MTC #10: Ready to Run

Thank you for your love and support. It's hard to believe that I've been here for just under ten weeks! I leave for Japan on Monday. Am I dreaming? I have been wanting to go to Japan for quite some time now, and it is just about to happen! Hontou ni waku waku shi te imasu!

Well, we are STILL waiting to find out whether or not Elder De Menezes will be getting surgery. The consultation with the doctor went well, and the surgery would be very beneficial, so now we wait, some more.

Thursday last week was SO awesome! We got our Flight Plans. We'll fly from SLC to Los Angeles, and from there to the Narita Airport in Tokyo. I'm not too worried about packing, because it looks like I don't have as much stuff as I thought I did.

Ooh, part of last Thursday wasn't so good. . . Well, it was, just interesting: While Elder De Menezes went up to Salt Lake with a service missionary/interpreter for the consultation, I stayed with my class, and joined Elders Everts and Sheffield to teach in the TRC. It was actually really cool, being able to switch between three people. The flow was really fun. However, the "investigator" was a little rude in my opinion. We were constantly searching for ways to keep the investigator involved, asking questions, trying to relate it to him (well, maybe we could have done more of that), and etc. However, quite a few times throughout the lesson, he would pretend to nod off to sleep. Even when I was in the middle of doing my best to give the Joseph Smith experience with real testimony, he nodded off right then and there! I almost got a bit frustrated, but instead took a chill pill and tried to remain calm.

That's one thing I'm still working on though, focusing on the investigator. I'm getting better, but I kept sticking to the weird idea that I had to start at the beginning every time. Like yesterday, we taught Sister Woo at the Teaching Evaluation Center, and it went pretty well, but we could have taught toward her needs a bit better. Good experience, nevertheless.

The Referral Center on Saturday was awesome. I spoke with a man named Roy Wright. He had ordered a Book of Mormon a while ago, and had read a little bit of it, but it had been a while. I challenged him to read the introduction, and more of the Book of Mormon, and he accepted. I then offered to send the missionaries by, and he almost declined - but I said they would call first to set an appointment, and he agreed! Awesome!!!

Sadly, I still haven't been able to get a hold of Amy D. again, but I called and left a message about how she can go to LDS.org to read the Book of Mormon. Oh well.

Oh, I bought a new set of scriptures. I had been wanting to for a while, my old set is so beat up and worn out, and marked way too much (it's hard to read some of the pages because I was so careless). Elder De Menezes gave me the advice that he heard from a General Authority: on the mission, you have a new life. New life = new scriptures. So I did it. I will most likely send my old quad home, after searching through to find the items I would like to transfer over.

Ooh! Thank you SOOOOOO much for the package. Elder De Menezes was so happy when he saw that you bought him a 4 gig memory card (ME TOO!) And all that EFY music made me so happy - hearing music from my childhood! Thank you so much for the cinnamon sugar pop-tarts. They really hit the spot. ooh, and the Japanese snacks! Good stuff! Perfect ties, I'm trading them up! :)

Thank you for everything! I love you!

MTC #9: No Proof, Just Faith

I thought I'd start off with a little spiritual thought this week. This morning I read Hebrews 11:1 - "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I had heard this scripture before, but for some reason, it meant a bit more to me today. If you remember, I chatted with a person named Jesse Cattell a week ago in the referral center. She wanted proof - "Tell me one thing that will make be believe in religion, that there's a God." Oh wow - we watched Testaments on Sunday Night, and the scene of the Trial with Kohor and Helam is very applicable to this thought. Kohor goes about using logic, reason, and cunning intellect to try to win over the governor. He said, "There is no cause, there is no guilt, and there is no Messiah." But then Helam steps in and talks about how he is not a man of clever speaking, and a stranger to lawyers and the artifice of law. He bears sincere, simple, powerful testimony of the messiah! This concept is amazing!

I've said it before, but religion cannot be proved by logic or physical evidence. This church is true, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is real, but we're not going to convince anyone using hard facts. Faith is our evidence. It is after the trial of our faith that we receive the witness, proof, and confirmation that we need (Book of Mormon, Ether 12:6). Once you soften your heart, let go of your fears and concerns, and pray in faith, truly and sincerely desiring an answer, THEN you will receive. You have to have faith. We have it, and it is ALL the evidence we need.

Well, still no word on whether Elder de Menezes will stay longer or not. Thursday is the day; he will be going with an interpreter up to Salt Lake City for a consultation with the surgeon. He thinks it's going to go through. I want it to, I want him to be happy. If I could just have all of you meet him and have him bear testimony to you, you would feel his spirit, and the power of his testimony. I hope he gets this, he deserves it. Please pray hard for him. I'll let you know next Tuesday what the verdict is.

Today we took a little trip off of the MTC campus - down to BYU Laundry services to get Elder D's suit coat altered (too long). It was kind of nice! Walking on the sidewalk, seeing cars and people pass by. Wow. Oh, and the weather was SO wonderful today. Perfect Preparation Day weather! Someone even pulled over to ask if we needed a ride, but we politely declined - the Laundry building is a few hundred yards south of the MTC gym, I don't think MTC missionaries are allowed to accept unauthorized rides anyway. So we had the seamstress pin up his sleeves, and all will be well. But, check this out: I noticed a few green Army ROTC Class A uniforms lying around. I even brought my ROTC uniform in way back in the day. I asked the seamstress if they got a lot of ROTC uniforms in. She told me that the supply man from BYU's ROTC had just come in this morning. (Now, remember, BYU and UVU share the same over-all ROTC battalion). He said that the Cougar Battalion is now the largest. At UVU, there are now about 300 cadets signed up! Holy cow, when I was there we only had like 50 or 60! I don't know if you'll think that's cool or not, but I sure thought so!

So, I had a really good interview with Jacobson Sensei on Thursday night. I had been kind of down for some reason, and the talk really helped. I had been letting concerns about classroom behavior, attitudes of other missionaries, and other things tear at my thoughts. I was encouraged to just let those concerns go. If I don't want to deal with them, I can give them to the Savior. The atonement can cover these types of feelings as well. Amazing!

Dad, could you possible send 3 or 4 of those ties that I left with you. I might be sending some back - yes I probably will, but there's this whole tie-exchange craze happening, and I want to trade with a few elders, just for memory's sake of course. I'm even trading one with Durney Sensei tomorrow, and I already traded with Elder D.

Oh, Yoshihiko Kikuchi of the 70 spoke tonight! Awesome! He talked about how our bodies are temples, and then on self mastery. Amazing!
I love you so much! Hope to hear from you soon.