20th Birthday! (MTC Week 5)

MY BIRTHDAY! Wow what a zinger. So many loved ones sent me so many kindnesses!

Let me tell you what my district did for me. Sunday morning they presented me with a giant basket full of apples, oranges, and bananas that they had all passed to Hermana Knappen under the table at dinner on Saturday night so she could hide them in her backpack and sneak them out of the cafeteria. I was dying at how much fruit it was, and my companion was like, "watch she'll be through it in 3 days."...It took me 2 1/2. Also, Saturday, some elders asked, "So if you could have ANYTHING for your birthday, what would it be." I sat for a minute...then nodded confidently as I said, "probably just a cup of dirt with seeds in it for me to grow."

So Friday, I got this GORGEOUS bouquet of flowers and I just thought about how those were the perfect gift for me. You should have seen the snapdragons and delphiniums and the cute little mums and pink carnations.  I am just so grateful my family knows me so well. I would not have even thought up such a great idea.

 

I am leaving for Houston, Texas on Wednesday the 24th. We're pulling out of the MTC at 6 am, flying out at 9:40 am, and arriving in Texas at 1:40 Houston time.

The man who spoke to us on Sunday was named Brother Droubay and he is in charge of all of the LDS media everything. Right now he is doing HUGE I'm a Mormon campaigns in the big cities of the world Like New York and London. he had the coolest stories. For one, Right now in London, "The Book of Mormon" musical is playing. And they've bought a ton of buses that say "The Mormons are coming" to advertise. Well, the church planned this campaign before they even knew about the musical going there. And they bought a bunch of buses that say "I'm a Mormon" and show these inspiring messages and normal people. He showed us this really funny picture of two buses that happened to pull up one in front of the other in some big place in London. The first one said, "The Mormons are coming!" The second one said "I'm a Mormon!" with the mormon.org website. ahahaha. HOW AWESOME is that? Satan has real power over the hearts of men. But God's power just totally squashes him every time. And in a really funny way.

The speaker on our Tuesday devotional was Elder Richard G. Scott. That man is so gentle. He spoke about prayer and for me it was just such a tender experience. Since I came to the MTC prayer has become really dear to me, and he expressed in words the feelings I haven't quite been able to express about how tender it is that the Father who created my spirit, and planned for my earth life, has given me the gift of prayer. To be able to be completely transparent before Him, express all of my inadequacies and all my hopes and desires, and my desire to repent every day is the time I need to feel sustained. Prayer always fills me with the peace, assurance, deep, and constant love of my Father for me. It's the one-on-one interview I always crave and get to have every single day.  Something really cool happened at the end of his talk. but I want to express it the way hermana Knappen (one of my district friends here) did. Elder Scott is her favorite you see, so when she saw him here she just cried for joy, cried throughout his whole talk because she was so happy. Then when he finished and sat down, there was a tangible sorrow in the room. We didn't want it to be over. She thought of the Nephites when Jesus was going to leave them, how sad they must have been. How much LIGHT was in their hearts. She wrote down in her journal, "I wish he would say just a little more". After we sang the closing hymn, the sister got up to say the closing prayer and Elder Scott JUMPED up to stop her (faster than I have ever seen an apostle move) and said, "I just feel to pronounce one final blessing upon you" and then proceeded to give us, the missionaries of the church, the most beautiful, personal, blessing of God's love and confidence in us. That we would succeed, and unveil capacities in ourselves that we never knew we had.  Our hearts were filled with so much joy. It was overwhelming to think how the Nephites must have felt when Jesus looked at them, beheld their sorrow, and had compassion and stayed to bless them just a little more.

I have loved the MTC. I don't necessarily want to leave, but I am just too excited to share the gospel with REAL people to stay any longer. There are some major things I had to learn here before I was ready to go out though.

First, I had to learn that I am fully worthy and prepared to teach this message. God is with me, and I can recognize His presence.

Second, it has given me time to be still and away from all the voices of the world. I have come to know the Spirit much better. I love the quote from Heber C Kimball about how he is convinced that God is cheerful, jovial, good-humored because that is how he feels when he has God's spirit. The Spirit of God is happy and bright! not always heavy or emotional. Think of Joseph Smith, Gordon B. Hinckley, and Warren & Darrell Foote. These are men filled with God's spirit, and they are always the first to smile and crack a joke or two.

I have really appreciated the fact that we have teachers here who TELL us how to be successful missionaries. In the field it will just be me, my trainer, Preach My Gospel, and the Book of Mormon to study to try to find out how to improve ourselves. But God is with me. So dearly. Think of it! The same power that helped Peter walk on water and Moses part the Red Sea is the power that goes with me to Texas. God, our Father, has not called us to fail, but to succeed gloriously. And to seal us His. I have no other desire than that.