Hello!
With one week left, I am ready to go out into the real world. The food at the MTC has been nutritious and delicious, the French elders have been patient and willing to converse with us French-learners, and I am learning that the version of Elder Evans that Heavenly Father needs is a version of Elder Evans that can only be achieved through daily repentance.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY:
This Monday, I accidentally discovered that it was a Sister in our district's birthday this Wednesday! Happy accident, I saw her screen as she was logging into a learning language website, using her birthday as her password.
On her birthday, the elders in our district finished our breakfast early, so we could make a big happy birthday sign on the classroom board. We turned off the lights and surprised her when she walked into the classroom. Her present that we presented to her was a French dictionary, wrapped with clean toilet paper and duct tape. We even let her control the classroom AC for the day (she prefers hot temperatures). We had to take her present back once class started, because it was Elder Pierce's. Happy Birthday Soeur Moze!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS:
To everyone who prays for the missionaries, thank you. I had a couple of days in a row this week where I had trouble getting out of bed/was discouraged throughout the day, but this Monday I had a cool experience.
I took a few minutes to get out of bed this Monday. After reluctantly getting up, I sat on my bed, not feeling motivated to get to work. A few moments after I sat up, my mind and my emotions were just flooded with gratitude for various people in my life. All these memories of happy moments with family members came to mind, and the incessant thoughts of discouragement seemed to float away for a few minutes. It seriously felt like I was EXPECTO-PATRONUM-ing all my sad thoughts away (Harry Potter reference).
While I wasn't elated for the whole day, the few minutes of really pure, bouying joy gave me the motivation I needed for the rest of the day.
To everyone who prays for the missionaries, thank you!
THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY:
I love breakfast at the MTC, there's oatmeal every day. Are we in heaven already??
The funny thing is that the kind of "oatmeal" changes everyday, with differing sizes of oatmeal particles, texture, and color each day. And each "kind" of "oatmeal" has a different name, that is completely unrelated to oatmeal.
For example, this morning we had the most fine-particled oatmeal of the week, and it is a deep, chocolate brown color. It is called "Tom Brown." Tom Brown is delicious! Way more delicious that it's overly-sweet, chunkier cousin, Sourdough Cornmeal.
EN FRANCAIS:
I attended an endowment session today, listening to a French headset! I did an endowment session in French.
TESTIMONY:
In Ether 2, The Brother of Jared was obedient to the commandments he recieved, yet he still ran into problems ("Yes, I made this boat, but how are we going to breathe?? How are we going to see?")
Especially when we are trying to be obedient to rules and commandments that we do not completely understand, it is a little scary to be obedient. We want there to be some confirmation right away that our courage to be obedient will pay off. But it does not always work like that.
We have to show some faith when we are obedient. There are blessings for obedience, but there are blessings because it is hard. It's scary sometimes to be obedient. But why not try obedience, and see that there are blessings? Why not take a chance and learn a higher principle of living by seeing blessings come obedience, blessings that are not seen in the lives of those who are disobedient?
Heavenly Father wants to work through us, and do greater things through us than we can do alone, but we have to do it His way. I know that humility and faith are essential to obedience.
Love you all,
Elder Evans
No comments:
Post a Comment