Hello everyone! Do not be confused or alarmed if
any of what I say seems to be in response to a question you never asked.
It is only happening because I am mostly responding to my mother's
email and letter. I hope you are all doing wonderfully. :)
I
did have a very nice easter. We had an MTC-wide sacrament
meeting{Abendsmalversamlung}. I actually got to pass. It was pretty
cool. My companion got to pass to the presiding authority though.
President Packer showed up with his son {instead of his wife} to talk to
us. It was way cool. Wonderful to see him in person. He also seemed
much less formal and scripted than he usually is at conference. It felt
like he was sort of a grandpa kind of figure. Very cool.
That is a very interesting idea... We are no less living in eternity now, than we were before or after this life. It is all a matter of perspective. This really is all part of the bigger picture. I have often wondered what personality attributes I have because I had them before this life. I wonder how I'm gonna feel after this life, when all of the memories from before flood back into my consciousness... Fascinating stuff.
Oh.
On the topic of deep topics, I am currently reading Jesus the Christ.
{Thanks for sending me with your little scripture-print copy Dad, very
useful.} There is some crazy cool stuff in there! I would recommend it
for anyone wanting to learn more about Christ, or even about the Gospel.
I'm loving it, and I'm only about a hundred pages in. I am excited to
continue. Though it is hard to find free time to get any reading done...
Anyway.
The sister from England has never been to the states before as far as I know. Fascinating to talk to her about differences in food and culture and slang and such. I've already asked her a plethora of questions. Very fascinating.
I am still having some trouble getting enough
sleep, but I think I'm doing better. Had some real trouble doing a
session at the Temple today though. Most tired I've ever been during a
session. My head would start to droop, making me jump to wakefulness,
and I would realize that I didn't even remember closing my eyes. It was ridiculous. It was good though. I am keeping up with things though.
A
couple days ago, I had a moment sitting in a meeting where I realized
that my biggest problem lately had been my attitude. More specifically
my confidence. In the moment I created a little mantra, which quickly
got translated to German in my head. {The language is actually coming
along pretty well by the way. Nice to have the high school experience to
give me a good foundation. The concepts aren't so new. I'm already
praying in german. Though I have to use an english word now and again.}
The mantra was "Ich kann, ich bin, ich werde.". That translates to "I
can, I am, I will." I repeated it over and over and very promptly, with
amazingly noticable success, my mood and outlook improved. After a
minute of repeating it in my head on and off, I realized that the next
step was to adapt the mantra. It then became, "Wir können, wir sind, wir
werden.". "We can, we are, we will." I realized that I not only needed
to have confidence in myself, but also in my peers. It caused me to put
more trust in others. To love them more. To trust God's plan for them.
It has helped me a lot.
Then
right in line with that, the other night we watched a talk given here
by Elder Bednar. {By the way, apparently all talks given here at
devotionals are reserved exclusively for missionaries. There is no way
to access them. The MTC is the only place that keeps a copy, or even
gets to keep a copy.} He talked all about the character of Christ. How
He always turned outward. Even in his darkest, hardest, most
excruciating moments, He always bothered about others. Reaching out to
John{?} during his last few minutes of suffering on the cross to tell
him to watch out for Mary. Healing the centurion's ear after enduring a
massive amount of sins and atoneing, and being betrayed by his own.
Sending angels to minister unto John the baptist {who was in prison},
immediately after fasting for 40 days and nights and being tempted
sorely directly by Satan. {Watch the footnotes for the JST on that one.}
Elder Bednar went on to talk about the natural man, putting off the
natural man and becoming a saint. Serving even, and especially, when we
are in our darkest moments. It was wonderfully given. So amazing. It is
hailed as the best talk in the MTC.
In any case! I hope you are all doing wonderfully. I
would very much encourage you to write me if you aren't already. It is
so sad to me to see how many of my friends, who have previously talked
at length about what fun we would have writing each other, have yet to
write me a single letter. Here, let me make it easy: DearElder.com. Problem solved. ;)
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