June 29, 2015
Family,
Thanks
for sending the package. The laundry bag is great and the snacks are
great. I think it came Wednesday. Thanks for all the notes you left
in my scriptures, they are really nice. Hope all is well back at home.
Questions,
Abby
- my comp has been a missionary as long as me. It is a blessing to be
serving Him all the time.
Katie
- the food is fine. It is just like the Cannon Center food. We did
have Costa Vida and Chick-fil-A Cater this week though. That was good.
Mom
- my finger is fine. It still hurts a little to give handshakes and play
basketball, but feels better. Thanks for all the kind notes and letters. If you
have time, I could go for another bag of those Salt and Vinegar Kettle chips
and some of those buffalo pretzels.
Dad
- I bought a few things from the MTC Store. I used the card. Don't
know about the laptops.
This
week was great. I see Elder Gilbert and Elder Cole a lot. Elder
Gilbert was called to be the district leader. I just finished playing basketball
with them. It was a lot of fun.
I
met Iain's student he was telling me to look out for. His name is Elder
Hawkes. I knew who he was, just didn't know he was Iain's student till
last Sunday. He is in the classroom next to me. He seems like a pretty
cool kid. I got to host the new missionaries this week, which was a lot
of fun. I can't believe I am already almost done with 3 weeks. Time
goes really quickly. During sacrament yesterday, the fire alarm went off
during a missionaries talk. So we all exited the building for about 15
min and went in to finish. That was pretty weird. All the apostles and
first presidency were here this past week for the new mission president
Seminar. Because of that, all of 1M was closed off from Wed till
today. The cafeteria is in there, so they moved the eating spot to where
the basketball hoops are. So we weren't able to play basketball all week
till today. Somehow the rumor got started that we were going to have one
of the 15 prophets speak to us for the Devo on Sunday. My district wanted
good seats so we showed up 2 hrs early to get in line. It was pretty
funny watching everyone run in to the devo area when they let us in.
About everybody in the MTC had heard the same rumor. It turned out to be
the Managing Director of the MTC who spoke instead.
After
the movie last Sunday night, we all lined up outside our the doors to the
building with our classrooms in it. It is a tradition to sing "God
be with you till we meet again" to all the leaving Mandarin speakers.
That was kind of cool. We had a good devotional on Tuesday and were able
to perform "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer." We sang this awesome
arrangement of the piece. I have never heard it before. The
devotional speaker was Elder Nash of the Seventy. He had some good things
to say about the importance of the plan of salvation. He encouraged us to
not hold anything back from the Lord. During the devotional, I was
reminded of what President Eyring said in a talk back in 2007. He said,
"the Lord can help you see that others are watching you. He can help
you see that their eternal future is shaped by what they observe you do or not
do. Your simple thanks for their influence for good on you can lift them
more than you imagine. When you ask God, He can and will reveal to you the
opportunities to lift others for Him." I love that. A lot of the
time, I think we convince ourselves that it doesn't matter much what we
do. It is easy to say, "I'll do it anyway, it's not that big of a
deal. Anyway, the worst it will do is hurt me." I think Satan loves
to have us think that lie, that our actions only affect ourselves.
Everything we do affects others. So we might be good to consider the
impact of a decision before we do it.
I am
still thinking a lot about Humility and Patience this week. I love what the
Lord told the sons of Mosiah before they left on their 14 year mission to the
Lamanites. In Alma 17:11 He said, "Go forth among the
Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in
long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them
in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of
many souls." What an amazing promise, but which is conditional on our
patience. Then Elder Monson said this about patience, "Life is full
of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There
seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem
is that often we expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting
that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required." In Alma 32,
we learn of the essential attribute of patience. Whatever it is we are
trying to grow, and strengthen in our lives, we learn that patience is vital. "But
if ye will nourish the word, yeak, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by
your faith with great diligence, and with patience looking
forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree
springing up unto everlasting life. And because of your diligence and
your faith and yourpatience with the word in nourishing it, that it
may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which
is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white
above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall
feast upon this fruit even unto ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither
shall ye thirst. Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your
faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering,
waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you." I love that. I
understand the importance of faith and diligence, but I have never considered
how crucial patience is. The fruit only comes by way of patience. I
hope we can be more patient with our shortcomings, not to laziness or
complacency, but patient.
I
love what President Benson says about Pride and humility.I'll just pick out a
few things I loved from reading his talk, Beware of Pride, this time around. He
teaches us that "pride is a very misunderstood sin and many are sinning in
ignorance." "We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above others
and diminish them." "Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in
others but is rarely admitted in ourselves." "Pride is manifest in
"faultfinding, gossiping, envying, coveting, and withholding gratitude and
praise that might lift another." "The proud do not receive counsel or
correction easily." "Pride is a damning sin in the true sense of the
word. It limits or stops progression." By learning more about
pride and what it all encompasses, we can better learn how we can become more
humble. It is really interesting that withholding praise that might lift
another is pride. I am trying to eliminate these attributes in my life
and know that I can through diligence, faith, patience, and the help of our
Savior's Atonement. I also love what Elder Benson said on being humble.
"We can humble ourselves by esteeming others as ourselves, and
lifting them as high or higher than we are." I love that. I am good
at trying to stay a cut above the rest and esteeming myself as higher than
others. For 1 example, I am good at learning something that I love, and
not sharing what I learned or when I see an opportunity to help someone in their
teaching to help them become better, sometimes I keep to myself. This is
a hard attribute to attain and we should be constantly striving to better
develop it in our lives. We can really believe and follow the word of the
hymn, "I need the every hour." If we want to come unto Christ more,
if we are feeling frustrated or troubled, we might take some advice from one of
my favorite hymns #223. We should forget about ourselves, and do
something good in the world to day. We should look for the opportunities
that are right in our way to bless and serve our fellowman.
We
had our first TRC this Saturday. This is where we go and teach actual
members and/or real nonmembers 2 short 20 min lessons. It was an awesome
experience. The spirit was strong as we taught them a little more and
testified about the Atonement to them. The Zhongwen (Chinese) is still
coming, but there is no barrier for the Spirit. There are many things we
learned to improve our teaching as well. Learning to teach well is going
to be a lifelong pursuit, but through diligence, faith and patience, we can
become better.
We
also got to meet our Mission Presidents this week. We met with them for
about an hour. They seem to be really cool. They are both converts
to the church and we heard a little bit about their family and their
conversion. They both were born in Hong Kong and moved to California at
around the age of 18. Sister Lam was baptized and took the children to
church for about 10 years before President Lam became a member. He says,
he was actually converted first intellectually. His son had him read some
of the Book of Mormon and after reading it, he realized that there was no way
in 65 days, 90 working days, He could of written that Book. Especially
considering that it took 20 scholars about 5 years to translate the
Bible. He was only a member for 4 years, when he was called to be a
Bishop and 5 years later, a Stake President for 10 years. Now he is going to be
a Mission President. You can tell He is a man with amazing faith and
obedience. He actually has a tutor to help him learn Cantonese. He
can speak street language fluently, but cannot speak any Church language. And
he can only speak a little Mandarin, enough to get by.
During
choir practice on Tuesday, I learned more deeply the amazing story of the
prodigal son as found in Luke 15. The father, after his son left, I
imagine, everyday sat outside and look out to the horizon to see if his son
would come back. The son we learn came to himself and began to return to
his father, hoping to be his servant, hoping for anything better than how he
was currently living. We learn in verse 20 that, "When he was yet a
far way off, his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck
and kissed Him." We are all the prodigal son and the father is our
Savior. He is always waiting for us to return, to turn around and come
back. He is overjoyed when we are repenting and coming back to Him.
That was very out of the ordinary for the Father to leave his property and run
to the son. Normally back then, the father would wait for the person to
come to him. Also if he did come down, he would be walking, not
running. Just like this father in this story, the Savior is hoping
desperately for us to come unto him. He is waiting and watching for us to
turn around, and when we do, he will come running down, overjoyed, to welcome
us back.
Like
the Laborers in the Vineyard, it doesn't matter the hour in which we arrive, we
each get the same reward. The important thing is that we come, that we
get there. There are many things we each can do to come close to the
Savior and follow him more exactly.
I
love each of you. Thanks so much for your prayers in my behalf. I feel
strengthened every day from them and from the grace of our Savior's Atonement
in my life to help me do things that I could not do on my own without His
help. I know this church is true. I know Jesus lives. I know that
as we are striving to have the Spirit more in our lives and to follow the
promptings we receive, we will be blessed with an increase in our recognizing
of the spirit to help life and bless others for Him. What a blessing this
gospel is. I am so blessed to be able to be born into a family with
goodly parents who love the Lord. I am truly strengthened by my family
inheritances. Thanks so much for your examples in my behalf. You
strengthen me and inspire me to do better and to be better.
Love,
Elder
Stratford
Elder Stratford and Elder Gilbert
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