How are you all? I am doing really really well. It has been so great to hear from all of you and to hear everything that is going on there! I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news- thanks to working out every day except Sunday and eating Salad for lunch and dinner I think I am in better shape than I was when I left. Bad news- Mama, Kaili, Robin and Catie are really not helping the cause! BUT I've loved everything I have received! It seriously makes my day every time I get a letter or package! You would not believe the amount of junk food our zone received and consumed yesterday. It was the best halloween ever! I'm usually not a huge fan of the holiday as many of you well know but when it involves amazing treats then I'm totally down! Hermana Pierce and I have changed the words to Love at Home. "There is junk food all around in the MTC, missionaries gaining pounds in the MTC."
This week has been really really good. My companion and I auditioned to sing "In Quiet Grove" and we were picked to sing for Relief society in front of all the sisters in the MTC. Sister Jean Stevens from the primary general presidency was the speaker and it was a really neat opportunity. I video'd a practice run of it. It says the file is too big to send though so that will have to wait until later I guess. It went pretty well though and I thought about how it was two sister missionaries that sang that for mama the first time too. It is a pretty neat butterfly moment Mama. :) The funny thing is the sisters in the presidency acted like they had never heard the song before.
One thing I love about the MTC is the conversations that you have with people that strengthen your testimony. the (the shift key on this keyboard stinks so forgive my poor grammar) other night I was getting ready for bed and a member of our branch presidency's wife stopped by. She and her husband returned from serving as mission presidents last year. I was asking her how hard it was to leave her family and stuff for three years and she told me that while she was gone her first three grandchildren were born and that missing the birth of the first one was really hard on her. She said that they were at a Stake Conference that weekend and her husband mentioned the miracle of technology and how they had received pictures right after the baby's birth. She said that after the conference people lined up to talk to them and when the line had finally cleared they saw a young mother sitting in the back of the chapel with a brand new baby. The young mother then said "I waited because I thought you might need to hold a baby right now." I thought that was one of the most thoughtful things I have ever heard. I hope someday to be more like that young mother. We watched a talk Sunday by Elder Bednar that he gave at the MTC on Christmas Day called Characteristics of Christ. He said that Christ's character was to always turn outward when he could have turned inward and the natural man would have. I hope I can be better about that.
I think the biggest thing I've gained this week is a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. We watched a talk by Elder Holland about the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion. He said "I never knew a substantial, solid, convincing conversion who did not have a personal experience with the divinity of the Book of Mormon." He talked about the importance of sharing the beginning of the Book of Mormon with investigators and reading with them 1 Nephi 1. He said Lehi was a prophet, who saw visions, received a book, was filled with the spirit and then was persecuted for his beliefs. He then asked whose story that was. He said it is Joseph Smith's story but it is also the story of the people we will teach and they will feel that spirit that Lehi felt and they will be persecuted but they can do it because Lehi did.
My companion and I decided to put this to the test and in our next lesson we decided to read 1 Nephi 1:1-12. We decided to read it and look for questions to ask our investigator. We have had a really hard time getting "Gabriella" to open up and tell us anything about her life and when I read 1 Nephi 1 I said why don't we ask her if she has good parents or if she has had afflictions? My companion said we should ask if she had anything in common with Nephi. When we did in the lesson she finally opened up and told us about drug cartels and her family in Mexico and how her family fights all the time. It was a miracle and it happened because of the very first verse in the Book of Mormon that I have read a thousand times.
On Sunday Brother McDonald (from our branch presidency) talked about repentance in Church. He told of being in a training with Elder Scott when he asked how many of the men in the room had read Alma 48:17 "Like Unto Moroni." He said about 95% of the men in the room raised their hands. He then asked how many of the men in the room had Alma 48:18 marked and only about 10% raised their hands. He then said "If you don't have verse 18 marked you don't understand the power of the atonement." That verse references men other than Moroni that men should be more like. At the end of that verse it says "And all the sons of Alma, for they were all men of God." He said a man sitting in the meeting next to him gasped and said "Corianton?!" After committing serious sins, Corianton repented, returned on his mission and became a man of God. I think sometimes we think we have to be perfect, that we can't make mistakes but the miracle of the atonement is that we can still become men and women of God with the power of repentance.
I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that it can help us in all aspects of our lives. This week I read about Enos and was struck by the fact that his dad probably felt like the words he had spoken to Enos never got through to him. But in the moment Enos needed help he remembered the words of his father and he prayed all night. The scriptures are full of stories like that and I am starting for the first time to fall in love with the Book of Mormon. Yo se que esta iglesia es verdadera. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador. Yo se que nuestro Padre Celestial ama mi y ustedes. I love this gospel. Every day is a challenge but you know me I love a good competition! I'm working hard and maybe one day I will be like unto Corianton...a person of God.
I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week! My challenge to you is to have an experience with the Book of Mormon this week and if you feel comfortable, share it with me!
Love,
Morgan
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