Inside a Little Place I Call Home

Hello Family,

Before I give you my daily doings for the week, I want to share some thoughts. So Mothers day is on Natalie's birthday this year. So I get to Skype Home on Natalie's birthday. How wild is that? Also this week I got to go to three talks which you will hear about in my weekly ramble.

Sunday 04/16/2017

Elder Oaks came to today's Devotional. The feeling I got when he walked in the room was unbelievable. I felt The spirit stronger than I have in weeks. I felt it so strong that when he walked in I started to cry. He talked a lot about the resurrection and all the things we are able to do because Christ was resurrected. It is Easter today and I have had a great day so far. Elder Savoie and I just heard that Neal got his probation papers signed, and he went to church and loved it. Keidi also went to church today, although she only attended sacrament meeting. Elder Savoie and I are extremely happy for her. We asked how it went and she said that she didn't remember anything specific and then said this: "I know that if you go to church with a question or worry etc., then you do find answers, which is nice." I then asked if she went to church with questions and had any of them answered, and she responded with this: "It was more like a question about Gods will. I didn't exactly get a clear answer, but the worries were put to rest. I can trust him with the rest and I'm fine with that." Elder Savoie and I were so happy. After that we went to the regular Sunday devotional and heard Sheri Dew speak. She spoke about when you have questions. She said this: "Questions are good. Questions help you find yourself as a seeker and not a doubter. Questions are good if they are sincere and asked in faith. Answers come to those who ask in faith." It was super good. One last thing she said is this: "If you are struggling, ask for angels. Angels are waiting to be asked to help us."

Monday 04/17/2017

One of the best things to do here in 18M is to go to every window and look at the view of the outside world. I have a favorite view that I look at quite often, and it is right outside of where we work. You look out the window that's in the main area and you can see that there are a few mountains that are green from grass growing on them. The main mountain is actually the Y Mountain. But on the base of those mountains are houses. I just look at those mountains with houses and am filled with peace. Also we taught Neal again today and offered him a baptismal date and he accepted it! We are working to help prepare him for baptism on May 6th. We also talked with Michael and he is doing awesome. He just told us about how he knows that God will always provide a way, and that he carries his Book of Mormon in his hand everywhere. He wants to share it with everyone, which is amazing. He has the strongest testimony I've ever heard.

Tuesday 04/18/2017

I said District prayer today, and it was super cool. District prayer is where we make a list of the investigators we have that need help and we write down what those needs are. And then somebody in the district prays for all those people and that they can receive those needs. At Tuesday night devotional Elder Juan A. Uceda came and spoke to us. He gave the coolest talk. He talked about how to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ. He said "We are not called to teach every nation, but to make disciples in every nation (Matt 28:19)." He also said "God will teach us how to make us disciples as we pray with our hearts and not with our mouths." Which is totally true.

Wednesday 04/19/2017

Today we went to service again. We cleaned the classrooms, but we are trying to find service outside of the M.T.C. as well. As I was walking back from lunch with Elder Savoie I saw Sister (Kaylynn) Bennett. So I saw her like just as she arrived which was crazy.

Thursday 04/20/2017

I was watching a talk by Elder Gary E. Stevenson who quotes the Bible Dictionary which says this (referring to the Temple): "It is the most holy of any place on earth. Only the home can compare in sacredness." Gary E. Stevenson then says this about it, "Our home may not be the house of the lord, but it can be a house of the lord." I thought this was super cool. Here is the link to the talk so you can watch it.

We taught Mohammad again today. He's from Finland, and he is going to business school so it's kind of hard to catch him. But he wants to get baptized which is super awesome. I love when we talk to him because he always calls Elder Savoie and I "brothers." We'll talk and he says "I'm ready to talk brothers," or "Thanks for the message brothers." We also taught a girl from Cebu city, Philippines. Her name is Daisy. Daisy's friend Janessa was there (who is a member) so she was able to help us out. What was even cooler was we got to hear them speak their language which is a Spanish dialect. That's the best part of being at the M.T.C is hearing all the different languages. After that lesson we went over to Spanish with Hermano Avila. I practiced teaching the first lesson in Spanish, which I did better than I thought I would.

Friday 04/21/2017

We talked with Keidi today. It was so awesome. She is attending a baptismal service tomorrow which I believe will be a great spiritual experience for her. For the lesson we reviewed the baptismal questions together. She had some questions about them so we invited her to look in the church handbook about why we ask them and are going to review it next time we talk. But what is most exciting is we talked about a baptism date. We can't set an exact date because Keidi travels a lot, but we are shooting for July. We also talked with Michael. He is doing fantastic. He met someone who wanted to do his family history work and Michael referred him to the missionaries! Two weeks since he has been baptized and Michael is already doing missionary work.

Saturday 04/22/2017

Today has been stupendous. After the temple today we went to one of the temple workers house and we all had lunch together. There was talking and we got to hear Elder Johnson, Elder Zaugg, Elder Curtis, and Elder Buckway sing with Elder Southwick at the piano. They sang "Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy," which sounded really good. I also went to Walmart which was so strange. I got stuff for peanut butter sandwiches because our church always goes past lunch on Sundays. I hope everybody has a good rest of their week.

Till we meet again,

Elder Stevenson