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

"I'll go where the Lord wants me to go"

 (written May 15th)

Well, I'm going to start with the bad news again. Argentina has completely stopped giving out visas for now. So... I''ll proably be reassigned in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll eventually end up in Mendoza but you never know. If I'm in my reassigned area for too long, most likely they'll just keep me there. Either way, I'll go where the Lord wants me to go.

This week has a been a huge week of learning for me. It started with the devotional last Tuesday night where D. Todd Christofferson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to us. He and his wife shared some good insight on loving the people we teach and gave a talk on the Doctrine of Christ. Afterwards my Branch President had a awesome discussion with us. Here are some things he shared:

 - As missionaries, we need to give our all; when we give our all, we are given no limits because God will bless us with all He has for us. God is always willing to give His all and Jesus Christ gave his all for us - as representatives of Jesus Christ, we need to be willing to give our all for them as well.

- In Spanish, the word for God is Dios. ¨Dió su Hijo¨ means God gave His son. Just thought that was interesting.

- Also, a reason that parents are so blessed when their children serve missions may be because they are willing to give their children for the work of our Father in Heaven.

I've learned this week the importance of having effective companionship study time. Elder Marsh and I have stepped it up the past week in our companionship studies and it has really shown in our rock solid lessons. We are really progressing in both the language and the Gospel. Tomorrow will be our first Spanish only day with no exceptions.

On Saturday we watched some awesome clips from a talk that Elder Bednar gave here at the MTC a while back. It was about the difference between understanding and mental comprehension. I really got a lot out of the talk, here are some notes from it:

 - Understanding is not mental comprehension, understanding changes attitude and behavior.

- When what we know in our head moves to our heart through the power of revelation by the Holy Spirit - that's the beginning of understanding.

- Doctrine is truth revealed that leads to our eternal progression.

- No matter what our investigators want to know about the Church or what crazy questions they have, it'll always be the simple, foundational, and fundamental Doctrine that will help them bring them closer to Christ and desire more.

- Two questions we need to ask ourselves when teaching someone: What doctrine, if understood, would address the specific challenge they are having? What can I do to help them learn and apply this doctrine?

During the week we have extra study time where we can choose what type of study we want to do (personal study, companionship study, or langauge study). Often times we decide to take a break and get on LDS.org to watch conference talks or Mormon Messages... you wouldn't believe how much I look forward to just being able to watch something..haha.

Anyways, I watched two talks this week be Elder Holland (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). I watched one of them because it's my favorite talk of all time and I hadn't watched it since being here. I chose the other one randomly because Elder Holland is my favorite speaker and I just wanted to hear another one of his talks. They are both powerful, factual, and logical talks on the Book of Mormon.

- The first one is called 'My Words..Never Cease'. I like it because it factually and logically explains why it is okay to have another testament of Jesus Christ (such as the Book of Mormon) for scripture along with the Old and New Testaments.

- The second one is my favorite talk called 'Safety for the Soul'. This talk is a powerful testimony of the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon and those who brought it forth. It starts off a little slower but I promise you that it gets good.

If you guys get anything from this blog post.. please make it is watching those two talks. Whether you are looking for knowlege or spiritual upliftment, I know you will find it there. It will take 35 minutes our of your day or 20 minutes each if you watch them seperately. I know everyone can find an answer or something that uplifts them as they watch those two talks. They are a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I know the strength and clarity I have found in my life through reading the Bible and Book of Mormon and I know that it can bring clarity to the lives of others as well. I have found a love for the scriptures here more so than I ever have before and I can't wait to share them with others.

To watch the videos go to LDS.org.

- click the link on the front page that says "April 2012 General Conference"

- click the link on the left sidebar that says "All Conferences"

-- For 'My Words..Never Cease' click the year 2008 and choose April. As you scroll down it is the first talk under Sunday Afternoon Session. Choose the Watch option by clicking on the movie real icon.

-- For 'Safety for the Soul' click 2009 and choose October. As you scroll down it is the first talk under Sunday Afternoon Session. Choose the Watch option by clicking on the movie real icon.

I love all of you guys and am praying for you all back home. I am doing great here, no need to worry. I hope you take the time to watch those talks, I know there is something there for everyone.

