Week 1- A Test in Patience

 This week has been crazy!

Its only been 1 week in the MTC, but it feels like it has been a month! I feel like I have already learned so much, and have gotten to know my district so well! My teachers, Sister Freeman and Sister Redfern, have been so amazing! They have taught us so much about das Evangelium und Deutsch (the gospel and German)! It has been a ton of work though. I can definitely say that sitting for most of the day has actually been pretty hard. We have class for about 6 hours every day and when we aren't in class we are studying either the scriptures, or German.  I can say though that all the work has paid off! Last week I spoke basically no German at all, but now I can at least say and understand basic phrases. I am still very far from fluent, but at least we are making progress.

My district has honestly been so awesome, I already love them all so much. They are all so kind and have  such strong testimonies. We also have tons of fun outside of class! Most days we get together and just talk, study, or play Quizlet Live to test our German. We also have 1 Irish Elder and 1 English Elder, so its really funny to talk about the differences between our cultures. It feels like we have been friends for years, and I can tell things will only get better in the next couple weeks.

I have been able to learn a lot about the gospel in this past week, and I have felt the Spirit stronger than I have for a long time. One of the biggest things I learned this week was the importance of faith and patience. It has definitely been hard trying to learn German and I kept feeling easily discouraged as most of the people in my district have already taken German before, so they are able to speak and understand much better than I can. I kept feeling inadequate and like I needed to be at the same level as everyone else ASAP. Throughout the week though I began to receive feelings and promptings that it would be okay, and that no one is expecting me to be perfect right away. I read a quote by Brad Wilcox this week that said, 

"When a young pianist hits a wrong note, we don’t say he is not worthy to keep practicing. We don’t expect him to be flawless. We just expect him to keep trying. Perfection may be his ultimate goal, but for now we can be content with progress in the right direction." 

I know that if I keep doing my best and having faith, I will be able to improve and eventually
speak German with ease. Not today, not tomorrow, maybe not even in 6 months, but eventually.

Hope you are all doing well! The gospel is true!

-Elder Jarnagin

This is one of the only photos I have from this week 😅 I will definitely take more this week. Here is Elder Noble lookin class.