Strap in because it has been an eventful week!! And a lot has happened!!
First off, at the MTC it is a very common thing for me to see missionaries my age that have just recently got to the field. Last P-Day I ran into, and finally took a picture with a sister missionary that most of you know! Sister Jade Irwin! She is leaving this Wednesday to go to her mission in Canada! She is so excited, and like all the missionaries here you can see the glow in her and the excitement to go serve a mission. Here's the photo of us running into each other:
Going on to Tuesday. What it has seemed like at the MTC is that after P-Day everything kind of just go flying past until the next P-Day. It's pretty hard to believe that this Friday will mark my half way done point here at the MTC, and I am starting to fear, and be excited that, that day will come a lot faster than I think we all think? ( Correct grammar? I don't know I've been learning Chinese)
Anyways to get one with the story, the reason that everything flies by is we go from P-Day, to only one class on Tuesday, and then from there everything flies. We only have one class because Tuesday nights are the nights we have some kind of high up person come and talk to us. THIS WEEK IT WAS AN APOSTLE! Russel M. Ballard came and spoke to us. It was especially cool, because my branch really tries and always participate in the choir, which at this devotional had 850 members. Talk about a choir of angels. Then President Ballard gave a beautiful talk about the companionship of Hyrum and Joseph Smith through the restoration of the church. It really help me focus on how I should be, and can be a better person, and companion for those around me.
Then on Tuesday, I also had a pretty different day. I was a Host, so I was able to help all the new missionaries come in. It was in a way super emotional for me. As I saw them hugging their families and saying their last goodbyes, it reminded me of mine with all of you. Although I remembered the words of one of Bednar's talks we watch here about turning outward. Instead of starting to feel bad for myself and get sad, this was a perfect time for be to buck up, and make sure that those missionaries were not only comfortable, but excited to be here. It was so nice to have this little change and be able to serve the few Elders I was able to interact with. It was so nice and just gets me more excited for missionary work:)
I won't continue going on day by day. I already challenged you to read a book. I wouldn't want you to have to read a novel created by email.
But here are some more highlights:
If you didn't know, or haven't heard. One of the very special things about the MTC, is that there was a lot of time and effort spent on creating murals that would add joy to our lives as missionaries. As well as to relate some of the stories in the scriptures, to stories in our everyday missionary life and growth. So me being the selfie king I am through out the world, as my district went to go look at them. I took many selfies so you can see 2 wonders at 1 time! Lucky you!! Here they are!
( These numbers are for my dad, so in the big group email he can put them as they follow, it's to clear up confusion from previous weeks. )
It was really cool being able to see all those murals! On Sunday's we often study them and apply
them to our lives as missionaries!
Another great highlight of the week! We have 3 Missionaries from the Philippines, one of them has
an uncle that is a Stake President! He is holding a fireside coming up in the future and he wanted
all his youth to be motivated, and see how powerful a mission was. He had asked our class to be
his example. So we all got together and sang called to serve in Chinese!! I really hope this helps
them and I hope you have enjoyment of watching it! Here is it:
Also this week, which is total crazy to me, but they are refinishing the gym floor. ( Which is weird
because they have the most amount of missionaries right now!) Anyways, so we normally do our
service in there. ( That's where we have all of our devotionals ) But because they are working on
the floors plans had changed. We were now just going to set up chairs and clean up in another
building, which is a lot easier, but different for sure. We ended up coming in late. We were taking
care of business, and doing our interviews. Because of this we didn't have to do a whole lot.
Although we did get to have a pretty " Cool " job. We were able to wipe down all the glass by the
stairs, thus creating " The Army of Cleanerman" Here's the picture:
Now for my favorite part of the whole week! So my companion and I, as many of you know we're
very blessed to have had Chinese experience before this trip. This helps us have a good foundation
and to know what we need to improve on, and what to study. Unfortunately this also makes it so
some of our classmates get discourage and also distracted. This causes my companion to feel
the need to leave the class during class time to do our own study. I personal hate the idea. I love
being around others, and well I feel like that is selfish of us. So him and I met with the branch
president and asked what we should do. From there he suggested that we have a district council,
bring the topic up to the whole district and see what their thoughts were. It turned out that all of
them didn't really see us as a burden, and we all agreed to be the best SYL group at the MTC.
( SYL means Speak Your Language.) I absolutely loved this, and just with in the last 12 hours,
I have heard so much Chinese and effort, that it makes my day! I'm so excited to see how our
district will improve. In the course of all of this, one of our teachers also encouraged us to create
a vision, where do we want to be. How are we going to improve, how will we get there. Yadada.
I have really been thinking about that the last couple of days and I have set 2 really hard language
goals for myself. My first one, is I want to be able to understand all of preach my gospel from PinYin
before I leave the MTC. ( PinYin is romanized Chinese) With this goal I also want to read at least
a chapter of the Book of Mormon in Chinese everyday. We had a teacher promise us if we read the
Book of Mormon out loud everyday, that our tongues would be loosed! So I'm going for it! Second
goal. This Friday is our half way point. Which lead me to create the goal that I will not speak
English for the next 4 1/2 weeks. I will give it my all, 1 full month of no English, well besides
speaking to those that aren't studying or know the language. I also agreed to do translations when
asked to do so. But with this I know God will bless me and help improve my language.
With these goals I have chose a scripture to be my "Vision statement" That will be my go to
scripture, and a reminder of how I must live my life and serve my mission. It will be from:
2 Nephi 32, here are some of the versus that highlight why I have chosen this as my vision
statement:
1 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts?I have chosen these scriptures because it is a beautiful reminder that we are children of God.
2 Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?
3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.
4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark.
5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.
6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do.
And as we seek to do his will and obey his commandments he will help us in our everyday lives.
As well as strengthen our talents. The part I like the most is that if we are not receiving or
recognizing our talents being strengthened. Its because we aren't praying for help, or we aren't
giving it our all. I wrote in my Journal " I learned that God will and I mean will help us with his work
and strengthening our talents. But we must pray and put in our 100%. He will not make up the
difference, because he is the difference, we must be worthy of His help."
I know that I am in the right place, at the right time, doing the right things. I know God will help us.
He will be with us, He will bless us!
I love all of you!! I am praying for you, and would love to hear from all of you! Thank you for enduring
to the end!!
Love,
Elder Carter
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