Another week at the mtc is down. We have one month to go! We leave for Finland on Dec. 4. It is still awesome at the MTC. All of the leaves have fallen off the trees. Everyday the sidewalks get cleaned and the next day, there are tons of leaves again. We have got another investigator to teach now. Her name is NIINA..from china. she doesn't know anything about the gospel or anything about God...but her boyfriend just recently got baptized. We teach her again on saturday. We are still teaching JUUSI, the scientist. We tried to get him to come to church last week, but he said it was so boring the first time that he went. tomorrow, we are going to teach him about church. we might do a church tour sometime too. he thinks everything is just really weird. He is progressing though a little we think. after like 5 or 6 lessons, he finally read the Book of Mormon. HE read 18 pages. in our last lesson he kept talking about how buff moroni and nephi looked in the pictures in the Book of Mormon. He is an interesting fellow.
Some news from our Cocoa, FL stake missionaries at the MTC:
caleb gants left for provo last week
chris silvernail is here for another week...he is going somewhere in UTAH. I talk to him all the time.
jack naismith just got here as well, he is also going somewhere in utah. maybe orem.
On sunday i got asked to be the new district leader. This just basically means that i have to lead discussions, get mail, and interview people and do some extra meetings. "the Lord shall qualify those whom he calls." I also had to pass the sacrament on sunday....it is weird to pass now because basically every single ward does it differently. We sort of wing it and see how it goes. One thing that we all learned is that we should be doing most things with our right hands when using the priesthood. (blessings, passing, grabbing the water and bread, raising your hand to the square) president oaks says that he doesn't now what it means, but that this is what Christ wants. Priesthood holders: do things with your right hands if physically able. Also on sundays, (my new comps dont really want to go to choir) so we go to the top of the new building. There is this special room that we always go to. right beneath it there is a large grass field. we always hope to see some soccer players or frisbee matches. usually there are some. on sunday for some reason there are always two college students playing soccer.
I had to give the prayer for the devotional as well. the speaker was mitch davis i think was his name. he is a movie maker i think.
How was Halloween? We didnt do much here. some people got sent tons of candy though. One of the finnish elders got sent like 30 ties to sell for his brother. They are really nice. I think i will go after some of them. Everyone here covets my sock ties, sometimes i loan them out. For tuesday night devotional elder chirstensen of the seventy came and spoke to us. One thing that he said was that "you should want Christ on your side". This reminds me of when we were reading the Book of Mormon and my brother asked why the nephites always prayed to God after the battles and thanked him. It isn't because they were bad fighters. It wasn't because they couldn't have won without him. they did after all have better weapons and armor. Why did they rely so much on God's help? It isn't that we can't do it on our own. But that with God's help, we can do even more. He wants to help us...we just have to ask.
Another cool things that elder christensen said was that "all priesthood holders have authority...however...power comes through actions and desires.
In our discussion after the devotional, we were asked to come up with an answer to "how can you help others become converted." One thing that we discussed was that you can help by loving them and including them. Often times, new members or converts fall away from the church do to lack of inclusion. At church, we are commanded to "worship together" "that we may strengthen ourselves together". there is a reason that newly baptized members are given the gift of the holy ghost on sunday in front of everyone. If you aren't getting to know them and trying to include them...START NOW :)
For our TRC lesson yesterday, we taught about service. all three people we taught are newly return missionaries. It is amazing how quickly we forget the importance of service. It is a commandment. We need to find more ways to serve outside of our callings in church (even thou those are still good.) I remember the 2 weeks before i came on my mission florida was dealing with some hurricane prep and cleanup. that time went by so fast. when you aren't thinking of yourself, you can get more done, you can be happier, you can feel christ's love for you as well as for those you serve.
One last thought on obedience. It feels like everything at the MTC is centered on obedience. If you are obedient, blessings immediately follow. Christ says so. Mosiah 2... great chapter.
24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if
I hope that everyone is doing great ! hopefully it snows this week!
love elder christensen
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