First P-Day at the MTC

Elder Lee & Elder Bentley

 

Hello Family! 

This has been a fantastic week here at the MTC. I have grown so much spiritually. Its been a really long week however, it seems like there has been a lot of personal study time here since we do not have to learn a new language. It's been really hard for me sometimes to concentrate. I get really distracted just from the little things. I have found out that if I take just a few minutes to take a break every half hour or so I am able to concentrate more. We were able to listen to a talk here on Sunday that was given to missionaries here on Christmas Day a few years ago by Elder Bednar. It is about the character of Christ and how we need to turn ourselves to the Lord. And by doing this we turn away from the natural man. To turn to Christ we do this by love, compassion, and service.

Elder Lee and I have had just a couple of "investigators" here at the MTC. Our first investigator was named Poasi, It is a teacher who is just acting and all but we were able to teach him yesterday about the Plan of Salvation. The spirit was in the room and we were able to get him to say our closing prayer which was pretty great. The next one we had named Stephen was a TRC investigator who has a Jewish background and so we were really trying to plan what we could talk with him about and so we met with him ready to teach the Restoration, but he just missed the feelings of the spirit and said that he just felt that it was like a bunch of facts. That really crushed our spirits, but as we were at the temple today I just have this feeling that we will rock our next lesson with him Tomorrow.

Since its p-day we have had lots of free time but the field is closed and we cannot go there so we have been just talking in our district. The food here has been pretty good but it definitely takes the body a few days to get used to the food here so its been a long weekend. I saw Elder Ross and Elder Baker today but we have not been really able to get any pictures because it's just been at times of the day where we cannot take pictures or just that we have no time to take them. They both seem like they are really doing great.  

Mom, I will be able to call you on Tuesday morning while we are at the Airport. Our flight leaves to DC at 9:54 am and its a direct flight so there are no worries about connecting flights or anything. I got a calling card so when we get there I can call. We leave the MTC at 4:35 in the morning so that will be hard to get up to on time, but we will hopefully can catch some sleep on the plane.

Attached is a picture of Elder Lee and me. The computers here are really weird sending pictures so I will try and get more pictures to you.

The second day here we were sitting in our class and a guy named Brother Liston came in and said that I really looked familiar. Ends us that he got off a mission in Taiwan where Blaine served 3 Years ago so i just had to be able to get a picture with them. As I was talking with our branch president, President Hodges, I told him that I knew Brother Liston and he said that coincidences don't just happen. 

My district here is great and I am starting to love each one of them. We all have different hobbies and likes, but it is really great to get to know them. Its truly been an amazing experience here and I cannot wait to get out to DC.

President Hodges in our interview also talked about gaining a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. He told me as we read it daily, we can pray to Heavenly Father to know that it is true, this does not mean however to just read the first chapter or verse and ask to know if it's true and be done. This means that we need to read it daily and sincerely ask to know if it is true. He also talked to me about how as we do so, we can become converted to the Gospel.

Something that I have noticed is that when missionaries get home from the mission field, people tell them that they can tell their testimonies have really grown. That is true, but the reason they can tell that is because as we gain stronger testimonies we hopefully  start to live them. If we have a testimony and don't use it, it will not help you in your life. The more that we live our testimony, the more that we become converted. It is very important that we become converted because it is then that the Holy Spirit will want to dwell with us!

Love,

Elder Bentley

 

My District