Love,

- Elder Rainock

p.s. I got a box of cookies the other day and I have no idea who or where they are from. If you sent me a box of cookies let me know :)

"No action on my mission will go to waste"

In the pictures I sent home to Lorel is one of my district (6 of us guys), one of Elder Marsh and I in our P-day clothes, and one of Elder Fuimaono and I. Elder Fuimaono is an elder from my zone and we have become pretty good friends. He is a giant teddy bear and played D-line at Arizona. I always tell him if anyone picks on him to let me know and I'll talk care of them. We usually shoot some hoops and stretch out during gym time.

 

Our devotional was nice last Tuesday. One important thing that I learned is that no action on my mission will go to waste as long as I follow the promptings of the spirit and work hard. That sounded very reassuring to me because I could definitely see myself getting down if not much is happening.

 

The lessons with our investigators have been going well. My spanish is soooo much better than it was when I first came here! We are speaking spanish about 75% of the time now and it's really helping the language come along. In fact, I'm having a hard time typing out this email without using Spanish words. Fast and testimony sunday was very nice and a lot of powerful, simple (since they were in Spanish) testimonies were shared. I love sharing my testimony with others and hearing others testimonies as well.

 

Things are getting pretty normal here. I can't wait to get out into the field! I love you all and am praying for you at home. The field is white and ready to harvest.

 

Doctrine and Covenants chapter 4.

A few photos from the MTC

Elder Rainock's district:

"Becoming . . . routine"

Our Tuesday night devotional was very informational, we heard from Russel M. Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He gave a talk on 9 aspects of true doctrine. He also shared an interesting study about the difference between the words "doctrines" and "doctrine" when they are used in the Bible. Every instance that the word "doctrines" is used in the Bible it has a negative connotation - every time the word "doctrine" is used it has a positive connotation. It just proves even more that the doctrine of God is simple, and doesn't need to [become complicated]. It is one doctrine, that contains various aspects. Like a diamond that has many facets formed by a master craftsman.

After the Tuesday night devotional I heard something pretty funny from one of the counselors in the branch presidency. He said "no matter what, the mission is two years long. To your mother it seems like 3, and to your father it seems like 1 and he'll be wondering what you are doing home so early - three and one equal out to two between your parents. To you it seems seems like the first 6 months are a year and a half long, and the last year and a half is 6 months long - still.. it equals two." I thought it was pretty clever, we'll see how true it is.

On Thursday we watched an hour long talk by Elder Holland of the Twelve Apostles. I love his talks! He is always straight to the point and doesn't buffer what he says. I really like that and appreciate that about him. It was a recording of a talk that he gave at the MTC about 10 years ago. He said something hilarious in his talk and you really have to see it to appreciate how funny it was. In the MTC we receive a white handbook that has all the rules that we must follow and we have to carry it with us throughout our whole missions. Some of the missionaries like to complain about the rules and express their distaste for them. He said something along the lines of, "that handbook has been over 170 years in the making - there is a reason for everything in there. It's not like a group of us old men got together one morning, drank a whole bunch of pickle juice, and started yelling 'yeah throw that in there, that'll get them!' " It was hilarious how he said it and our teacher had to pause it because we were laughing so hard. Everything seems to be more funny now.. being cooped up in here with little sleep makes some of the dumbest things hilarious. Oh well.. it's all a part of the MTC life, and it's actually a pretty good one.

Dad, this part is specifically for you. Remember all those times you tried to show me how to shine my shoes because you said, "when you go on your mission, your companions aren't going to know how to shine their shoes so you'll have to show them." And then I'd get frustrated and say "every knows how to shine their shoes, dad!".. Well.. as much as I hate to say it.. I had to show everyone in my district how to shine their shoes the other night.

My weekly routine is becoming well... routine. So there isn't much to share. I am still seeing the blessings of God pouring out on me and those around me. The language is coming along well and our lessons with our investigators are becoming exponentially better.

I just want to share a quick scripture that I feel impressed to share. In the Book of Mormon there is a scripture that says "Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." I know the importance that family prayer has had on me, and I know that as we regularly have prayer together as a family we grow stronger to one another and to God. Not just prayer at dinner but prayer in the morning before everyone disperses for the day - or before we head to sleep for the night. The Lord promises us that we will be blessed for it, and the Lord always lives up to His promises. I hope all of you are doing well and my prayers are with you. I thank you for your prayers.

Love,

- Elder Rainock