Mission Week 4

After today, I will have only twelve days left until I leave the MTC. It's so crazy!

Scripture of the Week

D&C 18:15 - "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"

Dutch Words of the Week 

yammer = bummer

grap je = just kidding

My Week

Wednesday - June 17

A pretty uneventful day, besides getting to play zone soccer and do laundry/e-mails. The best part was going to the temple. It was really amazing, and I'm really excited to go again today.

Thursday - June 18

I had one of the most amazing lessons yet today. It was during our TRC (where we discuss/share a lesson on various topics to actual members of the church who speak Dutch). Our first TRC was wit h Sister Hoole and our second was with Elder Hoole (they actually work at the MTC and have taught Dutch to my future mission president). So in our lesson with Sister Hoole she wast telling us all about her conversion story before we actually got to the topic which we had planned to teach about (keeping the Sabbath holy) and it was really interesting. And I remember thinking to myself "wow, she has some really good stories." All of the sudden I began to feel very strongly that I should speak to her about keeping a journal or writing down all of her stories. When I asked her if she kept a journal she said no, not since her and her husband had served a mission. And she also said she hadn't written down any of her stories. I asked her if she would start a journal or write down some of her stories and she said she would, and then Elder Ocampo shared a really nice testimony on keeping a journal. After we were done with our lesson she talked to our teacher, Sister Hansen, and told her that was something she didn't expect but that she was very grateful for. I know the Holy Ghost prompted me to share that with Sister Hoole and wow it was really amazing.

Another great part of Thursday was that I got to see Elder Mingus! He didn't get his visa to Brazil until a couple of days ago so he had to come here first.

Friday - June 19

This was kind of a rough day. I just got kind of frustrated and disappointed in myself. I found a great quote in Prach my gospel that made me feel better though - "Remember, however, that your confidence and faith should be in Christ, not in yourself."

The best part of the day was getting a letter from Mom and Dad, so that was pretty great.

At the end of the day I got to catch up with Elder Mingus and Sister Thomas, two of the best elders/sisters from BYU, for a little bit so that was good too.

Saturday - June 20

I got a letter from Zach today! Shout out to him for finally writing me haha. It was super funny and started the day of very well.

I was having another rough day, partly due to not getting very much sleep. We watched the same talk by Elder Bednar that we did last week except this time the Holy Ghost pointed something out to me that I didn't notice last time. Elder Bednar said, "We will rarely have a prompting from the Holy Ghost that is clear as to what we should do or that we can consciously follow... by following the rules and being good "boys" and good "girls" we can allow the Holy Ghost and God to act through us." That really helped me because I just have not been feeling great about how I've been teaching. 

Sunday - June 21

Today was a great day. In the morning we had some time before church and were able to watch the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie (which is on lds.org
 and I would highly recommend that you watch it if you have not seen it... watch the 2002 version though). It was really good, and I hadn't seen it in a while. It really gave me a greater appreciation for the early Latter-day Saints and all that they have done for us. 

After church we had our temple walk, the last one with the "fam" (Elder Ocampo, Elder Carlson, Elder Blackburn, Elder Prestera). Choir practice was super good. Brother Egget told the story about Jesus and Peter walking on water and it was great. 

The devotional was really cool. It was Brother Littlefield and his wife. He is in charge of pre-field missionary stuff and helps get the calls to the apostles and gets to be involved in that process. So I accidentally fell asleep for most of Brother Littlefield's talk, but near the end I woke up and heard something that was very important to me. He talked about how we can succeed in the field. He really emphasized eliminating self-defeating behaviors and praying to the Lord for help to know that people are ready to come unto Christ, because God has prepared people everywhere. 

So after the devo we went and sang "The Spirit of God" because the Swedes and Elder Prestera were all leavingMonday morning. When we got back to the res Elder Prestera shared a really cool message with us.

