Dear Family,
Next week I will be writing on Tuesday because we will be leaving for Peru early on Wednesday. I have no Peru information as far as how you can contact me yet. I am sure I will get it before I leave however.
While I was reading your dear elder about the pornography talk in church it reminded me of a movie clip I watched that I think you should check out. You may have already seen it but I remember when I first saw it, it had a great impact spiritually on me. If you go to LDS.org and click on Mormon messages, the video is called "Watch your Step" Of course it is elder Holland speaking so it’s going to automatically bring in the spirit. The part that gets me every single time whether is see it or just think about it is when Elder Holland says, "Picture the faces of the ones who love you... (gets choked up) AND HOW THEY WOULD BE SHATTERED!" the video just makes it even more dramatic so I think you should watch it.
Anyway, nothing new has been happening in the MTC. We are slowly going insane just like we promised we wouldn't the first day upon arrival at the MTC. It is the little things that bring us excitement here. It only takes one good pealing of your hard boiled egg to make your day here. Or using your workout stretchy band as a sling shot to launch jolly ranchers into the flesh of your fellow elders at night. Yes, imbedded into the flesh. We have created a weapon.
Someone explain to Dad what Foursquare is. Everyone in the MTC plays it to the death. No one plays soccer or volleyball and even basketball is not that popular. But foursquare is the thing of the MTC.
On Sunday two elders were giving a lesson about the attributes of Christ. The week prior I was getting frustrated because our teachers would not teach Spanish. They focused on more things like how to teach and how to plan to teach. I felt like I already knew these things from mission prep so it bugged me that he wouldn’t focus on learning Spanish so I could speak better. Anyway, so during the lesson we went around the room expressing our feelings on Faith, Knowledge, Patience, Charity, Obedience, Virtue, Diligence, and so forth. Finally it hit me towards the end of the lesson. I raised my hand and said, "Why are we learning this lesson? Why are we here in the MTC? We are literally representing Christ as missionaries. If we are to represent him, we better have his characteristics. We sit in class for 11 hours a day to learn knowledge. We give up all our time to serve to learn charity. They suck every un-virtuous thing out of the MTC to teach us virtue. THEY GIVE US A COMPANION TO LEARN PATIENCE. The MTC is training us to be the best representatives of Christ that we can be. That is why we are here." After I realized this and said this we have been better missionaries. We have been more diligent and have been complain free. Because we now understand why we do what we do all day. The lessons really do not matter that much. Whether we speak Spanish well won't matter either. Every convert usually says, "I had no idea what they taught me, but I do know how I felt." If we develop the attributes of Christ then they will feel our spirit that we bring in their homes and that is what will convert.
That was the main lesson I learned this week. One more thing since I have time. Last night, Elder Evans of the 70 spoke to us. One thing that stuck in my mind is that I, as a missionary, will be the answers to people prayers. If I do not stay 100% receptive to the spirit then someone's prayer may not be answered. And, I at the end of my life will have to sit before God while he asks why I didn't listen to the prompting to speak to that ONE person. And then he may go on to say, "because you did not talk to the ONE man when i prompted you to he did not feel like his prayer was answered. He then did not accept the gospel and it rests on your shoulders because you ignored the prompting." So I learned to listen to all of your promptings.
My time is up. Next week on Wednesday I will be calling Mom's cell phone and Dad's. I am allowed to call while in the Atlanta airport. I don't know exactly when that time will be so just keep your phone's on in class I guess. I can also call when I land in Peru possibly. Tell Gav his phone doesn't update pre-season games.
Love,
Elder McRae
No comments:
Post a Comment