To all friends - Send me your addresses! As the semester has ended you all have moved so I have no addresses. I have written some of you letters but have not sent them since I don't know where to send them.
Well, this has been a crazy week! On Monday the MTC received a whole new schedule. Almost everying is planned out, including study time, language study, planning time and TALL (language computer program) time. Dinners are later for me now and on Monday our service project is at 6:05 am! But so far I enjoy the schedule.
After I wrote you all last Tuesday we had a devotional. Guess who the speaker was! Elder Richard G. Scott! It was amazing. Appartently it had been a while since an apostle of the Lord spoke at the MTC and what a devotional it was! He spoke about the Spirit and how to be guided by the Spirit. He defined humility as being teachable by the Spirit. Towards the middle of his talk he asked those of us learning another language to raise our hands. Seeing the number of hands he gave us a blessing that we would be able to learn our language. "You will still have to work. But you will find it will be easier." He mentioned also that it is important not to judge your potential by the past and by what you percieve as your potential. "Trust the Lord with what He can do with a willing heart." At the end he bore his testimony that he knows that Christ is a glorified being and He loves us.
Here's a cool story: One of the native sisters from Ukraine told my companion and I that when Elder Scott walked into the room she did not know who he was. But she felt the Spirit so strongly and almost as if she heard a voice she knew that he was servant of the Lord. Throughout the devotional she felt the Spirit so strongly and it was reconfirmed multiple times that he was a servant of the Lord.
Then Easter Sunday. On class on Saturday one of our substitues (one of my regular teachers got married) told us that in Russia the greeting you give on Easter is "Christ is risen!" The reply is "Verily, he is risen!" Isn't that so cool? I can't wait to be in Russia next Easter. We walked to the temple and took some pictures. On our way back we saw a man standing outside the MTC holding a giant cross which said "Christ loves you!" and when we walked by he said, "God bless you sisters!" Apparently he called himself a "Jew for Jesus" and saying that we knew the end of the world was coming when Jews believed in Christ.
The Sunday Fireside was awesome as well. Stephen B Allen spoke and he produced many of the LDS "Homefront" commerials. But before he spoke for a musical number an Elder from Budapest, Hungary performed an organ solo. Wow! We were all amazed. Afterwards Brother Allen thanked him and asked if he knew how to play "Go Tell It On the Mountain" and asked him to play it. He did and there was chatter of awe around the room. At the end he received a standing ovation. Brother Allen shared many of the "Homefront" commercials and applied their taglines to us: "When everything says you can't believe in the part of you that say you can" and "It's not who you aren't, it's who you are and being yourself is being great." There are many more I would love to share but I only have 5 minutes left!
Yesterday guess who spoke at our Tuesday Devotional? Elder Dallin H Oaks! Two apostles in a row! Again, it was another great talk but it was different from Elder Scott. Sister Oaks also spoke and one thing she said stood out to me, "Our religion is more than a nice way to live. It's the reason we live." It is so true! Most of Elder Oak's talk was about becoming. and that we are not on a mission to be thanked so don't expect any. Esentially, serve the Lord because you love Him, not because you hope to gain something.
Well, time is just about up. I love you all. I love the Lord, Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. I know that they love us more than we can comprehend. Russian is coming along in theory. I have the First Vision down. More to come later. Sister Thrall says hello.
-Sister Daniel
No comments:
Post a Comment