January 6, 2015 Half Way - No Turning Back Now!

Our Beautiful District

With Elder Jake Harper from Bluffdale Ward

Half way through the MTC experience anyway.  Still not quite at the classic "one year" marker.

Today has been very interesting - we got booted out of our residence by incoming Sisters so we've been moving all our stuff to a different building.  And yes, I'm taking my blanket collection with me.
We got to go to the temple this morning!  It was an amazing experience.  It just opened this week.  Last week my district had a service assignment doing 'deep cleaning', and now we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor so to speak.


Our Spanish is improving as a district, we have come a long ways.  Of course, we still have a long ways to go, but it is truly amazing what we can do in Spanish.  Our last two lessons with one of our investigators, Victor, have not even followed our lesson plan for one minute, yet we are able to follow where the Spirit directs and communicate with him in Spanish.  The first lesson in the MTC we were wondering why they gave us a thirty minute appointment (we thought we could only talk for about 5), but we filled it, and now we have 45 minute appointments and it's usually hard to end it on time.  It's often better to have shorter lessons, but there is just so much to talk about!

The iPads have been an incredible resource for us so far.  We have access to any church material imaginable right in our hands at any time.  We have even used a Mormon Message in a lesson.  For one of our new investigators we used them to look up background information about Jehovah's Witnesses because we didn't know much and wanted an idea of where to start preparing.  In fact, we really have access to most anything.  The iPads have not been limited in any way I can see - so it's a good opportunity to practice obedience.  They simply ask us to use them wisely.

The Sunday devo was excellent - we heard from the head of Church media.  Fascinating.  As promised in the Bible, the Lord is hastening his work.  Right now he is using technology to do it.

Also I accompanied two sisters who sang a duet of "I Need Thee Every Hour".  It was amazing! They have some of the best voices I have ever heard.  It has been super fun being able to work with the best musicians in the MTC - I've been asked to play for the next three Devo musical numbers already, and there's a lot of talented singers.

My ice cream eating record remains, of course, untouched.

In my personal study I have been reading in first and second Nephi.  I realized, for the first time, that the it may be possible to characterize the people in it by not only what is written, but what is left out.
I was reading the final blessing Lehi gave to his children and noticed that Nephi went into depth about his sibling's blessings, but only briefly mentioned his.  What is mentioned is that Nephi had a responsibility to keep the family together.  I wonder if when Nephi was writing this in hindsight, if he felt responsible for his brothers.  I wonder if he didn't elaborate on his own blessing because he felt like he had failed.  I don't know.  It may not be important, but since becoming a missionary I have had so much stronger of a connection to the Book of Mormon.  I can feel it.  I have never put the effort into studying it as I do now, and it has made it come alive.  I invite all of us reconsider how much we are showing God our appreciation for scripture.  I testify that through careful study of the Book of Mormon, our seed of faith will grow into a tree that bears fruit.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Sirrine

My Companions: Elders Morrison and Hull

"Tripanionship"