Monday - June 22

So Monday morning at 2:30 a.m. I woke up to say goodbye to the Swedes and then woke up again at 3:15 to take Elder Prestera down to the travel office. So I was kind of expecting the rest of the day to be pretty hard, but I prayed to God to help me to work hard despite getting so little sleep and woah He definitely pulled through. Elder Ocampo and I had our best lesson ever with Lupe (Sister Hansen). We were definitely led by the Spirit and we were able to address all of her questions and ask her if she would pray for herself to know the truth and then if she would be baptized and she said yes! So that was cool. I could tell that Sister Hansen was super proud of us. 

Oh also, we've been doing this thing called "stringing" in our district. We leave this huge thing of colored yarn that Elder Crowder had in peoples bags, pillows, etc. and then when they find it we're like, "You've been stringed!" SoSunday night I stringed Elder Ocampo's shoe (a picture will be included) and it was perfect! Then this morning Elder Bruneau stringed Elder Sosa's closet. Fun fun fun.

Tuesday - June 23

Yesterday was probably the best day of the week. We learned the alphabet today and how to sing it (kind of late yeah but whatever) so that was fun. So not a ton happened for the rest of the day during class but choir was super good. Brother Egget talked a lot about Jesus and His atonement. He told a version of the Prodigal Son story and my favorite part was when he talked about when the son was coming home after spending all of his father's inheritance and ruining his life. He said that because of the atonement, we are able to turn around and walk back towards our Father in Heaven. When the son was walking back, the father runs to him when he sees him. God and Jesus want us to repent. If we can show the effort and the will to repent they will help us. The Lord is never disappointed in those who are repenting.

So the devotional last night was the best one yet, for me. The speaker was Elder Nash, of the presidency of the 70. His talk was so amazing and I just want to cover a few of the points that he made:

• He said to us, "You were preparing to serve a full time mission before you were born. You will not feel complete until you do so." 
• Then he talked about the Plan of Salvation for most of rest of his talk:
• He broke it up into three sections -> Pre-mortal, Mortal, and Post-mortal
• Pre-mortal
• We lived as sons and daughters with God. He sent us here so that He could see whether we would still accept Him outside of His presence. 
• When He asked for a Savior, Jesus Christ said, "Here I am. Send me." In just five words, our brother sacrificed more than anyone ever has or will. 
• Mortal
• Elder Nash talked about how the Plan of Salvation makes sense, and sounds familiar to all people because, "You were there and you sustained it."
• There are many sources of opposition in life, two of the greatest are - Satan, and our own weaknesses. He said that everyone that we meet in our assigned fields of labor will be laboring under the burden of sin. 
• Post-mortal
• Everyone will have the opportunity to accept the gospel and to have a spouse/children of their own in the next life. 
• Last he talked about how we can apply the Plan of Salvation to the lives of those who we meet and teach to cover their everyday problems.
• He also talked about how important our missionary work is. He said that we must give the Lord everything that we have. We must not hold anything back from our Father in Heaven.

At the end of my mission, I want to be able to say that I did not hold anything back.

So, just to finish off the day with a bang, Elder Ocampo and I pulled off the most amazing "stringing" ever. We took the yarn to the post office and asked them if we could put in a box and if they could put a package note in our mailbox for Elder Crowder. They were actually super optimistic about it and one the girls working there wrote on the box and threw a bunch of hearts on for extra effect. So he picked up his packages, he got one from his mom too, and he assumed that ours was just from his sister or something. After the devotional and district meeting he opened it in the classroom and it was so good! I don't think anyone will be able to pull off such an amazing stringing. 

Spiritual Message/Experience

I feel like I kind of used up all of my best experiences throughout the e-mail so I will just bear my testimony in Dutch:

Ik weet dat God is onze Hemelse Vader. Ik weet dat Hij houd van ons en dat zijn Zoon, Jezus Christus, steerft voor ons. Ik weet dat dit kerk is waar en dat de evangelie kunt leven zegenen. Ik weet dat Joseph Smith was een profeet van God en dat Thomas S. Monson is een profeet vondag. Ik weet dat Het Boek van Mormon is de word van God. Ik houd van mijn Vader in de Hemels en Ik ben so dankbar voor de gelegenheid dat Ik om en zendeling te zijn. In de naam van mijn Heiland, Jezus Chriztus, amen.

Tot Ziens!

Elder Wright