Week 6 and counting ...
This week was such an awesome week here at the MTC! I am still loving every second of my mission and all of the great experiences I am having. This week was a super spiritual week for me and I am so excited to share it with you all.
So every Sunday morning I get to meet with the Branch Presidency with all of the other district leaders in our zone and talk about the zone as a whole. This week was special because we had a member of the MTC Presidency in there with us to observe. Usually in these meetings I am the one who talks and gives the most advice to the struggling districts (probably because everyone is like 18 and I am 20 with some life experience). But anyways, we had our Branch meeting and I thought everything went well so I left and went to Sacrament Meeting. I noticed the member of the MTC Presidency came into our Sacrament Meeting. Thinking nothing of it, I sat and listened to the talks given and then was on my way to go teach our district Sunday School class. As I was walking out of of the Chapel, the member of the MTC Presidency, President Weidman, asked if he could talk to me for a second. I said of course and we went into a room to talk. He started by telling me that I am a great missionary and that I am going to do great in Tahiti and that I am one of the best district leaders he has seen. It was so awesome to hear that and it made me feel so good inside. He continued to talk and as he was talking the Spirit was so strong and he began to cry telling me that in the Branch Meeting that morning when I was giving advice to some of the other district leaders that it was exactly what he needed to hear. He told me that he was struggling with something in his life and that what I said was what he needed to hear. It was such an incredible experience and I was so pleased that the Spirit was able to guide me into saying the right things. Not only for the other district leaders, but for a member of the MTC Presidency.
I think the dryness of Utah has finally hit me this week! I have been getting bloody noses all week and my nose has been so dry. I have been lucky enough to not get any on my white shirts! In the middle of a lesson I was talking and apparently I just had blood running down my face and I didn't feel it and it wasn't coming out super fast so I taught the entire lesson to our investigator with blood just running out of my nose!! And the worst part was that no one said anything to me about it, so I didn't even realize until after the lesson when I went to the bathroom! It was pretty funny!
One night this week we were back in our residence and I was writing in my journal and reading my scriptures and I look over and my companion made homemade face masks. Yes, I said face masks. He asked if I wanted to do a face mask with him (Do you "do" a face mask?? I don't know), so not wanting to be mean and I'm always up for trying new things, I said, "Sure, why not!" So yes this week I did face masks with my companion!!
There has been tours going on this week in the MTC because of the new buildings and this week I was able to help with the tours. I stood in one spot, for 4 hours for two days and helped and welcomed them to the MTC. It was really awesome to take a break from the language and everything and just be able to talk with people. Such a great experience!
So, as I have said in recent emails, the food is really good here in the MTC or I am just really hungry. I can't quite tell the difference. Anyways, I got curious this week to see if I had gained any weight and guess what?? ... I am still the exact same weight!!
Today my district was lucky enough to go and serve in the Provo Temple and help with the cleaning. It was such a cool experience. We got to wear all white scrubs, so we all kept messing around like we were doctors! But I really enjoyed having the opportunity to serve in the Temple, even if we were on our hands and knees for 4 hours cleaning the grout in the tiles!
As you can tell my week has been pretty awesome, BUT I still haven't even shared my favorite part! So yesterday, my companion and I had to teach a lesson to our investigator. First let me give you some background about this investigator. We have taught her about 4 times prior to this lesson. She is coming along very well, but in our last lesson when we asked her to be baptized she told us that she didn't feel like she knew enough yet. We had no idea what to teach her about so we prayed and asked for guidance on what we should do for our lesson. We got a feeling that we should read a section out of Alma 32:13-26, which talks a lot about faith. Hoping that if we could help her build her faith then she would know that getting baptized would be the right thing to do. So we began reading and it was going well just like every other lesson had. She was understanding the scriptures and my companion and I were explaining and teaching from each verse we read. And then our investigator looked at us and asked us the question, "Do I have to know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God before I can be baptized?" I then proceeded to explain to her that yes she needs to have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. She then asked, "So I need to read the entire Book of Mormon to know that it is true and to have a testimony of it?" I then told her that no she did not need to read the entire book before she could get baptized, that if she knew the book was the World of God and knew of its truthfulness then she could get baptized. She replied to me and said, "How can I know it is true if I don't read the entire book?" (Looking down at my watch I realized we only had 3 minutes left and we were only on verse 18) I then asked her if we could skip ahead to verse 21 which talks about faith and how faith is not having a perfect knowledge of things, but to hope for things that they may be true. As she finished reading this verse she sat there and stared at her scriptures for what felt like forever. I could feel the Spirit so strongly in the room as she looked up at my companion and I and just nodded her head. I then asked her to pray tonight to know that the Book of Mormon is true and is the Word of God and that if she does that she will receive an answer telling her that it is true. We were out of time, so we asked her to pray to end the lesson. In her prayer she mentioned how thankful she was for my companion and I and that what we taught her today was exactly what she needed to hear. The Spirit was so strong in the room at that point and it was amazing. I know it was through the Spirit that we were able to teach that lesson and give our investigator exactly what she needed to hear.
Scripture of the week D&C 121:7-9
I love you all so much!
