"Don't let Satan push your buttons"

 (written April 24th)

 

Last Tuesday we had a solid devotional. Larry W. Gibbons (I'm not sure about his calling in the church) spoke on the importance of involving members in missionary work. He showed some pretty interesting statistics about how much more missionary work gets done if we involve the members. We also had our first day in the TRC (training resource center) teaching people; that was a good experience as well.

 

Wednesday was a major testimony building day for me - my companion gave a pretty good synopsis of how things go here in the MTC. "The MTC is one of the only places you can feel knock-down, drag-out stressed and discouraged all day and feel awesome by the end of it." Usually because we get a motivational talk from our teacher or we have a lesson that goes well. I was feeling sick all day on Wednesday. After dinner it got way worse and I got a pretty serious headache. Elder Marsh and I had been preparing for a lesson all day and I really felt like I was going to let us down in our lesson with the investigator Miguel. Before our lesson I couldn't remember anything we had talked about it my mind was completely fogged. We said a prayer before we went in to meet with Miguel and as soon as I stepped into the room my headache cleared and I could remember everything we had practiced in perfect clarity. We also added a bunch of things to the lesson as we were guided by the Spirit in what to say. As soon as I stepped out of the room after the lesson my headache returned and I was back to feeling pitiful, but I was happy that I was able to think clearly for those 20 minutes or so.

 

On Sunday night we had a fantastic devotional. The speaker was Stephen B. Allen, the managing director of the missionary department. He was the most engaging speaker we have had so far (in my opinion). The outline of his talk revolved around "Don't let Satan push your buttons." It was a great talk, especially for missionaries who had been questioning what they were doing here. He made it clear that there are only a couple reasons to go home early from your mission. Anything else is Satan trying to keep you from letting the work of the Lord progress.

 

Things are starting to normalize out here, I can't wait to get out in the Lord's vineyard (very fitting for Mendoza, a wine capital of the world) and get to work. The language is still coming along very promisingly. I can pretty much say anything I need to now - maybe not with perfect grammar but I can get my point across. Thank you for all of your prayers and I will continue to keep you in mine.

 

Love,

Elder Rainock