How are you? Thank you for all of your letters throughout the week. I have loved every one of them. This week has been a really good one for me. We have had some really neat opportunities. The first was during class one day. Our teacher gave us the opportunity to go and teach one random person on the MTC campus in order to practice our street contacts. We found one couple initially and we thought they would be perfect but as we began talking to them the sister who was supposed to give them a tour of the MTC walked up and stole them from us! So we were running out of time and kind of freaking out. Our conversations were mostly "We're going to be terrible missionaries," "Say something to her" "She looks busy" "We're never going to teach anyone in the field because we're too scared to talk to anyone." Haha but as we were walking back to our classroom in hopes to find someone in our building an older couple walked out of the building. We started talking to them and asked them if we could share a quick message. They told us about their upcoming mission to Taiwan and how they would be speaking Mandarin. They told us about how nervous they were to learn the language and how they were sad to leave their grandkids. I quickly flipped through my scriptures in hopes of finding a scripture that would be applicable to their situation and I opened to a scripture that I recently marked. It is in Doctrine and Covenants 75:26 and 27. It reads: "And let all such as can obtain places for their families and support of the church for them, not fail to go into the world whether to the east or to the west, or to the north or to the south. Let them ask and they shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto them, and be made known unto them from on high, even by the comforter, whither they shall go."
It was perfect. The wife looked over my scriptures like "Is that really in there?" It was pretty cool and I knew it was Heavenly Father helping me because He wanted them to feel encouraged about their missions.
My companion and I were asked to be part of what they call "The New Missionary Teaching Experience." The first day in the MTC they do this thing where they have groups of 40 or so missionaries in a room teaching an investigator. It's pretty hilarious because no one's thoughts match up. But they have to have two missionaries start the lesson with the investigator. We were asked to do that and it was pretty intimidating because we were told in advance that 4 of the actors are not LDS. It was really good practice and a good experience. The moderator in our room was really excited when we were done so that was encouraging! Both of these experiences were in english though so we'll see how it translates...literally! :) The good news on the spanish front is that the visiting general authority this week was Hispanic and his wife bore her testimony in spanish and I understood every word. It was amazing!
I was glad to hear that your Thanksgiving turned out good. Mine turned out to be one of the best days in the MTC and despite the fact that I wasn't with all of you (which was painful) one of the best Thanksgivings I have ever had. Even on a Thanksgiving where I had decided that it wouldn't be about me, Heavenly Father sent Elder Holland (we're not supposed to have favorite apostles but if I did...) to come speak to us. It was incredible. I was really impressed with how hard the MTC Presidency worked to make that day special for every one in the MTC but how everything was about gratitude. After Elder Holland's talk we were able to do a service project, be part of a hilarious Thanksgiving skit and then at night we watched 17 Miracles and they gave us delicious bags of Kettle Corn. I will always remember this Thanksgiving with good memories. I did miss Mama's corn pudding though. I continued to feel so grateful for the things I mentioned in my last email. When Sister Holland stood us she said, "Would it be okay with you if for my testimony of gratitude I just stand here and cry my eyes out?" I have felt very similar at times here lately.
Elder Holland talked to us about three things he is grateful for: 1. To live in the last dispensation, 2. Joseph Smith and 3. God knows each and every one of us. It was such a powerful talk. He talked about how we often take for granted the blessing to live in this day and we don't consider other periods of history. He said "For the most part the gospel has not prospered with very many people, in very many places for very long. We don't understand what it means for us to have what we have now. Someday we will see the panorama of human history and we will see all the challenges of the darkest hours and we will understand what it was that we were given."
My favorite part was that he talked about how in Mormon 8 we read where Moroni says that he saw our day. He said that throughout history God buoyed up apostles and prophets by allowing them to see our day because each of them knew that they would fail and their time would end in apostasy. They knew they would lose but then Elder Holland said, "God said Buck up because finally eventually a group will make it. It is finally going to work and they saw us." He said that when Peter was hung upside down, when John was beheaded and when Alma and Amulek watched the righteous burn in the furnace they saw us and our day and because of that they "stiffened their backs and hung in there because they saw you and they said 'I can do this because the group in the MTC on Thanksgiving Day 2012 is going to hit it out of the park...we're finally going to win this."
I got chills when he said that and just felt so grateful for this opportunity and every opportunity that I have had in life that led me to this place. The MTC has been good for me but it's almost game time and I've got to hit it out of the park. I love you all so much. You're in my prayers. Thank you for praying for me and writing me!
Love,
Hermana Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment