Musings from the MTC

March 24, 2010

Dear Family,

Mom – thank you for keeping up the blog…it is so helpful, and is keeps everyone updated on the ‘goings on. Things are going really well, it is becoming second nature to say how I am doing in Dutch now. I feel good about everything as a whole. To answer your questions about what I might need – ties would be o.k., but you don’t have to send any of the ‘CTR’ ties or bookstore ties in general as you usually do..l.o.l.

I get up at 6:15 every day, go to the gym, shower and to breakfast. It is a beautiful day, and we are going on another English fast, which is where we have to speak our new language, no English. These days are usually very quiet days. I must say that I love our schedule. I thrive on organization and planning.

Mom, yes the sisters are very nice! My comp and one of the sisters are a little too friendly at times, at least in my opinion. We don’t hear from the MTC president much, although he seems to be a nice guy. I am very impressed with our Branch President, President Laugherty. He has such a great spirit about him! He makes me really want to be a better person! The other day he pulled me aside; he didn’t say anything extremely profound - it was more feeling behind it! He said, “Elder Leash, I just want you to know how much I appreciate you; you always have a good spirit about you and all in your district testify to your diligence…you are a good young man.” Again not so much the words, but the sincerity behind it that meant so much to me; this makes me want to be a better man! You don’t have to put this in my blog.

The devotional last night was great as usual. Brother Robbins of the 70 spoke. Here are some things that stood out to me:
-anything we do for the Lord will be paid back tenfold – not a sacrifice, but an investment.
-fight fear with faith and love
-you can’t gain a testimony through the five senses,
-you obtain a testimony by doing!!
These were the highlights – my p-day is coming to a close…I will write after laundry, my work out at the gym, my spiritual work out with the scriptures…and then the temple (best part of my p-day) I love you.
Later,
Another devotional I was going to tell you about…our Director of Training at the MTC spoke – Brother Mark Jarmin. He and his wife gave us general missionary advice; his wife also spoke. He had some great insights. Here are the bullets points that stood out:
-forget yourself and go to work (classic advice, but key)
-commit 100%, I thought of this as not having one foot in the world and one foot in the work; I don’t need to keep track of who is in the world.
**the submission of oneself is all we have to give! Everything else in not ours to give!
-work, give time…I like this one a lot.
-mighty prayer – usually comes from trials – it cleanses the soul!
Mighty prayer=pouring out your whole heart to the Lord, baring your soul and pleading with the Lord!
It was a great talk!

Oh, you talked in your letter about blessings we do receive every day. I know we all take them for granted. Something that I’ve started that I’m going to try to make a habit of is in my journal, every night, writing/listing the blessings that I have received that day. I read a talk about this recently – I think it was Brother Bednar who referred to these blessings as the Lord’s tender mercies, this seems really fitting – to think of blessings as the Lord’s tender mercies.

Mom, Dad and Danielle – I love you three so very much and I just wanted you to know that! We are in the Lord’s course which is one eternal round that we are in together. I take great comfort in that thought.

I love you all very much!

Elder Leash