Friday, September 8, 2017

I Just Don't Understand!

Hey Mom,

The musical number went really well. Everyone knows me now has the guy who works out AND plays the violin really well. We had our district presidency member come up to us after with tears in his eyes, saying he felt the spirit so strong during the number and had a vision of his parents. He thanked us all. The people I played with were amazing; it reminded me what I love about playing the violin.

The fire sounds crazy, I hope it gets under control. That makes me so sad to hear. Chad sent pictures of the Gorge - SO SO SO sad.  Also, I am extremely sad about Grandma Bowen.  I will be praying for her and hope whatever happens it’s as comfortable for her as possible and what she wants, but I´m gonna miss her and don’t look forward to hearing the bad news.

I haven’t been doing too good over here, Mom. I'm really struggling. It’s all centered around learning the language. I know you are gonna think I´m just being hard on myself; that I´m a smart guy and will get it eventually, but I am REALLY struggling. Mom, I don’t know what to do. I don’t understand anything in Portuguese still! I can´t even give a simple lesson unless I just read off of written sentences.  It feels like my brain has a learning disability or something.  I study flashcards and read phrases and do so many things and try to memorize passages but at this point nothing is working. And, to top it off, everyone keeps talking about the “dom de linguas,” (gift of tongues).  I haven’t seen it yet. I have broken down several times now. I don’t know how long I can do this.

Every day I wake up and just dread the day knowing I´m just going to get further and further behind.  I always just have a bad attitude now. I really hope I´m able to persevere and become who I need to be but I´m halfway done with the MTC and still am clueless. 

I love you and the family so much.  I miss you all so much. I don’t want to let you down or myself down, and I just want to be a missionary but everything about Brazil feels wrong. Right now I feel wasted and feel like I should be in the United States where I know I could be successful. I´m gonna keep trying but every day is a struggle, please pray for me Mom.

I know you’re gonna be an awesome seminary teacher, and everyone in your class is very lucky to have you.  I would know! I will continue to study the Book of Mormon; right now it’s the only thing getting me by because it helps me forget about my problems.  The gospel makes so much sense.  Logically I believe but I am just really struggling with feeling the spirit and having faith when it comes to my abilities.

I hope in the next few weeks things get better and I can tell you how awesome and strengthening an experience this was, but I´m just afraid it's gonna wear me down. My teacher has been really patient and has a strong testimony.  She is a convert from missionaries. Her name is Irma Perazolla and she has shared some good scriptures and tried to share her testimony with me but it’s hard when I can’t even really understand what she’s saying. My companion Elder Davenport has also been a big strength, his faith has kept me going and he’s already given me two blessings. I´m glad I´ve got them and my district is supportive I just hope I can do this. I want so bad just to be able to preach the gospel. Tomorrow we’re supposed to go proselyte, teach two investigators, and have TRC and its gonna be a really hard day for me. Please pray for me.

I love you Mom, let everyone know I love them!

Elder Sork


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