I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord

(written May 22nd)

Two weeks left in the MTC! I can't wait to get out into the field. I am still growing tons every day but I want to get out and teach. I haven't received any news yet about reassignments but that will probably be in another week or so. It doesn't matter where I go because there are people to teach everywhere. With that being said, I still hope I eventually end up in Mendoza but if that's not the case then I will be glad to serve wherever. "I'll go where you want me to go, Dear Lord."

 

At our devotional on Tuesday Elder L. Tom Perry from the Quorum of the Twelve spoke. I never realized how tall he is! It was unfortunate because the podium wasn't quite high enough for the mic to reach his mouth so the whole talk was quiet and hard to hear. He spoke on the Priesthood though and it was a nice message.

 

We started teaching a new investigator named Jose this week and that has been pretty nice. It is crazy to see how far we've come in the last 7 weeks! On our first day here we struggled to talk through a 3 minute lesson in Spanish - on Saturday we had a lesson for 50 minutes in Spanish in the TRC (Training Resource Center) on the Doctrine of Christ. If you put in effort, the Lord will help you; I can definitely see that taking place in my life.

 

One thing we have learned in the MTC is that we are teaching people, not lessons. We need to make sure we are finding the people's needs and trying to help them solve them. As Elder Marsh and I have implemented this into our lessons we have seen them become exponentially better. Instead of going in with a word for word lesson planned out we study a certain topic that we feel the person might need help with. After talking with the person and getting to know their needs at the beginning of the lesson we either speak about how what we have studied can help them or we are prompted by the Spirit to go another direction. That has happened many times in our lessons and they turn out great. Elder Marsh and I come out so pumped from good lessons (haha, the things we get excited about as missionaries). We know when they are good because the Spirit is felt very strongly.

 

Sunday was a great day of spiritual growth for me. Our devotional speaker was President Robert Daines (President of the Provo MTC Temple). He gave a great talk on temples and was an extremely powerful speaker. I gained a lot from it. I read the book "Our Search For Happiness" on Sunday since we have so much study time on Sundays. Elder Marsh and I also gave a lesson in our district devotional on prayer that went well.

 

All these things have been great this week, but something I have been searching dilligently this week is the love of God. I have been studying in my personal study to learn more about the love of God. I want to know how to better share that love so others can feel it as well - on Sunday it really hit me with one of the ways I can do that. It came in a way that I wasn't expecting though. In our Priesthood lesson we were learning about the Atonement (Christ's sacrifice for us); I started thinking to myself, "man, I wish I could know what Christ felt so I could come to a better understanding of what He went through for us"... the truth is.. we can never come to a complete understanding of what He suffered for us. People can study the Atonement for their whole lives without coming to that perfect knowledge of what He felt. But then it hit me.. even though we can't feel what Christ felt - we can feel the reason why. It was the strongest impression I have ever received. I quickly turned to John 3:16 where it talks about God's love and His sending of His Son. I have read that scripture many times and have heard it my whole life.. but it hit me hard this time.. my emotions were high and I knew I had received revelation on something that I had been searching for all week. So what is one way we can share the love of God with others? Through teaching the Atonement of Christ.

 

God answers our prayers in His own time and in His own ways. If we do our part and have patience our prayers will always been answered. I love you all and hope you are doing well. My prayers are with you all at home.

 

Love,

- Elder Rainock