Another week down.
This missionary thing is getting easy . . . just kidding. But I am feeling normal now, I'm used to the 7 hours of Zoom everyday and waking up 5 hours earlier than I normally would. (Maybe 7 or 8 on some days before the mission). But now I feel as if it is normal and not just because I am a missionary that I have to live like one, if that makes sense.
This week flew by. Which makes up for last week feeling like it would never end. The days feel together now, same thing everyday but still learning more and more. It has been fun learning and seeing myself grow with my Spanish, testimony, and knowledge of the scriptures. I'm loving how home MTC has gone and is going, but every week of this makes me want to get to Guatemala more and more.
This Monday, Brenly, my mom, and I flew back from Utah. Walking through the SLC airport as a missionary was interesting. Everyone sees me holding a baby and walking with my mom and probably thought that I was coming home early from my mission. Which is not a good feeling haha. But, it was cool to see some other missionaries there as well who are starting their journeys like me--even though I was flying home from a family wedding and still have 3 more weeks of MTC.
Tuesday was like every other day this week. Wake up, classes from 7-11. Then lunch break. Then afternoon classes from 2:30 - 5:30 with companion study afterwards. Then I workout, shoot hoops outside with all 40 neighbor kids that come over to play, protein shake, and get ready for bed.
It's so much fun being able to go outside everyday and play basketball with every kid in the neighborhood for a little bit. There will be 15-30 kids outside everyday, in the summer, perfect temperature, having fun. It's the best thing to go out there with them and have a good time. I love wearing my missionary tag while doing it because the kids will ask me what it's for and I can share with them what a mission is and why I'm wearing it. And because I'm missing out on the Mexico MTC pickup basketball games, being able to play with other kids here at home isn't far behind.
My Spanish is coming along, muy despacio, but coming. My companion and I have had to teach 12-15 minute messages to somebody all in Spanish regarding anything we want. We've done a message on the poder de oracion, and just did one two days ago about El plan de salvacion. They both went well . . . for being three weeks into learning Spanish, but we are getting better everyday.
While I was outside playing basketball this week, one of the kids asked me, "Well what do you get from it?" (my mission). And I kind of froze for a sec, I know what I get from it, but I wanted to tell him something that he could relate to or understand. So I took a second and said, "Have you ever taught someone something that you were good at, or someone needed help with something and you could help them?" And he shrugged his shoulder meaning like, sure, yeah. So I said, "Well, you feel good when you do that, right? Well, imagine helping people for two years straight, in a Third World Country, and then think about how you would feel afterwards." I wanted to tell him more about what we help them with and how the gospel is what we help people with to find happiness and peace, but I thought what I told him got the message across.
Because of this kid's question that he asked me, I've been thinking throughout this week what I am getting out of this. I have a lot of thoughts, answers but the main ones I think of are . . . Doing the Lord's work on this earth by helping gather Israel. Bringing peace and joy into other people's lives through the gospel, which makes me happy. Strengthening and growing my faith and my testimony in the gospel and in our Heavenly Father. The blessings that I will receive which will affect me for the rest of my life and my future family as well. And many others that I think about throughout the day while sitting behind this screen.
I know this will be so worth it when I'm finished, and in two years I'll be walking in the airport again, without a baby (hopefully), feeling as if I've done all I can to do those things that I listed and receive the blessings from doing so.
Love you all and hope you aren’t tired of my emails already❤️
- Elder Copeland
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