We got our second letter from Ann in the MTC, she was delayed for a week waiting for her visa.
I am soo blessed! I love being a missionary! So hard, but so good.
This past week has had its challenges and its tender mercies. Its weird
to still be here in the MTC when today was supposed to be my first day
in Australia, but I know I'm supposed to be here still and the Lord has
been blessing us with many tender mercies to compensate. Honestly, the
hardest thing is that there are only five people in our district now. I
miss the rest of our district a lot. We were all best friends and it
feels sort of empty without them, but it's also nice that we have a
smaller class now so it's more personal teaching. Second hardest thing,
unpacking again. ha. Well this week has been a life changer again so I
think I'll highlight a few of the best moments and inspiration.
We watched a clip of a MTC devotional given by Elder Bednar in
class and he talked about how we all worry about whether it's our own
thoughts or the Spirit. He rather boldly said, "Stop worrying about it!
Just be a good boy or a good girl and all your thoughts will lead you to
where you need to be and what you need to do. You may never know what
little things you do that change someone's life." Wow. Awesome. I have
been set apart and as long as I'm trying to be a "good girl" my thoughts
will be the Spirit's direction. That's pretty incredible.
Brother Dickey talked to us about how we had been
prepared for our missions. He told us that we had been prepared in more
ways then we would ever be able to comprehend by ourselves. So, he had
us pray to ask Heavenly Father how he had prepared us. Then, he told us
to write down the ways the Lord had prepared us and to not stop writing
because as we wrote the Lord would bless us to know ways that we had
been prepared. It was an incredible experience. Heavenly Father was able
to remind me of some very hard, sweet, and sacred experiences that I
have had in my life. Experiences that I have treasured, but I had never realized how
they prepared me for a mission. God really does love His children! He
loves them so much that He would have a girl, who never thought she
would go on a mission be prepared to help specific people in Australia
(where she never even thought she would go in her life time) at a very
young age. What a privilege. It makes those experiences that I have had
even more sacred. I thought at the time that they were just for my benefit.
That they were to help me come closer to Christ and become more truely
converted and they were, but they were also for the benefit of so many
of His children that I never even thought I would meet. The section of
PMG "God is Our Loving Heavenly Father" takes on a whole new meaning.
A theme of In-field orientation and of my branch
president was to not lower your expectations. God is not sending me on a
mission to do nothing and have no success. The field is white! It's
harvest time not planting time! Not that we won't be doing a lot of
planting too, but we should expect success because the Lord will only be
able to help us achieve what we think is possible. I also loved that my
Branch President said, "Don't fall into the trap of mediocracy! Other
missionaries will try to tear down your enthusiam. Don't let them! This
is how it's supposed to be!"
One of my best experiences of my entire MTC experience
so far was watching a MTC devotional from Christmas of 2011 by Elder
Bednar called "The Character of Christ". Seriously, life changing. Mom I
wish you could see it. You would have loved it! He said that Elder
Maxwell had said to him that, "There would be no atoning sacrifice
without the character of Christ." He talked about how he thought about
it for a long time and finally figured out what the character of Christ
really is. He said His character is that, "He turns out in compassion
and love to others when we, as natural men, would turn in." I had never
thought about it in that way. Then he gave all of these examples of
Christ turning outward just when anyone else would have thought about
himself. For instance, after He had fasted and Satan had tempted Him (in
Matthew 4:11) it says that angels came and ministered to Him. That would
make complete sense after all He had been through, but when you read the
JST you see that it says that Jesus knew that John was in prison and so
He sent angels to minister to John. Wow. I can't even imagine. That's
how the Atonement is possible. He never could have done it if He had
even once thought of the natural man in Himself.
Then he talked about how this is how we too become truely converted to
the LORD. It was actually similar to his conference talk. He talked
about true conversion. Then he told a story of some women that were
truely converted and had put off the natural man. One woman's daughter
had been killed in a terrible accident. She was her only child and she
was a single mom. She was also the RS president. On her way to the
funeral a woman in the ward, who didn't know of her daughters death,
called complaining that she was sick and no one had brought her food. So
this mother, who was truly converted, took this women food before she
went to her own daughters funeral. I can't imagine being that
Christ-like but that is how I want to be someday. I want to work on it
every day for the rest of my life.
He also talked about how we should all study the character of
Christ for ourselves. He said to take a cheap copy of the BOM and mark
everything in it that demonstrates the character of Christ. Then to
ponder it. Write a brief summary to go inside and then put in on the
book shelf. He said we could do this often with different questions and
by the end of our lives we would have book shelves full of our questions
and how the BOM answered them. Cool right?! I am going to do that while
I'm on my mission. Obviously I'm studying for investigators, but if I
can just read a little of the BOM each day to find the character of
Christ I should be able to finish before I come home. I can't wait.
Maybe I'll even just read it during lunch so I can use all of personal
study for investigators...
Another neat experience for me was when they came to tell us
that our visas didn't come and that we would be here for at least
another week. I felt an immediate peace rush over me and the spirit tell
me that I was here for a reason. There was more that I needed to learn
so I could bettter bless my future investigators lives. My teacher also
said that he thought another reason was so we could bless other
missionaries because we have already been here and because we're so
strong. (I thought that was nice of him) Then we went to Zone teaching
and we were with all the new missionaries. I was put into a group with
three Elders from another district. We were practicing doing something
that I don't feel like I'm good at all, but Heavenly Father really
blessed me with added understanding and knowledge. These Elders were
really struggling and I was able to help them better understand and I
understood it better too. The Lord allowed me to help some of His
children, which really helped me. It was such a tender mercy. And there
have been many more. I have learned so many skills that they just didn't
have time to teach us before. I am actually very glad to be here for
longer. And I get to be here for Easter! We're having a sacrament
meeting with the whole MTC and a general authority will be there. Sounds
like an awesome experience. One that's worth the wait. :)
Lastly, I just wanted to share something I learned at
devotional last night. The speaker talked about how in Christ's time it says in the
scriptures a million times that the people were "astonished", but it
doesn't say that after miracles were performed. It says they were
astonished by the doctrine! That is awesome. These simiple doctrines are
astonishing! I think I too often take for granted that I already know
these INCREDIBLE truths! What a blessing to be able to share that with
others!
(David (Annie's brother)received a mission call to serve in the Oklahoma City Oklahoma mission last week.)
I love you all so much! I'm SOOOO excited about David's mission call. Cool that while Alan and Michelle were out as missionaries one was out of the country and one was in OK and now when David and I are out one will be out of the country and one will be in OK! He's going to be such a good missionary. I've been wishing he was in my district! Although I think that would be too good to be true. I already get to be with Sister Benjamin. (Annie's cousin) It's been so awesome! And now she's companinons with my companion and I! How cool!
I love you all so much! I'm SOOOO excited about David's mission call. Cool that while Alan and Michelle were out as missionaries one was out of the country and one was in OK and now when David and I are out one will be out of the country and one will be in OK! He's going to be such a good missionary. I've been wishing he was in my district! Although I think that would be too good to be true. I already get to be with Sister Benjamin. (Annie's cousin) It's been so awesome! And now she's companinons with my companion and I! How cool!
