MTC – Week 3

Ciao!

I just hit halfway yesterday and man it really is flying by here. It feels like the days just take forever, but not in a bad way, really. Then when you look back, its hard to tell when you did stuff. Time is just super warped. This week was good though!  We continued to teach our investigators and we are really doing well I think.

The Italian is coming along nicely, but that isn’t what teaches the investigators.  It’s definitely the spirit that we bring in.  We continue to study Italian every day.  It gets overwhelming at times but it is really coming along nicely.

We had a substitute Monday because Fratello Gessel was sick and this [substitute] fratello gave us a challenge.  He said to try and have a better mission than he did.  He explained how he gave 100% in all that he did and that is what truly matters when we stretch ourselves and just give all the effort we can.  We will be able to know that we are getting the most success out of ourselves.  I decided there that I would truly just give everything I have, even if, at times, I think that is all I can do.  I want to be able to know that I did all I could to please the Lord with my service.

I set some new language goals so that was nice to be able to push  myself in the language because we have to give our best efforts before we can receive the gift of tongues.  It doesn’t just come with us waiting for it.

We heard two really good talks this week for the fireside on Sunday and then the devotional last night.  From Sunday I really took away that Satan is continually trying to push our buttons when we are doing what is right.  He tells us things to deceive and lie to us.  He puts thoughts in our head to try and trip us up and do what he can do to make us mess up.  We have to know that there is no temptation we can’t overcome with the help of the Lord. That talk was given by Brother Stephen B. Allen.  He served in the Guatemala-El Salvador mission but I didn’t get to ask if he knew my grandpa.  [Grandpa’s note:  I didn’t know him.  He served from 69-71.  I was there from 66-68]  He talked about how he and his companion on P days would go sit on the hill by the airport and watch the planes fly over them and his companion, Jimmy Ray Slater, said “I will be on those sooner than you will and I am going to ask the Lord if He is pleased with my service.” Brother Allen then talked about how the next thing he knew he was on a plane 24 months later flying over that hill and he offered up a prayer to ask the Lord.  He said he just got such a feeling of peace knowing he did what he could to serve the Lord that two years.

Sunday the zone leaders and sister training leaders had to run a 2 hour long priesthood/relief society meeting so we taught a little bit on repentance then we had a testimony meeting with our whole branch in a big circle. It was so awesome and nice to hear from everyone else in the branch and get to know them better.

I sang in the choir again this week and we sang a song about a missionary teaching about the atonement and what Christ suffered and went through all for us.  I forget the name of it but it was really nice.

Yesterday we sang in the choir during the devotional and then we heard from Brother Hamula of the Seventy and he taught on faith.  It was something I was really excited to learn about. He quoted from Mark 5, “Be not afraid. Only believe.”  I really like that and he talked about what the cycle of faith consists of.  He said it starts with evidence and we receive it from witnesses that have received the message.  Then that turns into hope and when we have hope that stimulates action.  We have to have action with faith because faith without works is dead.  Then through our consistent action we receive the spiritual witness.  This confirms the original evidence and the spiritual witness just leads and goes right back to evidence and that this circular cylce surrounds Truth.  We can know the truth only from God and he can testify with the spiritual witness of the Holy Ghost. We just have to have undaunted faith, and sometimes it takes awhile to prove ourselves because Heavenly Father really wants know if we truly desire and are going to continue to have faith in our lives.

Ether 12:6 – And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

Ether 12:12 – For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.

We have to endure the trial of our faith before we receive that witness.  He then talked about how, as we continue to endure in faith, that hope eventually changes into confidence.  Then from there confidence turns into certainty.  We have to consistently do what we know to be right, like reading, praying, and going to church to continue to exercise our faith. Those are the things that stuck out to me a lot.

I forgot to mention last week that we get to watch movies on Sundays and we watched Meet the Mormons last Sunday and it was honestly super awesome.

I didn’t originally want to see it it when it came out but I only heard good things about it.  So we went and watched it and it is super good, both for members of the church and those that maybe want to know a little more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I encourage you all to watch it.

This week we watched the whole Joseph Smith Story, which was awesome.  I really enjoyed watching that and I had never seen the whole thing all the way through.  It was really good as well.  And it was cool since I had been to Nauvoo and Carthage over the summer.

Well, everything is going great here we are excited for Italy and I am growing closer to not only my district of 4, but also the zone of 20 Italian missionaries.

The food is still lasting.  It’s like high-end dorm food,  I think.  There is a lot to choose from so I can switch it up.

I am still running 5 days a week, which is nice, but the 10 lap track for 1 mile is getting annoying.

I love this work and encourage everyone to keep reading from the Book of Mormon.  Never miss a day.  We should read in it every day.  As Joseph Smith says in the introduction of the Book of Mormon, “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”  It is the book that we can continue to learn from our whole lives.

I also want to mention that yesterday we sang “Come, Follow Me,” and that song never struck me the way it did last night.  It is one of my favorite hymns now.  In the 3rd verse it talks about how we came here and had to follow Him on this earth.  That is what we are here to do, to follow the Savior and draw closer to Him every day and be converted through His atonement.

I love this work and look forward to continue to hear from you all thanks so much  for the letters and everything. Love you all.

Ci vediamo!!

Anziano Garrett

I found Sister Justine Larsen on Sunday, two days before she left for Cambodia.

Doing email and laundry at the same time

I have yet to wear the same tie twice!

More cookies

Girl Scout cookies

Kirk Swensen sent biscotti too.