Brother A Catches Fire 9/3/2019

Greetings from the exotic Provo MTC! Last Tuesday I didn't get a chance to write about us getting to go to the TEMPLE!!! We took some picures but they were all kinda terrible so oh well. It was great to be able to go though I almost fell asleep multiple times there because it was dark and peaceful. And maybe because I was exhausted too. Another highlight of the day was having a devotional and the Presiding Bishop Causse came. I have no idea what a Presiding Bishop does but I'm sure it's something important. We were able to sing Hope of Israel for him and that was amazing to be in a choir that loud and strong. Afterwards, he talked about the importance of being a bold missionary. He said that bold missionaries are confident but also humble so they can listen to the spirit.

On Wednesday I had one of the coolest experiences of my entire life. However I will save that for after the other things that happened on Wednesday (bwahahaha). We had a great lesson with Emma. She had done what we asked her to last time and had prayed about what we had taught her. Brother A sat in on our lesson and thought we did a great job. We were able to invite her to pray about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of God's church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Later that day we were playing volleyball and there was this big Polynesian guy who was pounding the ball. I blocked him once in the beginning and figured out that he just hit hard but couldn't hit around a block. Later we were playing to 3 and it was 1 to 1. The Polynesian guy when up and I stuffed him to get us up 2-1. Then in the next point, I spiked the ball through his block and we won that game. That night Elder O bet that neither me or Elder S could escape him in wrestling. If we tapped out or didn't escape in 5 minutes he won and if we stood up and got his hands off we won. Long story short Elder S went first and couldn't move after about 10 seconds and tapped out. I did slightly better and managed to stand up but not get Elder O's hands off (see pictures below). It was a lot of fun even though we knew we would lose because Elder O wrestled in high school and went to states.

Also on Wednesday, we had a super powerful lesson with Brother A. To start off, he taught us about the importance of extending commitments to the people we teach and gave us a general way to do it. After you extend commitments you promise blessings through the spirit. He said that when we speak and promise blessings as told by the Holy Ghost, they will come true. In the Doctrine and Covenants chapter 68 verses 4-5 it says "And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation. Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants". When we speak as inspired by the Holy Ghost, what we say will be like scripture and will happen. Brother A wasn't done, he invited us to spend 5 minutes to get close to the Lord and extend an invitation as prompted by the Holy Ghost and promise blessing as inspired by the Holy Ghost. When he said this I was TERRIFIED. I was like you want us to do this NOW?!?!?! He then gave us a partner who we would extend the invitation to and who would extend an invitation to us and said go. I spent the 5 minutes of preparation time praying. At some point during my prayer I said "I can't do this alone, I need your help" and I felt the Holy Ghost tell me what to invite my partner to do. My partner went first and told me that if I read the Book of Mormon everyday (which I had not been doing) then I would have the Holy Ghost with me (which I had been worrying about). Mind you my partner had no idea that I wasn't reading everyday and that I had been worrying about having the Holy Ghost with me. I knew and I still know that God had told him what to say to me to help be become better. Then it was my turn. I was shaking as I invited him to do what I felt prompted to ask and when I got to the part to promise blessings, I just said whatever came to mind. I don't really remember what I said but I was crying for most of it. Afterwards he got up and said thanks and I gave him a hug. I was shaking for the next hour.

Since then I have read the Book of Mormon everyday and I have seen the promise come true as I have seen an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in lessons, studying, and everything else.

Thursday Brother A asked us what it means to pray in the name of Christ (saying in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen) and we had no idea. After about 10 minutes of looking we found in the Bible Dictionary that it says to pray in Christs name is to align our will with his will and pray for what he wants us to pray for. When we do that, we receive what we pray for. This explains why I don't have all the random things I prayed for as a little kid. Our appointment with S fell through so we chilled with Brother A. Later that night, we heard a flyover for the BYU-Utah football game (BYU got trashed apparently).

Friday we had a great lesson again by Brother A (surprise surprise). In my journal I wrote "I have learned more from him in the past week than in all 4 years of seminary (sorry sister Willis and mom)". He talked about asking open ended questions and it was amazing. We then taught E for the last time. She wanted to know how to recognize the spirit and we kept asking open ended questions and turning to the scriptures and the spirit was so strong. In my head I was like you are feeling peace and comfort, that's the spirit! I was sad that we aren't teaching her anymore but that's just how it is sometimes.

Saturday I finished studying early and was wandering around in the Gospel Library app and found all of the mormon messages and tv ads that the church put out and had a blast watching them. We finally taught S and that was good. She was having problems getting answers to her prayers and we shared some scriptures and bore our testimonies.

Sunday was crazy. Remember how we had a bunch of meetings with breaks for food? Since it was fast sunday, take all the breaks for food and turn them into meetings and take away all the food (fasting is not eating and dedicating that for a purpose). Dinosaurs are big. That being said, The most hungry I was was when I woke up that morning and I consider that a mini miracle. In one of the meetings, my companion and I taught a lesson which went pretty well. I ended up being taught by Brother B about how God choosing a 14 year old Joseph Smith to restore his church in the 1830's isn't anything new. In the Bible, we see God call David to be king as a boy, Samuel called as a prophet as a boy, Joseph be given power and knowledge as a child and Moses being saved as a child. In the Book of Mormon we see prophets like Nephi, and Moroni (who was give charge of his nations army at the age of 16). Since God is the same yesterday, to day and forever this would make sense that God would call Joseph Smith because he saw what he could be not what he was and God does that for us as well.

I also had a dream that I would be a prophet (which sounds terrifying) and apparently lots of other people had weird dreams and we had a discussion about how God sends us messages through dreams. I'll leave it there.

In choir we started singing Joseph Smith's First Prayer which is a beautiful song about God calling Joseph to be a prophet.

Monday we had two lessons. The first was with a member who was this nice old lady. We chatted with her for a while and shared Alma 7:11-12 with her and had a wonderful discussion about the atonement (I would go into more detail but this email is super long already). Our other lesson didn't go quite as well as the person (Josh) liked to talk a lot. But we are teaching him again tomorrow. Sorry about the long email, this week was kinda crazy.

I'll actually know you read the email if you found the out of place sentence.

Quote of the Week "When I answer the savior's call, I can walk on water"