Hey there! :)
Wow, what a week it has been! Essentially, there is not so much to write about, so this blog post will be a little shorter than the last one (after I realized that the last one was about as long as all the other ones combined! haha). So, let the fun begin!
Something I re-learned last week were the blessings that come from attending Institute. The second block of the summer semester is almost over, but still I had the desire to take some classes. I favored night classes this time because I figured that it would be a good kind of schedule to start the day with personal scripture study, then work on school stuff for a few hours, have some fun in the afternoon and then have some more fun at the Institute at night! :) Also, I have been blessed with having exceedingly many friends in my Wednesday and Thursday night classes, which is awesome given how little time with an actual social life I have left. I better enjoy it while it lasts! :)
Anyways, I hadn`t quite realized that in the past, but night classes tend to have a devotional aftertaste. It feels like we`re actually talking about a whole specific block of topics, rather than just rushing through chapters of scripture and talk about whatever we run into. I LOVE it! :)
Tuesday night was Mission Prep and for the first of probably many times I realized how old I am. For an Elder at least. I know that 90% of the males in my class will be home from their Missions when they reach my current age. Crazy! It was still great to be able to be sort of a mentor, both as a convert and a pretty mature (oh well...) guy. And they all went to Fremont, which makes me wonder if they don`t have Stake Mission Prep classes in Plain City, West Haven, Taylor and Kanesville. However, I liked them despite their unfortunate high school selection haha :) So, what can I say about those 18-year-olds? They are fantastic! They have a great Spirit. They just need to get their scriptures down...but it might just have been this group. ;) The topic was Learning by Faith and Brother Sims gave an excellent presentation. He built it around Helaman 3:35 (look to your right in this blog - It`s one of my three favorites listed there!) which earned him extra sympathy from me. Then we talked about things that we could ask investigators to do in order to help develop their faith. I loved our answers:
- Bring them to Church (even if there`s no one else there)
- Ask them to try out commandments and see if they work
- Help them to develop Gospel habits
- Do FHE with them
- and, and, and... :)
Wonderful things are going to be brought to pass by us if we actually do that :) Then, finally, we had maybe ten minutes left, and we were asked to practice inviting our "investigators" to be baptized! Like, in the right way, with the right phrase and everything: "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority of God? We will be holding a baptism service on...Will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that day?" This is SO important to have down in your memory! Because the way it`s worded is so powerful. How could anyone say no to that? :) I totally can`t wait until I extend this invitation for the first time as a Missionary. But until then, it has so many other applications, such as:
"Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and go on a date with someone holding the Priesthood authority of God? I will be watching Despicable Me 2 on Friday, July 26 at 8 p.m. Will you prepare yourself to accompany me on this date?" :) Here again...I`m not sure how anyone could say no to that ;)
Wednesday night was another really special lesson. It was in my Old Testament class with Brother Simon (love this guy!) and the topic was...marriage. Well, kind of. We really did talk about finding the right wife (or appealing to the right husband, I guess) most of the time, but something else stood out to me much more. THE TEMPLE. And its symbolism. I have obviously not been through the Temple but Brother Simon told us that the entire endowment was essentially from Genesis 28-32. That`s pretty awesome! I can`t really prove it, but from the few things I know about the actual endowment ceremony it made a lot of sense :) So...I committed again to prepare myself at all times to enter the Temple worthily, so that when the day comes that I go through (which should be in a few months) I will be able to learn what I need to learn, and at most to enjoy it! To be honest, I`m at least as excited to go through the Temple as for my Mission...cause the endowment is a saving ordinance. A Mission is not :)
Thursday was a really good Book of Mormon class. We talked a lot more about obedience and faith...mostly in the Book of Ether and a little bit in Mormon. The highlight, however, was that Brother Shepherd (my teacher) is actually good friends with Elder Fingerle of the Seventy! Which is cool, because I know him (well, kind of...). But he promised me to e-mail Elder Fingerle and tell him hi from me. Now, this would be the ultimate test about whether I`m famous in the Church in Germany or not. haha :D Probably not. But that`s no problem for me. I just enjoy touching lives wherever I can.
Friday, a new friend and I went to the Draper Temple and we almost died on the way back. Saturday, Madison gave her little farewell at the Burger Bar before leaving for the Washington Kennewick Mission (wooot! :) ). And I almost died again. No big deal...I`m just so glad I don`t have to drive in Utah.
On Sunday, I finally got to go back to my real YSA ward! Oh, how I used to hate it when I first moved there, and how much I love it now! It was fantastic :) I`m not sure what turned the members in this ward around so much, but if I had a chance to go to Church with those people every day, believe me, I would. We`re actually doing a little team-building camp up in Paradise early next month (that`s in Cache Valley...not quite the Celestial Kingdom yet). I`m really excited for that! :) They also had a ton of baptisms this summer and I don`t even dare to think about what`s gonna happen when everyone is moving back into the dorms. I think our Missionaries are gonna SWEAT from just running from lesson to lesson. Good thing they will be able to cool off in the font so often :)
So, after Church, I met with Bishop Stromberg. I had intended to finally create an account in the Missionary recommendation system and fill out my papers online, but it didn`t happen. Firstly, my records were still in Germany. I could have thought of that. Secondly, and that`s the real problem, I live outside the ward boundaries. Thus, my Bishop is now in negotiation with the Bishop of the 15th ward in order to keep me right where I am. Just keep me in your prayers! I don`t want to walk to Church one hour each Sunday now that I live in UTAH. And, more importantly, I do not want to take my papers to a third ward because even transferring them from one ward to another is kind of a nightmare.
Anyways, I just know with all of my heart that God will bless me when all this is over. His anointed servants will call me on the very Mission I belong in, where I will be blessed with opportunities to bless countless lives :) The Church is true, people! I know it more than ever :)
Love,
-- Pascal :)
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