Elder Ames and his Spanish Progression

I thought you might appreciate how Elder Ames is progressing in his Spanish. You can see it coming to him and that he is relying on and recognizing the help of the Lord and the spirit of the Holy Ghost.

S0... the Spanish is coming along well. we actually started a goal today where we would only speak in spanish for the rest of the mtc, it is going to be super hard but so rewarding. We can only speak in english when we absolutely have to! Almost our entire district agreed to do it, and so far it is going pretty well. But of course, with every law there is a punishment affixed, so if we have an outburst in english, we have three choices: #1- to do 15 pull ups, #2 to do 40 push ups, #3 to have a piece of mail withheld for one day. I think its a pretty good system. :)

Family, our life is always going to be full of dificult situations. Always. Sometimes it may seem like things are impossible. The gap may just be too big. School work may seem overwhelming. Work may be crazy or health may not be so well. You may be trying to learn a language. There will always be difficult situations. But I know with out a shadow of a doubt that if we turn to Our Savior, He will be our stepping stone to help us across the gap. A gap that may be impossible to overcome on your own, you can turn to the Savior and He will help you safely across. But, in order for us to have His help, we have to ask him. Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you. He will help you with school, with work, with health, not having your son for two years. If we turn to the Savior and put all of our trust in Him, He will help us through any hard time. He will carry our burdens for us, that they may be light. Turn to the Lord and He will help you. I promise you that, I have witnessed it here in the MTC. It is impossible to learn a language and become a missionary that fast with out the help of the Savior

Elder Ames, in one of his letters to us on the day before he left the MTC said this, “Well it has been a great week. Although it has been really hard. It seems like everything is trying to keep us from entering the field at full strength. Last night at the fireside a man came and spoke to us and he had brought his friend who was a hispanic man who was recently converted. He didnt speak any english and so he bore his testimony in Spanish. While the speaker translated. But we could have understood it with out the translation. It was the perfect way to end our MTC experience. It was difficult to understand though, he talked really fast and slurred his words. It is not going to be an easy task to learn the language in the field. But I know that if we trust in the Lord, that we will be able to do it. I have no clue what to expect tomorrow. It is going to be crazy.”

I am sitting in a room right now, and no one is speaking english! I had to talk to a man in spanish yesterday fearlissing and I had know clue if he understood anything I said.

So on Saturday we had the baptism of Trinidad. I will send some pictures home today. I printed some out. But they probably won't get mailed till tomorrow. The baptism was incredible. The Spirit could be felt so strong. She was so ready, the only thing holding her back was her dad. She didn't want to disappoint her dad. Elder Rowley performed the baptism, and I ended up giving a talk. I wrote it in my journal so I will have it forever. (I am starting to figure out better ways of how I can preserve all of my memories :) ) The talk went surprisingly well. I knew that I wasn't the one talking, that I was receiving help of some kind, because the older ladies afterwards were saying, " He talks really well, are you sure he doesnt speak spanish" And I was even told that I had a good accent. There must be something in the water here. But Trinidad is incredible. She is going to be an amazing member of the church. I was so blessed to be a part of her special day.