The MTC is great. Yes, it's a lot better than college. We learn a lot everyday and it's so awesome. I've had to learn to love my companion but like Sis. Pickett said, you don't have to be best friends with them to still be an effective companionship. I have definitely seen why Heavenly Father have put us together. She is so knowledgeable about the Bible and a lot of church history and things, like the spirit of Elijah and the Lords Prayer and stuff like that. I have no idea about a lot of that stuff. It has really become a strength to our lessons and several investigators have commented on how compatible we are.
I've had several cool experiences this week. So at the MTC, you get assigned like 2 investigators per week to teach. These people could be church members or real investigators, we don't know. I mean, sometimes you know cause you can see their garment lines but that's not the point of the exercise. One of our investigators is Nicole, and she is married with 5 kids and lives in Provo. She met the missionaries at a family history center where the missionaries referred her to the MTC. She has been good to teach. One thing me and my companion have been trying to learn how to do is how to facilitate the spirit in our lessons. We have started leaning towards just very informational lessons instead of focusing on what can we do to increase their faith in Christ. And we have been praying for it in our companion prayers and yeah.
Nicole told us about her sister who is recently divorced and has turned to alcohol and has started to just become a very verbally abusive and rude person. Nicoles feeling towards her sister were just very bitter and sad, but she said she was beyond the point of sad, where she was just feeling irritated and frustrated with the situation. She said her sister had turned into a total witch and that she was upset about her sister making these choices. Which I mean, like so would I haha.
So I got the impression that we should read the story of Nephi and Laman and Lemual on the boat with her. Because I felt like in this situation, she was Nephi. She has a relationship with God and is making good choices and just wants the best for her sister. But her sister, like Laman and Lemual, isnt making good choices and in the chapter, it actually said that they saw that what they had said to Nephi had upset him and they rejoiced in their brothers broken heart. We related this to Nicole and it really touched her. She even said that she couldn't believe that his brothers liked the fact that they made him sad. And we continued to read the rest of the story where they tie him up and threaten to send him overboard, but the Lord tells Nephi that he can shock them. I'm not typing this out very well, but Nicole got a lot out of it. She said that she saw that Nephi was sad for his brothers and their poor decisions but she was past the point of being sad. She said that she didn't like to be sad about her sister. We explained to her that being sad instead of hard about her sister allows God to reach out and touch her heart and know what she can do to help her sister. It allows love instead of bitter feelings come out for her sister. And we told her that because she is choosing to follow Christ and pray and make righteous decisions, God will be able to work through her to help her sister and reach out in ways that her sister won't lash out about.
Nicole said the closing prayer and she prayed to be sad about her sister, and then she was silent for a good like 2 minutes it felt like and started to cry. The spirit was so strong and I could see that she was having trouble finding the words to say next. She next said that she didn't like to be sad about her sister and then she closed her prayer. It was an amazing experience because I got to see someone literally break their heart right in front of my eyes. She was letting down all these walls she had built up to protect herself from her sisters cruel words. She was allowing Christ to come into her heart and soften it and work through it for the sake of her sister. And not only that, but me and my comp had finally succeeded in facilitating the spirit. She was allowing the atonement to work in her life.
I can testify that Christ is real and that He loves us. The gospel seems very confusing and hard to understand sometimes, but if you take a step back to look, it's not. The entire purpose of the gospel is essentially to have faith in Jesus Christ and to follow His plan to live with Him again. When we teach investigators, we teach simply. I think sometimes we need to remind ourselves to teach ourselves simply as well.
On Sunday we listened to a great talk by Bednar, and no I can't tell you the name of it cause I heard it's only shown to missionaries so sucks for you cause it was a great talk. But He was talking about the characteristics of Christ and one thing he focused a lot on is how natural man is an enemy to God. I never really understood that because I was like well God created man so I don't get it. But he talked about how as natural man, we always turn IN instead of turning OUT. If something bad happens, we turn in and feel bad for ourselves and think other people should feel bad for us and how do we feel and it's just a lot of me me mes. But Christ never did that. When going to heal sick people, Christ never thought, oh, I can't go be around them, it will lessen my status or something like that. He was always focused out instead of in.
Bednar told a story about a mom who was Relief Society president who had called him when he was a stake president very late at night because there had been a very bad accident. Three YW had been badly injured and one was dead. As they found out more information, it was told to her that the girl who had died had been her daughter. She was a single mom and that was her only child. He said that there were a number of things that she could have done. She could have cried, become angry, just become a complete mess. Turning inward as valid as a reason that she had. But the only thing that came out of her mouth was that they needed to notify the other parents right away so they could know what had happened.
Later, she was arranging the funeral plans with Bednar and she said you know, I've been thinking. You had to go to the hospital and identify my daughter and the last time you saw her was not how I want you to remember her. (She had been badly disfigured) I want you to come to the funeral home with me because they have done a great job at making her look presentable and that is how I want you to remember her. She was in the middle of making her only childs funeral plans and yet, she was worried about his last memory of his daughter. Once again, this amazing women was turning out instead of turning in.
The morning of the funeral, a sister from the ward who wasn't aware of this womens daughter passing or the funeral that day, called her up and CHEWED her out. This sister was upset that she had been sick all week and nobody had come to bring her meals. You know that this women did? She didn't tell her that her daughter had just passed away, she didn't give this whiny sister to someone else to be someone else problem, she didn't even talk back with a frustrated tone. She simply made a quick meal and took it to this sisters house on the way to the funeral service. This amazing women is who we should all strive to be like.
Life is going to be hard and going to suck and there are going to be SO many times when we want to turn in. This women had such a valid reason to turn in and only focus on herself. But because she had the countenance of Christ engraven in her, she didn't, she turned out. It is a long journey to become like this, but we will never get there if we don't try. I have like a million other things I could say right now but I'm running out of time and this keyboard sucks. This gospel is true and can help you and apply to you if you let it.
-Sister Peardon
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