Dear Mom and Dad/family and anyone else who reads this,
It's been another amazing week here at the MTC! Everyone in my district describes me through the song "I'm Walking On Sunshine". I guess it is because i am always optimistic and happy. I love my district though! I am always laughing around them. So that makes it nice:) Hmmm... where to even begin?! I have been here for a week, but it feels like a month. I have learned so much, and its hard to remember when and what day i learned it on. Ya know?
So.. last Friday we had the awkward P-day and i really cannot remember what i did that day...
Saturday was a normal day. class galore, and we taught our progressive investigator (our teacher acting like one of their investigators) We have this shy guy named Robert, but it is coming along great! We are teaching him about families, and we are getting him to recognize the spirit. It's awesome.
Sunday was awesome! No class time, which is nice, just feeling the spirit 24/7. I had to go to a branch meeting and all that, then we had personal study time while the sister did relief society and modesty classes. After we had Priesthood (I could not stay awake. I felt like someone was pushing on my eye lids soo hard! I wanted to take a nap SOOOO bad!) Then we had sacrament. It was interesting to be in a sacrament meeting where there are no phones, kids, snacks, etc. to distract you. It was dead quiet and everyone was listening. After we had a "Sunday Walk" basically we went to Brigham's Landing to try and place a Book of Mormon, but there wasn't a soul in sight. Go figure Sunday + shopping + utah = no soul in sight. So it was unsuccessful. It's been raining a lot too! We always have to travel between rain tree and wyview all day long, so luckily i had an umbrella. I made my companion go with me to choir practice later that day. I joined the choir so i could see C-Rob. It was an amazing experience though. We performed at the Tuesday devotional. OHHHH we had this AMAZING devotional that night. We watched a talk Elder Bednar gave here called "The Characteristics of Christ" IT WAS AMAZINGGGGGGGG!!!!!!! Basically when things don't go our way, we need to turn outward like Christ vs Inward like we usually do. So instead of saying "pitty me, i just did this, give me some credit" we need to be like Christ and turn towards others and help them. Not think about ourselves. It was great. I literally went back to my room, brain fired and feel right asleep.
Monday was Monday. Same old same old. Except later that night we had TRC's. Basically we get a new investigator who they try and convince us that he is real, but we know he's a member. But man is he good! He's evil. I love him to death, but he is hard to teach! He does not believe in anything that is close to the catholic church. So he doesn't believe in the Jesus Christ and the atonement. Basically everything our religion revolves around. It's hard to figure out how to teach him, but yesterday we finally did it!
Tuesday, It was just like Monday. I am learning so much and i love it! I am starting to recognize how to receive revelation, and teach by the spirit. It is amazing! I was nervous at first, but now i am getting the hang of it. Later that night my companion and i went to the choir practice up on the main campus. We were performing for the Sunday devotional. As we were practicing, people were using mirrors to look under all of the seats, and feeling them. So naturally we thought something was up. When the meeting started, while we were singing one of the hymns everyone just stood up suddenly. Elder Oaks walked in!! We got an apostle for our devotional. The second he walked in, i got the biggest goose bumps, and the spirit witnessed to me once again that this gospel is true! His wife spoke first, and then he addressed us. it was amazing!
Wednesday was our week marker. We did the usual class time activities, and taught our TRC investigator. The lesson didn't go so well. It was kind of like a bible bash sesh... My companion would throw out some scriptures, and the investigator wouldn't care. My companion told me that he cried during it. It was because the guy wouldn't accept that Christ atoned for our sins, and he took it pretty hard. I pumped him up though, and he felt much better after. We decided that we are going to teach him what he wants to know. Not what we want him to know heheh. He wants to know how the gospel is going to help him NOW.
Thursday was great. same old same old. The food was all gross yesterday. We went up to the main campus and did this in-field-orientation. Basically we go from different workshops for 9 hours. it was alright, i learned a lot. I talked with a ton of people, so that was fun! Some of the elders i was talking to are going to Brazil on there mission, and they said that they were getting their re-assginments that day. I saw them a little later, and it turns out they are re-assigned to Pittsburgh! I was sooo happy:) They were cool guys, so it'll be fun. I won't ever see them though... We also taught Alexander (our TRC) last night. We went in with plan to teach him about service, tithing, the word of wisdom, law of chastity, those time of things. He started asking us quesitons and we go stuck back into our old routine of trying to prove that Jesus is the Christ. The spirit was not there, so i brought up how service will bless his life. He instantly reacted positively to that, so we taught him how serving others will bring him closer to God, and he will receive blessings. Next we talked about the Word of Wisdom. We explained how that will help him, and i challenged him to live it. He agreed, and before we ended i asked him to pray morning and night and tell us how it went. He agreed again! The spirit was so strong, and definitely there for the last part of the lesson. Once we started teaching what we knew God has prepared us to teach he picked up on it so well! I was so grateful and happy. It was awesome!
Today we went to the temple, and it was so nice to be back there! We ate lunch in the cafeteria, and then came back to the MTC. My companion and I just went and played volleyball with some other elders, and now i am sitting here writing you:)
Elder Birrell
ps thanks for all the Halloween Candy!
Austin and Cameron Robins at the MTC
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