Elder Van Lindt
So every Sunday morning I get to meet with the Branch Presidency with all of the other district leaders in our zone and talk about the zone as a whole. This week was special because we had a member of the MTC Presidency in there with us to observe. Usually in these meetings I am the one who talks and gives the most advice to the struggling districts (probably because everyone is like 18 and I am 20 with some life experience). But anyways, we had our Branch meeting and I thought everything went well so I left and went to Sacrament Meeting. I noticed the member of the MTC Presidency came into our Sacrament Meeting. Thinking nothing of it, I sat and listened to the talks given and then was on my way to go teach our district Sunday School class. As I was walking out of of the Chapel, the member of the MTC Presidency, President Weidman, asked if he could talk to me for a second. I said of course and we went into a room to talk. He started by telling me that I am a great missionary and that I am going to do great in Tahiti and that I am one of the best district leaders he has seen. It was so awesome to hear that and it made me feel so good inside. He continued to talk and as he was talking the Spirit was so strong and he began to cry telling me that in the Branch Meeting that morning when I was giving advice to some of the other district leaders that it was exactly what he needed to hear. He told me that he was struggling with something in his life and that what I said was what he needed to hear. It was such an incredible experience and I was so pleased that the Spirit was able to guide me into saying the right things. Not only for the other district leaders, but for a member of the MTC Presidency.
I think the dryness of Utah has finally hit me this week! I have been getting bloody noses all week and my nose has been so dry. I have been lucky enough to not get any on my white shirts! In the middle of a lesson I was talking and apparently I just had blood running down my face and I didn't feel it and it wasn't coming out super fast so I taught the entire lesson to our investigator with blood just running out of my nose!! And the worst part was that no one said anything to me about it, so I didn't even realize until after the lesson when I went to the bathroom! It was pretty funny!
One night this week we were back in our residence and I was writing in my journal and reading my scriptures and I look over and my companion made homemade face masks. Yes, I said face masks. He asked if I wanted to do a face mask with him (Do you "do" a face mask?? I don't know), so not wanting to be mean and I'm always up for trying new things, I said, "Sure, why not!" So yes this week I did face masks with my companion!!
There has been tours going on this week in the MTC because of the new buildings and this week I was able to help with the tours. I stood in one spot, for 4 hours for two days and helped and welcomed them to the MTC. It was really awesome to take a break from the language and everything and just be able to talk with people. Such a great experience!
So, as I have said in recent emails, the food is really good here in the MTC or I am just really hungry. I can't quite tell the difference. Anyways, I got curious this week to see if I had gained any weight and guess what?? ... I am still the exact same weight!!
Today my district was lucky enough to go and serve in the Provo Temple and help with the cleaning. It was such a cool experience. We got to wear all white scrubs, so we all kept messing around like we were doctors! But I really enjoyed having the opportunity to serve in the Temple, even if we were on our hands and knees for 4 hours cleaning the grout in the tiles!
As you can tell my week has been pretty awesome, BUT I still haven't even shared my favorite part! So yesterday, my companion and I had to teach a lesson to our investigator. First let me give you some background about this investigator. We have taught her about 4 times prior to this lesson. She is coming along very well, but in our last lesson when we asked her to be baptized she told us that she didn't feel like she knew enough yet. We had no idea what to teach her about so we prayed and asked for guidance on what we should do for our lesson. We got a feeling that we should read a section out of Alma 32:13-26, which talks a lot about faith. Hoping that if we could help her build her faith then she would know that getting baptized would be the right thing to do. So we began reading and it was going well just like every other lesson had. She was understanding the scriptures and my companion and I were explaining and teaching from each verse we read. And then our investigator looked at us and asked us the question, "Do I have to know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God before I can be baptized?" I then proceeded to explain to her that yes she needs to have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. She then asked, "So I need to read the entire Book of Mormon to know that it is true and to have a testimony of it?" I then told her that no she did not need to read the entire book before she could get baptized, that if she knew the book was the World of God and knew of its truthfulness then she could get baptized. She replied to me and said, "How can I know it is true if I don't read the entire book?" (Looking down at my watch I realized we only had 3 minutes left and we were only on verse 18) I then asked her if we could skip ahead to verse 21 which talks about faith and how faith is not having a perfect knowledge of things, but to hope for things that they may be true. As she finished reading this verse she sat there and stared at her scriptures for what felt like forever. I could feel the Spirit so strongly in the room as she looked up at my companion and I and just nodded her head. I then asked her to pray tonight to know that the Book of Mormon is true and is the Word of God and that if she does that she will receive an answer telling her that it is true. We were out of time, so we asked her to pray to end the lesson. In her prayer she mentioned how thankful she was for my companion and I and that what we taught her today was exactly what she needed to hear. The Spirit was so strong in the room at that point and it was amazing. I know it was through the Spirit that we were able to teach that lesson and give our investigator exactly what she needed to hear.
Scripture of the week D&C 121:7-9
I love you all so much!
Elder Van Lindt
Me and Elder Hedges with our face masks
Me and my district pointing to Tahiti
Comments
Post a Comment