Week two in the Good ol' MTC
Monday, July 2, 2012 12:36 PM
Hey familia,
Life's going excellent for the most part. I can't
believe that I only have 1 week left and then it's off to North Carolina for me. We leave next Monday
at 4 in the morning and have a pit stop in Detroit before making it to
Raleigh-Durham. I'm super excited. The MTC has been a
great experience, don't get me wrong. I think I've come to
understand more here about the gospel of Jesus Christ than maybe even my
entire life. (That's not to be taken as an insult or as a jab at
your parenting ;) I just really never let certain elements of the
gospel sink in and the MTC does that for you :) ) Anyways, one thing
that I wanted to say that I'm not sure if I've already said it was that it's
amazing how spiritual role playing can actually be. Before I
entered the MTC, I kind of scoffed at role playing because it
seemed extremely fake and everything. But since being here in the MTC,
it's amazing to see that the Lord teaches us through his spirit while role
playing. When both parties are sincere, the spirit can be
really strong even though I know the person on the other side is just
playing a role and isn't real. But I am excited to leave the
MTC and enter the actual field. It's kind of freaking me out a
little bit, but I'm excited and everytime I get freaked out etc. I know
that I can just turn to the Lord and rely on Him
and He will help me accomplish His work if I let him. That
first Sunday is going to be kind of weird I feel. I'm going to be in
a new ward in a new part of the country, introducing myself as a
missionary for Jesus Christ and I'm only 19 years old.
Crazy. Oh, Mom you should ask Ricky, Mark, and yourself if you
ever knew an Elder Baron who served in Upstate New York because if
you have, he is in my branch presidency. My companion and I are
getting along really well. We're becoming a lot better at teaching
together and complementing each other, and we're really working on teaching by
the spirit and letting the investigator and the spirit direct the
lesson.
One experience that we're having here is a thing called Zone
Teaching. It is where my companion and I teach 2 other elders from the
zone in a role play situation. Last week we were the investigators, but
this week we teach, and part of last week we taught too. I'm not going to
lie, it's extremely frustrating. Our "investigators" decided to
play as a couple of punks. :) They continuously ask weird questions
and questions that they know are difficult to answer. They're supposed to
be playing as "progressing investigators" but after 2 lessons, we got
a "I'll think about reading and praying about the Book of Mormon" out
of them. Fail. I don't think they got the memo that they are
supposed to try and base their person on someone they know and act as them, but
not reject the gospel if their friend at home did. Did that make
sense? The one kid's role had lesson one for real, but I don't think it
went really well...so I guess he's just replicating that with us?! Whatever :)
Yesterday, in one of my meetings I think, we read the scripture, Moroni 7:48 about Charity
and 2 parts stuck out to me particularly. Is not easily provoked and endureth
all things? ;) Ok, spirit :) I'll just do my best to teach them and not
allow them to frustrate me :) Good stuff.
All right, here's the best part. Yesterday, I had one
of the most powerful moments of my life. A guy named Ken/Ted Gibbons came
in to do a fireside. He acted the role of Willard Richards and basically
retold his story of his life with Joseph Smith up until the moment Joseph was
murdered. The spirit testified so strongly about the divinity of Joseph
Smith's role as Prophet of the Restoration and about the truth of everything
Joseph Smith stood for. I can't wait for the day when I can personally
speak with Joseph Smith and thank him for everything he did and suffered just
so we could all have the truth and the chance of being saved in the Kingdom of God
We also went on a temple walk yesterday, and I took that
time to study the scriptures and to let the spirit teach me things. He
did. I know that God loves me and that Jesus Christ loves me. I
know that this is where I'm supposed to be. I love this gospel. I
love the atonement. I love my savior.
Well, times up,
I wish I could say more, but if I have anything super
important to say, I'll write a letter
Love,
Elder Patty,
Ps. I got a letter from Gram Gram and a letter number
2 :)
Bye
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