfully, these are just our teachers, not real people.
On Saturdays we get to go to Rotiro Park and try to talk to people. This Saturday was really fun! My companion (we were on splits that day) and I talked to some interesting people. We gave away a few pass-along cards and invited a few people to church. Not sure what will come of it, but one can always hope for the best.
We did meet one older gentleman who, while very Catholic, loves the Mormons and had two Books of Mormon (Book of Mormons?). I shared my favorite scripture with him, Alma 26:16, and as he read it, his eyes teared up a little. He was very nice to us. Although, in a strange twist of events, grabbed me and started kissing my cheek! It was quite a surprise.
Just so y´all know, my P-Day is Thursday, and I would LOVE letters through the rest of the week. PLEASE send me letters.
Love
Hermana Sykes

P.S. Notice that I didn't write home about the food.

Kathleen's MTC Address for "real" mail is:

Hermana Kathleen Sykes
Spain Madrid MTC
Calle de Templo No. 2, planta 4a.
Madrid
28030
Spain