1st - 7th February 2017

Hi Everyone,

This week you guys will finally get a bunch of photos! I got my new camera from the MTC store last week and I've been given photos from others so go check out the google drive. 

So I have learnt so much in the past week particularly with how to properly teach people the 'injil' - gospel. It is only recently that we've been able to teach more effectively particularly because my companions language is getting so much better! At first I basically had to be a translator between the investigator and my companions which was not ideal... but now they can start to try and listen and answer for themselves. They say that they can understand what the investigators are saying now (because they speak slower) but not me... I might try to slow down too. We taught the lesson on the plan of salvation which has lots of new information for someone who didn't already know about it let alone in another language. I felt the lesson become cold and not interactive as we left little opportunity for questions and self guided learning. So now we have learnt to focus a lot more on customising every lesson to the individual needs of an investigator. We have learnt that every good lesson should have:

testimonies, questions, a commitment at the end of the lesson, scriptures and an atmosphere of love and understanding. 

I recently memorised my missionary purpose in both English and Indonesian. My purpose is to:

invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end.

Mengundang orang lain untuk datang kepada Kristus dengan membantu mereka menerima injil yang dipulihkan melalui iman kepada Yesus Kristus dan pendamaiannya, pertobatan, pembaptisan, menerima karunia roh kudus dan bertahan sampai akhir.

Next is memorising the first vision. Wish me luck!

The days are absolutely flying by now though! Today marks my 3 week anniversary of being here and that means I am half way done. I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last email but through the companion of the pianist for my musical item 'savior redeemer of my soul' I am now in a 6 part men's chorus which he wrote himself whilst at the MTC which is absolutely amazing! His name is elder Colman and he printed some staff paper on the computers here. The song has heaps of clashes and uses whats called clump chords. He finished composing and hand writing every part out for each of us today so we will practice tomorrow. The audition for the other musical piece is on Thursday so that's exciting, hope we get to perform in a devotional where all the missionaries are watching. I am loving the people so much here!! Recently I have gotten to know elder Lambert who I first met playing 4 square (he is amazing at it!). He is from Idaho and will be serving in Mongolia and he has started doing this thing where he hides in my room and scares me and it is hilarious because of his reaction to my reaction which is hysterical laughter. 

  

I am learning heaps of words here still and also some grammar which we have began learning more of in class. It's weird because before I'd have to study a word a lot to know it but now at them MTC I can hear a word and figure it out because of the context it is said in and then remember it from that point on, so I can feel God's hand helping me learn more and helping me to teach better. This week in TRC we taught on receiving answers to prayers and it really reminded me that if you ask for in answer in a prayer then you need to be willing to not only put in the work to receive that answer but you need to be willing to act on it. My testimony has grown immensely and I have also learned from the apostle elder Bednar that having a testimony is knowing what's true and being converted is being true to what you know (character of Christ talk). I loved watching the extended movie the restoration which I had not yet seen, I don't know what it's called but it goes for an hour and a half so I know I haven't seen it even though it's very similar to the 5 minuet version. 

I hope I'm not writing too much for other missionaries to read, just let me know. But for those missionaries out there, remember your purpose and stay true to D&C chapter 4.

Bye for now.
Elder Liam Winfield,