January 13, 2015 Another Good Week in the CCM

 

  

.....Or MTC for the gringos.  It has been an interesting week in the showers.  One night I got done with the shower and headed back to our residence where much to my surprise found a closed (which means locked) door.  My companions were also in the shower, and thus far we have not made it practice to carry keys to the shower.   I didn't quite know what to do - start looking for anything I could make bedding with, maybe take shelter underneath the ironing board for a night?  After everyone had had a good enough laugh Elders Payne and Spencer were kind enough to go to the main office building and get a spare key.  We felt pretty dumb standing in the middle of the hallway in our towels.

And there was another incident.  I was in the shower, just singing along to "America the Beautiful" (we have zone choir practice every night in the showers) and I dropped my bar of soap.  Hardly out of the ordinary, but when I went to pick it up - it was gone!  Gone.  I didn't know what to do - I had lost my bar of soap in an enclosed shower.  Well I eventually found it, not where I was looking.  It was hanging on the underside of the aluminum hand railing three feet off the ground.  What?
I'm pretty sure this is how the whole concept of false gods got started.  I never did find out what the soap was trying to tell me.  Some theories were that it either meant I am destined to carve stalactite models out of soap or that if you really want to keep hold of the iron rod the bottom is the best place to grab.  I spent the rest of my shower trying to recreate the phenomenon (unsuccessfully) and contemplating the meaning of life.

I'm finally recovered from a bad case of sternoclydomastoid and platysmal (et al) muscle soreness.  I couldn't help but notice that the consecutive sit up record for the MTC gym needed to be.... upgraded.  I got 472 for a new record, and my neck has been feeling some serious whiplash.

Something really cool happened this week. We were cleaning bathrooms for our service hour and someone asked me if I was related to a Sirrine sister that was here last year.  I think his name was Hermano Byres - but he said he was Becca's teacher!  So he said hi.  Sister Sirrine must have been unforgettable!

I had the opportunity to accompany one Elder Richards singing "My Kindness Shall Not Depart from Thee" - it is an incredibly beautiful song, and the words are taken from some of my favorite scripture ever, a prayer from the Prophet Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail.

Our lessons have been going better every week.  Companionship unity is really a tough goal, especially in a tripanionship.  To everyone who wants to serve a mission one day: teach in companionships.   It's a skill that we could be working on all the way up through the young men and women's programs.  I really invite you all to take this opportunity as often as possible.  The Lord has declared the the Gospel will be preached two by two.


I love being a missionary.  I wish everybody, members and nonmembers, could 'do some time' in the MTC.  In the Book of Mormon it says we talk of Christ, preach of Christ, and do all other things in Christ.  It is incredible to have the opportunity to truly dedicate 24 hours per day to Christ (I count the 8 hours of sleep as aiding the work).  We talk about Christ all day.  He is the center of this Gospel.  It is so amazing to think about the humble package he was sent down in.  Think of it.  The all powerful God and creator humbled was given to us in a manger.  Probably sub-10 pounds.  And through His grace, we can become like him.  He called himself the Son of Man.  He wanted us to know that he was human once as well.  Through him, all other sons of men can be perfected as well.  I have a testimony of the changing and enabling power of the Atonement.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.