Week 3: We Are Now the Lord's Missionaries

Immersion -- We started immersion on Thursday in all our our classes, no English at all. And it's honestly going quite well. Our teachers do a very good job at explaining unknown words in Portuguese, and sometimes it's pretty funny the things they have to act out. We had a bit of a trend at first of cheating by asking "Como se diz..?" then saying whatever comment we wanted to in English, but they cracked down on that. But before then, some members of our district asked "How do I say..?" some wild things. 

Temple Trips -- Both this week and last week, we've taken a trip to the temple as a district. Last week, we did baptisms and initiatories. I enjoy doing baptisms for the dead the most at the temple. What I enjoy most about it is the time before my turn to go in the font, hearing the baptisms being performed and just thinking about the lives of the people we're being baptized for. It's so peaceful.

Shenanigans -- This may be the Missionary Training Center, but it's also a whole ton of young men in dorms. It's actually kind of funny because everyone here has standards, so nothing really BAD happens, but the more wild people need to find some way to entertain themselves after a long day of classes, which ends up with them acting like middle schoolers in some ways, haha. They have told us multiple times: no bouncy balls and no hacky sacks on campus, because that's something that's genuinely a problem. And, people have been contantly repeating "six seven" (or "seis sete" in Portuguese) which is apparently a trend right now idk. Then, while the MTC president was sharing a message, he started a story from when he was "six or seven" years old, and while trying to figure out why there was a chuckle after he said that, he imitated the accompanying hand gesture, and the entire audience died of laughter. He'll have to look up the meaning of it later.

Despite the ways we find to entertain ourselves, I've seen many examples of people who may be wild at times, but who, when under the right circumstance, which the MTC often is, are deeply spiritual. 

Good Times -- My district is great. One memorable moment from this week was when my district and I were sitting on the courtyard outside our classroom and looking at the sunset above the mountain in the distance. Multiple people in the group, me included, were fascinated by it. It was beautiful, and could not possibly be captured on our camera. We love the mountains here.

We've had many more good moments like this together, but I can't possibly go through all of them, needless to say, I've been very lucky. 

My Hymn of the Week -- Ending with my hymn of the week it was an amazing experience. And it's one that my great friend, Elder La Jeunesse at the Mexico City MTC needs to hear because he has seen the whole story but only heard half of it--and I'll explain why.

Every Tuesday evening at the MTC, we have a devotional from the leadership of the Church. This week it was Neil L. Andersen, one of the twelve Apostles we have to guide us today. Before him and his wife spoke however, as I had hinted at last time, us in the MTC choir sang a stellar arrangement of We'll Bring the World His Truth. I cannot describe how impactful the sound of this group was because of its sheer size. Stacked rows of singers on bleachers made up half of the volume of the massive gym we were in.

Elder Andersen started his talk well; it was a timely message about how we can strengthen our faith in Christ and use it to get through the harder moments of the mission. He shared with us the message that "when you're doing important things, things will get in the way." Then, in a moment of divine irony, his microphone died. The workers started scrambling to fix it without causing a disruption because we weren't the only ones listening--this devotional was being broadcast to MTCs around the world, including to my friend at the Mexico City MTC. I can't imagine how the situation entirely played out for them, but I know exactly what they heard for the rest of the devotional: nothing. 

Elder Andersen, after about a minute of waiting for the microphone, took charge. He stepped to the side and began to address us directly. He apologized for his old age and weak voice, and it was difficult to hear him. So, he suggested that, instead of waiting longer, the choir should sing their song again. I was ecstatic. That was literally the best suggestion he could have ever made. We quickly sat up and began again, and it was glorious. Then, he gestured that the audience join in too, and they did, and it was magnificent. A packed gym of missionaries was singing this hymn that is powerful enough to have brought me to tears at least once before and that has done the same for many other people. And, this was a special arrangement. It replaced the phrase "we will be the Lord's missionaries to bring the world his truth" with "we are now the Lord's missionaries..." I loved adding every single one of those replacements. I am now the Lord's missionary. 

After we finished, the microphone still wasn't fixed, so Elder Andersen gave more of his message directly to us. And, amazingly, we could all hear him, every person in the room. I was near the back of the choir, and I didn't miss a word. Whether it was the Spirit carrying his voice or him being given the strength as a 70 year old man to speak louder, I'm not sure. And, the message was unscripted, so it was straight divinely inspired for us. He ended with the repeated message, "He lives." 

So, it all came together: the technical difficulties, the choir, and hopefully my faith on the mission.

And, I don't have a recording of us singing, but if you'd like to listen, here's a link to the original performance at General Conference. It's so good!

Anyway, that's it for this week. If you reply, I would love to talk with you! (On my next p-day in a week haha.)

Até próximo semana, tchau!

Élder Haroldsen

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