Reno bound!

Hello one and all,

 

    It turns out my branch president is allowing us time to write home before we get to Reno! i'll be calling tomorrow morning around 8 or 9... they ran out of calling cards at the MTC store so i'm going to bring quarters and hope that i get a chance to call the folks! okay so life here is great! i didn't bring any of my study stuff, there were some awesome scriptures i had written down hopefully to inspire some of you at home. thank you so much for the prayers and support! the Lord has not ceased to help me feel all of the love. I hope things are going well at home! i pray and think of you all often!

 

as for my experience here, it's been wonderful. this last week went by so fast. days are long but weeks are short. I've learned so much in my time here. I'm so grateful the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to serve. In the first couple days i was having a difficult time actually putting my faith in him. Not that I didn't believe or have a testimony, i wouldn't be here if that was the case. I've learned that this is HIS work. it's not for the bettering of me as a disciple of Christ. Because it is his work, if i am obedient to the mission rules and follow the promptings of the spirit i will be a great instrument in his hands, bringing many of his children to the knowledge of the gospel. it's a tough balance sometimes, if i mess up in a lesson i come out instantly thinking that i need to work on myself to some degree. it's just such a comfort to know that if i do what God wants me to do, and study diligently, he will take care of the rest. I'm not doing this because I'm good at talking with people. The Lord knows that i want so much to assist in bringing people unto him, My will and diligence are all that i need. that's a great comfort to me.

 

again i wish i had my study materials. there have been so many experiences that i wanted to share with all of you. Last night we had a departure devotional, then a devotional about rocks (literally) then we watched a movie from Elder Bednar. the departure devotional was cool.. we just learned what not to do at the airport and stuff. turns out there have been some elders that get to the airport and buy bad reading material, yell on the plane, putting shame on the church. It's so shocking to me that people could go through this experience so numb! I've already learned so much about myself in the past week and a half, the Lord has helped me to grow and understand. I feel sad for the elders that miss out on the experience he wants us to have. anyway, that was cool. the rocks devotional was rad too. it was about the book of mormon being the keystone, and the D&C being the something else stone.. flip i wish i had my stuff! anyway, it highlights the importance of the DC too.. revelation through modern day prophets just for our benefit. it made me want to study the D&C more. but what i really wanted to share with everybody was the devotional that was taped by Elder Bednar. it was the most incredible and tangible spiritual experience i can remember. before that movie last night my most spiritual experience was sacrament meeting yesterday. so kind of a side note real quick... there are 36 elders and sisters in our zone. every sunday they call on an elder and a sister to give a talk, everybody is instructed to prepare one. one of the sisters in my zone was preparing her talk at the same time i was and it was about faith in Jesus Christ. such a great topic to study. anyway, i just had this feeling like i'm going to get called on for sure. and then i was thinking about what sister was going to get called on, and it was the sister i just mentioned. her name is Sister Call. so in front of our district i was so confident i actually said it. i told everyond that i figured me and sister call would get called on to speak about faith. not thinking much about it i prepared my talk as i was instructed. when i got to sacrament meeting i felt just like i did the way of my farewell. super stoked, but relatively nervous. sure enough, they call sister call up first, then i was next. 36 elders and sisters and it was us two, in the same district. we gave our little shpeels, then one of the sisters gave a musical number.. acapella solo of i need thee every hour. it was incredible. never felt the spirit so strong, until the second counselor in our branch spoke. he lost his grandson to a crazy disease when the grandson was 14. talked about relying on the atonement to heal. there wasn't a dry eye in the room. i just got chills thinking about it. amazing. so that's how the day started off! back to Elder Bednar. His talk was on the character of Christ. he brought up a quote from Neal A. Maxwell and because i don't have my stuff i'll tell you the idea rather than the quote. it was something along the lines of we can't understand the atonement without understanding the character of Christ. i'm running out of time so i'll give you a quick summary. the character of Christ is "turning outward when the natural man in the world would turn in." so when we get offended we get defensive and turn inwards as the "natural man" would do. we feel victimized etc. Elder Bednar shared a story that literally broke my heart in half. He was serving somewhere as a stake president at the time, late one evening he was in the shower (before the cell phone era, as he said) and his wife hollered that he needed to come take an important phone call. the lady on the other end was the relief society president for the stake he was serving in. she informed him there had been an accident involving 3 young girls, 1 of the 3 was pronounced dead on the scene and the other 2 were in very critical condition. the woman asked Stake President Bednar at the time if he would go to the hospital (which was close to the house he was living) to identify the girls. he didn't realize it for a few moments but the woman hew as speaking with was also on the phone with another woman, a phone to each ear. as Elder Bednar was listening to what was going on, he understood quickly that one of the 3 girls involved was the daughter of the relief society president. seconds later, he heard the operator through the other phone tell the relief society president that her daughter was the one who had passed away. This relief society president was a single mother of only one child, her daughter who was now dead. the moment she came to know this, her first words were "president, will you please meet at hospital so that we can inform the other mothers of these girls what is going on." In the moment she learned she lost the only person that meant anything to her in the world, she was equally concerned for the mothers of the girls that were critically injured. i couldn't believe it! turning outward when the rest of the world would turn inward. the day of her daughters funeral one of the women in relief society (not knowing about the situation) called the president to complain that none of the relief society sisters had brought her food yet. she wasn't feeling well so she asked if someone from relief society would take care of her, and when she didn't she called this troubled woman and complained to her. on her way to the funeral home, the relief society president dropped a meal off at this womans house that she had prepared for her after knowing she wasn't feeling well. at the funeral home she spoke with Elder Bednar, saying she was so sorry he had to see her daughter after she had passed away in that brutal condition.. she, worrying about Elder Bednar, requested that she open the casket so that Elder Bednar could remember her daughter for who she was, all cleaned up and ready for burial. this shed a whole new light for me on being a disciple of Christ. this will be my focus for the rest of my mission. Turning outward when the natural man inside would turn inward and be victimized. There is a story in the new testiment about Christ being tempted by satan while he is fasting.. it's in matthew 4 i believe. after Christ had been harassed by Satan for a long time he sent ministering angels, not to himself but if you open up and read the footnote it will again highlight his Character. I love the gospel so much! all i want to do is study and draw nearer to the Lord. I feel so blessed to be here at this time. thank you all for the love and support again. it is well received! I'm sending off a bunch of letters today so hopefully you'll all get them soon. :) Off to reno!