Well, what an incredible first week here at the MTC. I don't even know where to begin.
The Lord has blessed me more in these past few days than any other time in my life that I can recall. I guess if there is one thing I have learned in this past week, it is about the importance of prayer. And I say that with no sense of lightness. I have said more prayers this last week than I can ever remember. I said over 20 yesterday! We pray when we wake up, before and after meals, study time, companion study time, teaching, and whenever something hard is going on. It is incredible to watch my relationship with my Heavenly Father grow so deeply each and every day. How could I have gone my entire life without the blessing of deep and sincere prayer in it? I certainly couldn't!
To get things out of the way first, I want to let everyone know about DearElder.com. You just look for me and you can write a letter and I get it that day! They told us to let you all know about it. But if you do use it, please be sure that you write your address somewhere in the letter, otherwise I will not be able to write you back.
I cannot express the honor I feel of wearing the name tag with Jesus Christ's name under mine. What an incredible honor that I thank my Heavenly Father for everyday. I love my companion, her name is Sister Nielson. And my roommates are her, along with Sister Tutt, Sister Hughes, and Sister Hatch. I am convinced that the Lord certainily puts people in our lives for a reason, because there is no way I was put with these sisters by accident. Everyday I am blessed by all of them. What incredible examples they are to me!
I am also convinced that Heavenly Father knows exactly our needs when it comes to giving us teachers. My permanent teachers are Brother Fairclough and Sister Hutchings. But this past Monday, we had a sub Brother Prawitt. He was such an answer to my prayers!! I have been having a hard time with finding out why the people I teach NEED the Gospel. Sure, I know that they need it and that it will change their lives. But the important thing is that THEY find out why they need it, and why they literally cannot live without it. Brother Prawitt, inspired, taught me personally how to ask inspired questions to my investigators. What a blessing that was. The Spirit was teaching me so many things in that moment, that I almost became overwhlemed. I was teaching one of my investigators about 5 minutes later, and it was certainly the best lesson thus far. What an inspiration! I am currently teaching 4 investigators, and it is such a humbling experience. Their names are Richard, Shawn, Steve, and Sarah. We just committed Steve to baptism!!!!!! So exciting!! We are working on the others. I am very excited for our lessons tomorrow, as I feel they are very inspired from the Holy Ghost. I have come to learn that it is LITERALLY impossible to teach an investigator effectively without the Spirit. It is like trying to sing without vocal chords. I know this from experience. After a rough morning and a rough start to my lesson planning, I went into an investigator's home without feeling the Spirit. What a failure of a lesson that was. And it was something that I could have stopped too!! But I have promised myself and promised God that that would never happen again. As we pray before knocking on the doors, I am able to feel the Spirit overwhelm me and teach me the things that the investigator needs to hear. Sarah is a total hippie and believes that we need to bring in positive energy to our sould by doing chants and wearing certain clothing on certain days. She is hilarious. I love her so much and my love for her grows each and every time we teach her. We are certainly making progress, she even told us last visit that she thinks there actually is a God after what we have taught her! What progress!!
Brother Hemingway, is a man who works with the social networking in the church. He came and spoke at our fireside on Sunday night and it was absolutely incredible. I challenge each of you to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and any other social networking you have to preach the Gospel! Heavenly Father created each of those so that we can help others reach the Gospel! He told so many incredible stories about people who came to the church thruogh Facebook. PLEASE be a part of one of those stories.
I cannot express my love for the Savior adequately enough in words. I love this Gospel and I know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be at this moment in my life. I love knowing that I am a set apart representative of Christ, and that He is there with me every moment that I allow Him to be. We just came from a temple session right before this. We get to go every P-Day in the MTC! How increidble is that!! It was such a Spiritual experience for me. I cannot express the overwhelming feeling of peace that I felt in theTemple. But I know that it was the Holy Ghost.
To anybody who may be reading this, I want you to know of my testimony of this church. I wish each of you could come visit the MTC, because I assure you that even that would show to you the truthfulness of this Gospel. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in fact the only true church on the earth today. There are plenty of churches that have great truth to them, and we admire those churches. But this church now has the Priesthood power of God, restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I have learned SO much about this incredible man this past week, and I hope to gain just a fraction of the faith he had in God by the end of my mission. I want Helaman 3:35 to define me after my mission. I hope to gain a knowledge of this incredible truth line upon line, precept upon precept. This work WILL move forward, with or without us. Heavenly Father WILL win the battle against Satan. And the wonderful thing, is that WE get to choose which team we want to be on. I challenge each of you to pray and to know what side you want to be on. I will be spending the next 18 months of my life helping others realize not only what side they should be on, but what side they NEED to be on. No matter what problems we are dealing with in this life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has answers to them. It is the only way to happiness in this life, and especially to happiness in the next. I absolutely love having the title of "Sister" as I walk the halls of the MTC. What an honor. I have so much more to tell you, but unfortunately I am out of time. I love you all and I appreciate the letters I have received thus far. I assure you they help me as I move forward in this incredible journey. My mom will have my address attached to this one. Thank you all for your support.
The days are long, the weeks are short, and 18 months will never be enough.
Love,
Sister Biggs
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