Dune. Arrakis. Desert planet.
That's how Frank Herbert's novel about a planet made up of deserts and giant worms begins. I've been repeating that line to myself while riding my bike this week. It's been really hot. Really hot. I heard we got up to 112-113 this week.
The heat definitely makes missionary work a lot harder. The sun just drains your energy. It's hard to maintain your enthusiam when you're riding a bike out in such blazingly hot weather. Somehow, the Lord gives us the strength we need to keep going and keep finding His children. That finding has also gotten more difficult. Hardly anyone is outside and when they are they normally tell you they can't listen to your message because it's too hot. We've had to do a lot of tracting, which is nice because sometimes people give us water bottles or invite us inside just because they have pity on us.
We're finding some interesting people, though. We're teaching a family from the Dominican Republic and we have a return appointment with a man from Cuba. Their Spanish is interesting and different from Mexican Spanish. I always like meeting people from somewhere that's not Mexico or Guatemala. It adds a little variety.
This past week I've been thinking about an interesting quote I heard from Elder L. Tom Perry. He said that missionaries know what to teach but they still don't know how to teach it. I've taken that to heart and have started thinking more about how I teach. It's definitely a lot harder to improve at than just what you teach. If we look at how the Savior Himself began His mortal ministry, His first teachings in the Sermon on the Mount were directed towards the type of person we should be inwardly, rather than our outward manifestations of obedience or righteousness. The Savior taught us that if we become the type of person we should be, we will not only be outwardly obedient, but inwardly we will do it for the right reasons. I've been trying to apply that more to my work as a missionary. I feel like a lot of the time I'm just outwardly obedient but that I lack the true inward conversion that will give my teaching the power of the Holy Ghost. It's a long process, but I know as I work on it I'll see a lot of good results.
Next week we have interviews with our new Mission President, President Taylor. I'm excited. President Beck is leaving him a really amazing mission and I'm sure President Taylor will only take us further.
We also got portable DVD players that we can use in our companionship studies now. It's pretty cool. We can watch Preach My Gospel training DVDs, as well as proselyting movies. It's cool to be able to watch other missionaries teach while we eat or study. You can get a lot of good ideas that way. Apparently they'll be giving all the missionaries in North America DVD players in the coming months, but President Beck asked them to accelerate it with our mission.
Finally, for those of you who like Mexican food updates, you should try elote. It's a Mexican way to eat corn on the cob. Instead of putting butter on their corn, they use mayonnaise. Then, they add cheese (normally parmesan or something similar). Then, you can put some hot sauce on it and boom, you've got elote. They even sell it in little carts that they push through the neighborhoods here. It's super delicious.
Love,
Elder Grasley
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