COMMITMENT

July 27, 2015

Family,

Thanks for all the snacks, pics, socks, and Dear Elder's.  I appreciate it.

Dad - Comp is great.  He is probably better at mandarin then most of the district who already took Mandarin before.  Slatter is doing well, the language is hard for him though, like everybody.

Mom - Week is good.  Still coughing a lot, but I don't have horrible headaches any more or feel cold.  It is fun to have a new comp for a few hours.  We got an international missionary from England who came on Tuesday, so he was with us Tuesday night till his Comp came Wed.  We got to give all the new missionaries we got in our zone, 22 missionaries, 20 elders and 2 sisters, an orientation and show them around the MTC Wednesday night.  Our zone is huge now.  We have 62 and are getting 4 new fast track missionaries coming this week.  My comp is great.  We got released on Sunday from being Zone Leaders.  Nothing is driving me crazy except maybe this language, but I am trying my best to be patient and diligent.  I keep seeing more BYU friends, which is a lot of fun.  A lot came in this past week.  The Mandarin is fine.  I am no way prepared tot leave though.  We almost never lose at Spikeball, though the younger missionaries are getting better so there is more competition.  There are no missionaries that I know of that have had to go home.  The temple was great this morning and I learned a lot from it.  My favorite thing about the MTc is probably the Devos and the district meeting afterwards.  Very inspiring and edifying. I'm not too nervous for leaving, mostly excited.  I am sleeping ok, better the past few days.  I don't know if the musical number will work out since we haven't had any time.  We will have more time these next 2 weeks, so we will see what happens.  I'll let you know.  I'd love a character book.  I wouldn't start learning it till probably a year into the mission, but it would be nice to have to study once I learn the language for language study.  I'll send you a pic of the one my comp is studying, seems to be a pretty good one. Thanks.

Last Monday we had the opportunity to give our first Skype lesson with a Sister living in Taiwan.  It was really interesting.  We taught her about Charity.  She talked a lot, which was good.  We probably talked no more than 5 min of the 30.  We thought it went well, although we understood about nothing.  Afterword, one of our teachers told us she thought that it went well.  Our teacher said that the sister we taught told us a story about how she had been arguing with one of the members of her ward.  She had been studying a little about Charity and this lesson was what she needed to hear.  That was good to hear.  But, we got weird feedback. One of our other teachers skyped her back to get feedback from her about how she thought our lesson went.  He told us back in the classroom, that apparently the person we taught felt darkness when we taught her.  That was pretty weird.  We are not sure how that happened.  I think we might have responded wrong after she shared that personal story with us.  We might have said something encouraging and supportive when she shared she had got into an argument. I have no idea how that happened.  I think the biggest thing I learned and probably what contributed to this was that often my companion and I would nod our heads and say dui, when she was talking.  (This is kind of like a quick response like someone would give in spanish when they close a phrase with "no?" not really looking for someone to respond just looking for confirmation. They often say dui bu dui, which is kind of like "correct, not correct.") I think she might have thought we understood more than we did.  Also, two other Elders in our district who Skyped, had a sister who was Skyping them while she was riding her motorcyle down the streets of Taiwan.  They couldn't hear anything and were worried for her safety.  Kind of funny.  

I had a cool answer to a prayer this week.  I prayed during personal study, I believe, that I could find an opportunity to help somebody and strengthen my testimony of prayer.  Just after personal study, my comp and I went outside to find a place on a bench to do our personal study.  Everyplace we usually go was full, so we decided to come back to our building and find a classroom to do our comp study.  As we were walking in the doors, two of the new Elders were walking out, stopped us, and asked us if we could give them a blessing since we were their leaders at the time.  We are able to give them a blessing of comfort and help one of the Elders feeling really overwhelmed with the first few days.  That was a very quick answer to my prayer and strengthened my testimony of the power of prayer.  

Also we had a cool opportunity to teach each other during one of our class times.  Our teacher had us break off with a different missionary and teach for 20 min about whatever the Spirit guided us to do.  This was to be real and we were not supposed to act as an investigator, just have a real teaching opportunity and learn from each other.  I got to teach and learn from Kong Zhong Lao, Elder Kirschner, from our district.  He is a stud from Gainsville Florida who played lacrosse on the BYU team this past year.  He has been our District Leader the past 3 weeks and just got released.  I taught first, this was all in Mandarin, so that made it harder, but we talked for a little bit and I asked him if there was anything he wanted to learn.  He said there wasn't.  I had him give a quick prayer, and during the prayer my mind kept going back to something he had said just earlier about he was studying about, Humility.  I decided to teach about this.  I turned to James 4 and read some scriptures from there and felt like I should share a few lines from Beware of Pride from Benson. I could feel the spirit strong as I was teaching and testifying.  Afterwords, he told me that was exactly what he need to hear and he had learned a lot.  That was a cool blessing and tender mercy that I could help him a little.  He taught me a little bit about Diligence.  I loved what he pointed our in PMG.  It says something like, "Diligence is working effectively and efficiently."  He pointed out that Diligence is not just working hard, but effectively and efficiently.  He challenged me to reevaluate everyday and see how I did and how I could be better at following these 2 things better.  It was great.  That was what I needed to hear.  He is a stud.  I spend the next personal study learning more about diligence and learned a lot.  

We were studying in 2 Nephi 9 this past week.  I think we were doing it with our companions.  I really loved Jacob's constant praise and gratitude as he is talking about Jesus Christ.  You can just tell he had a burning testimony of the Savior, and was overflowing with gratitude as he is talking.  v8 "O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace." v10 "O how great the goodness of our God." v13 "O how great the plan of our God." v17 "O the greatness and the justice of our God." v19 "O the greatness of the mercy of our God, teh Holy One of Israel." v20 "O how great the holiness of our God!" I love these verses and think it is important that we are always grateful to our God.  We really have been blessed so much and as we count our many blessings, naming them one by one, it will surprise us what the Lord has done.  

Liao Liaoshi told us about a process he uses to become better that was told him by his Mission President.  He explained how important it was to follow in our missions and especially important after our missionaries are over.  It is a good way to become better.  I forget where the scripture is found, but we start by asking ourselves, "What lack I yet?" From this we ask ourselves, "What to I need to do?" and then, "Therefore, What?" After this we should ask ourselves, "What lack I yet?" As we follow this circular process, we will constantly improve and become better.  

Our investigators are great.  We are still teaching 4 investigators.  2 of them have baptismal dates the next two weeks.  They are awesome.  We are teaching them a lot of the commandments this week, the hard ones being Tithing, Word of Wisdom, Chastity, and Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, so we will see how it goes. They all have a desire to follow Christ and be better and I think because of their faith, they will accept these.  We are pretty sure most they are already keeping.

One thing I loved from the Devotional Tuesday night was a statement the Devotional Speaker, Brother Walker, said.  He is an emeritus member of the Seventy.  He said, "Every time you commit your investigator to do something, commit yourself to do the same thing for the rest of your life."  As we do this, we will have current testimonies of the things we are teaching and can bear testimony with power and conviction.  This will also make sure we are always doing what we should, not being hypocrites, and living lives of Integrity.  

Another thing I learned this week is that God gives us further instructions and guidance only after we have followed and kept the commandments and guidance He has already given us.  We can't expect to continue to ask for things and hope things will happen if we are not diligently following and doing the things he has already inspired us to do, through our leaders and through the words of the prophets.  

Thanks for all your prayers for me.  I am very grateful for them and for you.  I know that God answers our prayers.  I know that as we teach, the teacher and the learner are both edified together.  I know that if we ask God, we can know how best to serve His children and lift them up for Him.  

Love,

Elder Stratford