***I have put the last few weeks of letter up on the blog, so keep scrolling down! I was having problems with blogger, go figure, so it is up now and ready to read!! *Katie*
kamusta mo sa pamilia ug mga higala,
How is everyone doing?!!? Life in the MTC is wonderful, per usual. It's been a fast week and going faster. I leave in a little over a WEEK!!! WHAT?!?! UNSA!?
Well, I am picking up more vocab daily, though not near enough to do anything productive--like speak a foreign language. But all is well, no worries. The new cebuanos got here last wednesday and there are 6 elders and 1 sister. Wow, i do not know how to write in english anymore. Also, i have gotten a few comments about my spelling issues on these emails...its NOT me, its the stress of time and the keyboards here are messed up. Promise mags.
Last weeks task was extremely difficult. WE had a muslim investigator, which would be fine, if we had prepared our cebuano lesson for someone who didn't believe in Jesus Christ.....so we did not follow our lesson plan or what we studied and we had to come up with whatever we could. It . was. hard. WE did okay. I did bad. We have another task tomorrow and i am worried about it. We have spent a lot of our time with the new district and helping them and our lesson is not ready. STressful.
In other news, MARIE BATES CAME INTO THE MTC TODAY! I was walking up to the temple and saw her and her parents and we ran to eachother (adorable) and it was so great to see her! She is going to love it here.
This week has been awesome. Our district has really stepped up and is working hard.
Sunday was a great day. I learned a lot about dispensations and what was brought by each prophet. It is pretty profound. Richard Heaton spoke for our sunday night fireside. I love it when he talks to us. He is the admistrator/man in charge of the MTC and he is hilarious and way nice. He talked all about investigators and actually chose 4 elders from the audience who had recently converted within the last 1.5 years. I learned so much and was so interested in their stories. Elder Chastain (our DL) is a convert and it will be TWO YEARS on MARCH 29th!!!! (which is the day we are supposed to fly out!) Pretty exciting. One thing Brother Heaton said that I really enjoyed was, " This work is the greatest mircale on the planet. And you have a front row seat." WE also sang "To bring the world his truth" and the words were changed to "we are now the Lord's missionaries".... It was a great fireside.
On Tuesday we FINALLY had an apostle come speak to us!!! Elder Quentin L. COok. His wife too! She said a few things I really enjoyed. She told us to look at all the Christlike attributes in PMG and then find a church hymn that corresponds with each one. That way when we get in hard situations we can sing the words of that hymn and gain strength. Great idea, Sister cook. Example: Obediance; I'll go where you want me to go Faith: I believe in Christ/ I know that my redeemer lives Patience: Be still my soul
THe choir sang, " Behold the wounds in jesus hands."
Elder Cook spoke directly by the spirit and it was powerful. He taught us how crucial it was to teach by the power of the Holy Ghost b/c it will be like an echo from the pre-existence to those we are teaching as well as bear witness of the truth. He spoke a lot about D and C 112 and being humble and purifying our hearst first and then being able to go out and teach. But what I loved most was that he ended his talk by giving us a blessing..right from the pulpit. And it was powerful. You could hear missionaries throughout the room just crying. THe spirit was so strong and the love from a special witness of our savior was remarkable. He blessed us that we would come to understand that this mission is exactly where we need to be and where the Lord wants us to be. He blessed us to know that this mission will bless our children and grandchilden and that we might understand that it will bless us alll of our days. He blessed us with the righteous desires of our hearts. That as we worked hard the blessings of the kingdom would pour down upon us. It was so needed. There are some sisters that I have stewardship over that really needed that and it was so powerful. I am so grateful that Jesus Christs gospel is on the earth and that there are apostles that know God but also know us and know how to serve us and be that example and special witness of our savior. He also mentioned, " I may not be as capable as I would like but I can be his witness. I can testify of him. ......." I liked that and as missionaries we related well to that. I may not be the smartest or the most capable and I may be the worst at this language, but I can live my life righteously and with exact obedience so the spirit can be with me....so the spirit will help me...so i can testify to God's children in Cebuano (and WARAYWARAY) in 1.5 weeks. He also said, " Christ knows the unfairness of life and he can advocate for us. . ."
Anyways, it was a great devotional and one that we all needed and appreciated so much. God lives and Jesus is our Savior. We can live and be happy and enjoy our lives and be ourselves with the knowledge of our God and Savior. Our talk topic this week was "humility" and I learned a lot from that topic. I realized that God wants us to be ourselves of course, because our personalitites are unique and necessary especially for the people we are going to teach--but there is a part of our personalities that God knows that sometiems we don't see / know because of our pride. Heavenly Father loves us and as we humble ourselves he can teach us and mold us into our best selves : best teacher, best spouse, best parent, best child, best worker, etc. He knows what we are capable of, even though we are often stuck in our "natural man" ways and weaknesses. Mosiah 4:11-12 is incredible. REad it if you can. Verse 12 tells us that God wants to give us even more, he wants us to grow and gain knowledge. He has so much he wants to give us....but we don't even recognize b/c of our "natural man." SO, I challenge all of you (and myself) to let God teach us this week so that we might gain that knowledge and find that part of our personalities that He knows and we have never before recognized.
I love you all.
The gospel of jesukristo is on the earth. The true, fullness has been restored. Thank you for your prayers and support. It is so needed.
Katie/ Kiera--I got word that my blog has not been update for 3 weeks?? That must be wrong because i write home weekly!
Katie--elder fisher is from hawaii and gets discouraged easily...you could send soemthing for him specifically. that would be cool. and my comps. or my whole district. i love them all the same. seriously. I MISS YOUR family. send pics. thanks for writing me!
Kerry-- i just love you so much! Thanks for all you do.
Marilee--great letter this week! Tell me more about your mission experiences please! you crack me up. thanks for the prayers.
aaron, andru, jarrett-you could write me if you want. Aaron thanks for writing me last week.
zach--i'll send you a letter answering your questions.
Love you alll!!!
love,
sister b!
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