All is Good in the MTC Hood!

Hello everyone!  Hope you all had a great Halloween.  I got to celebrate
Halloween by eating candy before I went to bed...not too exciting but it
was a beautiful day!

First off, fun fact:   I am in the MTC choir.  I bet none of you knew I
could sing huh?  Well I actually am an awful singer but I am trying to take
advantage of every spiritual opportunity in the MTC and nothing brings the
Spirit more than beautiful, uplifting music!  We sing at the Tuesday night
devotionals and I wish you could all her us sing, it is so powerful!

The MTC is so much fun.  My district has become my family and my zone is
AMAZING.  So many strong elders and sisters.  The Elders in my district are
like brothers to me and both them and the sisters in my district make me
laugh constantly!  We work so hard here, but we are constantly laughing all
throughout the day.

I am not sure if I mentioned anything about my investigator, Ulises, last
week, but surprise surprise Ulises is now my Spanish/language teacher!  We
were in class last Thursday and then all of a sudden Ulises walks in the
room in church clothes and tells us that he is now our teacher.  We were
all quite embarrassed because he was our very first investigator and our
the lessons we taught him were pretty awful...because we didn't know much
Spanish nor did we know how to teach yet!  But now he is able to teach us
and help us with the things that we struggle with in our lessons!! It was a
really great learning experience to teach him as an investigator and now
have him as our teacher!

Yesterday we went to a BYU devotional and it was our first time off the MTC
campus other than our Sunday walks to the temple!  David F. Evans of the
Seventy spoke about tenacity and missionary work.  We also had a second
devotional last night where Christoffel Golden of the Seventy spoke about
the power of missionaries.  My favorite quote of the night was a quote from
Henry B. Eyring that Elder Golden used:
We will become what we want to be, by constantly being what we want to
become each day.

The last thing I want to share with all of you is my favorite missionary
experience since I have been in the MTC.  Last Friday Hermana Houston and I
taught our TRC (teaching resource center) investigator, Marco.  Marco is
one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  He has polio, so he uses
crutches to get around, but he is ALWAYS smiling and so kind to us.
Although he is already a member of the church, he volunteers as an
investigator at the MTC so we get to teach him lessons and treat him as if
he were a real investigator!  Instead of telling you what happened in our
lesson Friday night, I am just going to share with all of you my journal
entry from that night so you can hopefully feel the spirit that was felt
that night:
"October 31, Hermana Houston and I had such an incredible experience
teaching Marco tonight.  This was the first time I realized the power of
missionaries.  In this lesson I caught a glimpse of how incredible the next
17 months of my mission are going to be.  We taught Marco the importance of
the Book of Mormon but especially how he can use it to answer questions in
his life.  We did this buy showing him how Mosiah Chapter 2 can apply to
his life though the story was from so long ago.  We based Mosiah 2 off of
the question: How can I unite and bring happiness to my family?
The scriptures we used were verse 5,6,16,17, and 41.  We explained how in
verse 5 and 6, the people listening to King Benjamin's words turned their
doors and faced them toward the temple.  Applying this to Marco's life, we
want him to face his life towards the goal of the temple.  The next
scriptures were about when we are in the service of others, we are only in
the service of our God.  As we read these scriptures, Marco began to tear
up.  After that, we asked him how he felt about those scriptures about how
he can make the temple a goal for him and his family..Marco began to cry.
He said how important it is for him to make his family happy and bring them
together in unity because he loves his family so much.  The Spirit was so
strong, burning within me.  At this moment I saw the beauty of bringing
others unto Christ.  This is a feeling a hope to never forget.  We then
proceeded to teach Marco by using verse 41 and we told him how the one
thing that Heavenly Father asks of us is to follow His commandments and
through this, we can receive never-ending happiness.  We explained to Marco
that we aren't trying to convince him that our church or gospel is the
best, but that the feelings he felt today were from God, not from us.  We
are only instruments in His hands.  I told him that my goal for him isn't
to just be baptized, but my goal for him is to one day go through the
temple and be sealed to his family for all eternity.  I testified to Marco
my love for the temple and how grateful I am to be sealed to my family.  We
also explained to him the Holiness of the temple and related it to the
story of Moses in the book of Exodus when God asked Moses to remove his
shoes for he was walking on holy ground.  But I explained to Marco how it
isn't the ground of the temple that is holy, it is what is happening INSIDE
of the temple ON that ground that makes it so holy.
I bore testimony and promised Marco that if he faces his "tent door" toward
the temple, one day he can go through and make the covenants with his
Heavenly Father that will allow him to bring "never-ending happiness" to
him and his family.  The Spirit was so strong and I know Marco felt it too
through the sincerity of his love and tears for his family.  We finished
the lesson and I was able to close with a prayer where I said things that I
know were brought to my mind only through the Holy Ghost.
The lesson was over and Marco decided to break his "investigator character"
so he could truly share his feelings with us about our message because he
loved it so much.  He asked to take a picture with us and then asked for
our mission email address.  Marco then told us that he knows we have to
write our families but if we could ever update him on our mission or about
how are investigators are doing, it would make him so happy.  He then
mentioned that if any of our investigators in Argentina were struggling
with their conversion, he would love to help us and them but writing his
testimony in a letter and sending it to them.  Marco is amazing.  Before we
finally left he thanked us for working so hard to bring those we teach unto
Christ.  He said that our lesson tonight was truly inspiration and that
even though he is a member, he is still a progressing investigator just as
we all are, as we do all that we can to come unto Christ.
I love being a missionary."

I really do love being a missionary.  It is hard work but I can feel the
help from my Father in Heaven every single day.  yes the Spirit in this
lesson with Marco was so strong, but we also have some "not so great"
lessons which is okay as well.  Either way, I hope to feel that feeling
again of having truly brought someone closer to Christ.  It is amazing.  I
challenge you all to read Mosiah Chapter 2, you will all love it.



xoxo
Hermana Anika Van Boerum