4 days and counting.....

 That's right folks, only four days left till I enter the field and I couldn't be more pumped. I am gonna miss my freaking awesome district though, no cap. but there's actually a few stories from this week so buckle up folks this email might be the longest one yet, a whole two paragraphs.

Kickball:

On Friday we played kickball with another district who was in our residency building just across the hall from us and it was tons of fun, but we lost miserably by like fifteen points. But I still had tons of fun. After the game the Elders from the district we played with came to give us a box of donuts to say sorry for absolutely destroying you, and in the box there was a single, solitary "L" shaped donut, it was a very well done prank.

District scripture share:

Saturday we got together as a district and shared our favorite scriptures and everyone shared really awesome scriptures that definitely made me feel the spirit. I shared D&C 122 5-8 and even though it is kind of long I would encourage everyone to read them because in my opinion they are the most powerful verses in any scripture. As background for them it's a revelation given to Joseph Smith while he is in Liberty Jail and its what the Lord says in response to Joseph basically asking why he is letting terrible things happen to the saints. They're incredible verses and I invite everyone to read them.

Sunday devotional:

On sundae we had a devotional that was super good, it was done by President Porter (the MTC president) and it was super good, he talked a lot about faith which I had been studying a ton in my personal study so it was super awesome to have him talk about that, and get his perspective and understanding of faith.

Sunday Go and Do experience:

Also on Sunday we had the opportunity to study a specific topic for two hours, I know you are all probably thinking what I was thinking at first, "that is a very long time, like why would a man ever need that much time" but trust me it was amazing and almost felt like the time flew. One minute I had just opened my scriptures/preach my gospel and the next I was closing them so we could talk about what we had studied. It was truly an amazing experience.

Tie trading:

On Monday we started to tie trade just with our district which was super fun, but then after about an hour we kinda started to branch out a little bit and come like nine o clock we had like our entire residency building trading. It was an absolute fiasco (I guess that's how you spell that haha). But it was tons of fun!

Tuesday Devotional:

Elder Nash of the seventy spoke at the Tuesday devotional and gave a powerful talk on "Truth, Agency, and Integrity" it was an amazing talk! and at the very end he made all the missionaries there a promise that as we sought out truth and used our agency to follow that truth with integrity we would become "missionaries of power" and that was such an amazing promise that meant a lot to me because I want to be a missionary of power, I mean who wouldn't want to be, but yeah it was a very awesome promise.

New Missionaries:

On Wednesday I was able to help all the new missionaries who were coming in and it was super awesome! made me so excited for all of you who are preparing to serve because when you get here it really is so awesome and it truly is a completely different spirit then you could probably even imagine it's truly amazing.

First Teaching Lesson:

At the MTC they basically give you the opportunity to role play an actual interaction/lesson with a potentially just acting but sometimes for real investigator (I don't know if any of that made sense but just act like it did) ummmm anyways me and Elder Kennedy had are first one on Wednesday and it went super well! We're meeting with the person we taught Friday so hopefully it goes as well as it did yesterday! PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!

Temple: I was able to go to the Temple this morning and as always it was super awesome, and the spirit was very present the whole time. But yeah that's basically how my week has been lots of amazing things, the spirit here in the MTC is incredible.

Scriptures of the week:

D&C 122:5-9

Joshua 1:9

Isaiah 41:13

Facebook Post 9/17/2021

I have been thinking so much of the early saints who had so much struggles, and so much tribulation, yet in the hymn "come, come ye saints" (my personal favorite hymn) they could still proclaim "all is well"

How is this possible?

Well I think the answer comes from something President Nelson said, "the happiness we feel in this life isn't dependent on the circumstances of our lives but fully on the focus of our lives." when are focus is on Jesus Christ we can always find joy, even in the hardest circumstances.