July 12, 2010

Hey everyone!!!

Well this last week here at the MTC has flown by! I made a huge push on diligence this week and try my hardest to finish out strong. It has been a little hard to focus sometimes because the filed is almost there! But i have been able to mostly keep myself focused. This week I have focused a lot on praying, and thinking of how sincere my prayers really are. I realized that my parayers can definitely be more sincere, so i have been working on that. I am so anxious and excited to go to California, I can't wait to serve the people in that area. I talked to a senior missionary last night, she is japanese and is from irvine california, which is in my mission and is probably the place i will spend the most time because that is where most of the chinese people are. She told me and my companion that the population in the city of irvine is over 200,000 people! That shocked me given how irvine really isn't that big at all. Last night we had our departure devotional and they gave us all the goodbye talks and advice, at the end of the meeting Presdient smith (the MTC president) stood up and said "This is a little out of the ordinary, but i want you to know that tonight for the fireside that when an apostle walks into the room, we all stand" and then he sat down. So at the fireside we got good seats and were all excited only to see on the screen Jenny Oaks Baker, we had no idea who that was and were kind of dissapointed but later found out that is Elder Dallin H. Oaks' daughter. Dallin H. Oaks came :) :). It was an amazing fireside even though Elder oaks didn't even sit on the stand. SIster Baker is one of the most accomplished violinists in the united states and she played and it was beautiful. Other than all that, we had our final TA(Teaching Appointment) this past week. It went very well and the spirit was so strong, I know that with a surety of my heart that this Gospel is the only true gospel on this earth. The book of mormon is the word of god and joseph smith was a true prophet of god. He saw heavenly father and Jesus Christ and recieved the guidance to restore the true church back on the earth. It is true. Packing all my things has been a weird feeling. I remember the first couple of weeks i thought i was going to die in the MTC but now it has grown on me and i am going to miss it here. I have learned so much here in the short 12 weeks i have been here. I have learned so much more about the gospel and so much about myself. I am so grateful for all the blessings the lord has given me and continues to give me. I know anyone can know the truth of this gospel as long as they read the Book of Mormon and pray to god with a SINCERE heart, with real intent to ACT on the answer they receive, and reading the Book of Mormon will bless everyones life so much more than you can see or imagine. The lord is waiting to give people the answer, we all have to do our part and study and read and ponder and then he will tell us the truth of it all through the Holy Ghost. I love you all and thank you all for all the support you constantly give me. I will talk to all next time from California!

Elder Joshua Ellis