It's been another great week here at the MTC, and now I only have a week and a half left. It's Crazy!
Saturday I got to break out my sewing skills. I got a small hole in my suit and had to stitch it up. It might have been the first time I've sewed something since 7th grade. (Thanks FACS class!)
Sunday definitely had a theme of obedience. Our district meeting and devotional both covered that topic, and the video we watched that night was also in that theme. We heard from Stephen B. Allen, the managing director of the Mission Department. He was really funny. He really understands what goes through missionaries thoughts. He made a really great point of not letting Satan push our buttons. He wants us to go home, give up, or not do our best. His mission is to not let us live up to our potential. We need to not let him push our buttons, and that's especially true as a missionary. He talked about the importance of following mission rules and how they are not there to make our lives miserable. They come from the First Presidency and nearly 200 years of Church missionary experience. They are designed specifically to not allow Satan to take hold of us. That same point was also referenced in the Holland Devotional recording that we watched that night. He also mentioned that when Joseph Smith went to pray, Satan couldn't kill him, so he tried the next best thing, he bound his mouth so Joseph couldn't speak. We can't allow him to shut our mouths. We need to not be scared to share the truth of the Gospel with others. When we are too scared, he has power over us.
Monday we finally got snowed that stayed! It finally feels like winter. One of the Elders in our district figured out our flight plans early. We get to go through New York and Amsterdam to get to Stockholm. It's crazy to think we only have 2 Sundays left before Sweden! We also figured out from our teachers that the day we arrive, it should be some sort of light festival in Sweden that is supposed to be really cool. We had a really cool day in class. We talked about the amount of Faith that Enoch in the Bible and the Brother of Jared had in the Book of Mormon. They must have had to have such obedience to receive the amount of power they did. It was a great discussion. On our way back from class we took some pictures of the lights with the snow. As we were walking back there was a huge snowball fight and we walked right through the middle of it. It was great to see all of these missionaries having a great time.
Tuesday we heard from Jorge Zaballos of the Quorum of the Seventy. He talked to us about making sure we teach with the Spirit. We can't do everything for our investigators. They need to be able to find their own answers, but we can certainly help. Afterwards Elder Beveridge and I had leadership training since we are now zone leaders. We talked about learning how to both administer and minister. The phrase also popped into my head to have "love with expectations". I really like that, especially the more I thought about it. Whenever you are a leader to someone, they need to know you care about them. If they know you care they will have respect and trust in you. Then the expectations come in because that's how you encourage others to do their best. You hold them accountable when they fall short and help them see how to improve.
Yesterday we had TRC again so we were teaching members in Swedish. This time we Skyped a woman in Denmark who grew up in Sweden. It was awesome! We understood most of what she said, although her Swedish was also pretty rusty so she might have been speaking a little slower, but I won't complain. We taught a good lesson on sharing our light with others. We also shared a thought that we heard from Elder Zaballos that we don't say "Go to Christ", we say "Come unto Christ", implying that we need to already be near Christ before we can invite others. It was really cool to talk to her, and it was amazing how much we came to care about her after only a 35 minute Skype call. It's amazing how much easier it is to teach people and help them when you come to love the people you serve. Yesterday I also got a whole bunch of cinnamon and orange rolls with some cookies in the mail. Knowing that I wouldn't possibly be able to healthily eat them all by myself I shared them with the zone. All the elders loved it! Our zone has gotten really tight and we have a lot of fun together.
Today has been pretty quiet but that's not necessarily bad. It's nice to have a brief break every once in a while.
-Elder Ashford
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| Elder Ashford and Elder Beveridge |
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| MTC Campus lights with new snow |
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| Snowball Fight! |
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