Oct 27: MTC week 3 DONE

Hola, mis amigos!

I survived another week in the MTC! Last Sunday Elder Soares came from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles and gave a beautiful talk. He talked about 2 missionaries back in 1956 who were serving in the area where he lived in Brazil. He was only 5 or 6 at the time. He said the missionaries would come by, and he remembered the feeling that he felt every time they would come over. He never wanted them to go away. The missionaries kept encouraging them to read the scriptures, pray, and attend church. When they felt the time was necessary the missionaries asked this family if they would be baptized. They agreed and were baptized the following week. Elder Soares’ parents, along with his 2 older brothers were all baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Since Elder Soares was too young at the time, he was unable to be baptized for a couple more years. 

What a cool and powerful story. Of course, he told it much better, but the moral of the story is - as missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't know who the Lord is preparing for us to convert. We don't know what people we are going to meet and what people will be blessed for all of eternity by our message. For Elder Soares, those 2 missionaries changed his whole life.  I'm positive those missionaries didn't think they would baptize the parents of a future apostle, but that's the cool thing about missionary work. We get to go out 2 by 2 preaching in his name, blessing all those who listen. He really testified with the spirit that this is what I need to be doing at this time in my life. The spirit was so strong there, so strong. I still can't believe these apostles can go and give 30-minute speeches without writing down a single word on a notebook or anything. He told us how much the Quorum of the 12, and the First Presidency love and pray for the missionaries every single day of the week. (Oh and also - I’ve met Elder Soares a bit ago at my church meeting house before he was ordained an apostle. Just thought I’d make everybody jealous)

The Spanish is coming along. I have set a goal for myself to learn 40 words each day, and to learn 7 Spanish phrases. It's definitely not easy, but it's better than learning Hmong. I'm about halfway done with the MTC and I am ready to leave. I have come to love some of the Elders here from all around the world. It's crazy how you can come to love some kids that you have never met before in such a short period of time. The Lord has a plan for each one of his missionaries. Each missionary here was called by God to serve in an area where the Lord is currently preparing those to hear our message. Missionary work is truly amazing.

Also shout out to Elder Mearian, and Longaker for flying out this week. I'll send you pictures of what Ecuador looks like hehe

Love, 

Elder Rich

This is Elder Mitch. He says the funniest things. He's from Louisiana

We all parted our hair to host brand new missionaries. We all just did it to look super nerdy.
It was pretty funny. Hopefully, we didn't scare anyone away!  

We put on face masks for some reason. The girls in our district gave them to us  

Elder Longaker lookin mighty fine