22 June 2012
Letter to family/friends:
This week went very well, we've been
teaching a lot more than usual. I believe I'm beginning to learn how to
listen to the Spirit when I teach. It's important to teach to people’s
needs, not just to teach someone a lesson so they can be baptized. As a
companionship the three of us have a lot more unity now, the lessons all go
smoothly now, except every once in a while when one of our brains stops
working and we can't remember words in English or Spanish. Yet we have
grown a lot in the last week even though this week felt like it was only 3
days, before I know it I'll be walking through the jungles and dirt roads
of Nicaragua!
Speaking of Nicaragua I've been
talking with a Nicaraguan who is from Southern Managua. He told me I'm
going to love it there. He wants me to go and baptize his family.
He was telling me about one city that has the best beach in Central America,
and about the Island in Lake Nicaragua that has 2 volcanoes. I'm very
excited to learn more from him! Luckily he is easy to understand in
Spanish and I like his accent.
This is day 10 or 11 I believe, that
I have only been speaking in Spanish, except when necessary. It can
be mentally trying at times but I know I will be blessed for doing so, I can
already see a difference in my ability to converse more rapidly in Spanish.
I'm very excited for Sunday, Sunday
they will be changing the MTC presidency and many new mission presidents, and
this means that we will a big fireside with multiple apostles and possibly the
prophet.
It was a great week and the next will
be even better!
-Elder Willden
29 June 2012
Letter to family/friends:
This week went by very fast!
This week all of the new mission presidents were here. They didn't change
the MTC presidency. Sunday we all went to the devotional to go and see if
an apostle would speak and it turns out one didn't. A couple of the
elders were bummed. Later that night we watched a video by Elder
Bednar. It was titled the Character of Christ. Listening to this
really motivated me to do better, to change, and to reach out to others.
He shared how Christ would always turn out to others rather than turn to
himself. He was always focused on others. In Matthew 4 Christ was
tempted by the devil right after fasting for 40 days. After going through
all of this he must have been exhausted. Yet as we read in the footnotes
towards the end of the chapter he sends angles to minister unto John, who had
just been imprisoned. The original text said the angles ministered unto
Christ but in the JST footnote we find out Christ sent the angels to
John. He was never worried about himself! I need to be more like
that! During my trials and hard times I need to help others and stop
worrying about myself. One who turns out to others in their trials truly
have worked hard to take upon the Character of Christ.
Luckily on Tuesday for the
devotional 10 apostles were there! It was almost general
conference! I could feel the spirit of all those men and their wives.
They have a great and mighty spirit about all of them. Tom L. Perry
spoke, it's the second time I've heard him speak hear. He spoke about all
the different blessings we have as members. He had a PowerPoint with a
bunch of statistics on all the blessings of health, education and other things.
An interesting thing he said was that as the average person attends college
there belief in religion will decrease. With LDS members it is the
opposite, the more we learn, the more faith we have and the more active we are
in the church.
At the end of the talk I was a bit
perplexed. I knew he had a reason for everything he said but I
didn't know what that reason was. I was wondering why he shared a bunch
of statistics when he could have given an amazing spiritual talk. Later
when all of us bore testimonies I realized why he shared what he did.
Elder Valdez testified the reason why he shared what he did is so that we can
realize the blessings we have as latter day saints. The blessings we have
with health, money, happiness, love, and how we help others. Our church
is truly different from all other churches. We have so many more
blessings as Latter-day saints. But there is a catch, we cannot be passive,
Elder Tom L. Perry said, "One cannot live a passive life as a member of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." We can't just cruse
along, it's either we go up or we fall down.
With this knowledge of the blessings
of this church we are happier people. My duty as a missionary is to
invite others unto Christ, to share with them the blessings of this church and
invite them unto the church and to repent and to feel the joy of repentance
after one is cleaned from sin.
11 more days and I'm off to
Nicaragua! It feels surreal that it is so soon.
Don't forget to turn out, to focus
on others, and to follow Christ's example.
-Elder Willden
