Last email from the MTC!!

I leave first thing tomorrow morning for Boston! The day is finally here! Needless to say, I'm beyond excited for this.

 

Elder Nicholson left at 8:00 this morning, and the rest of my district (who are all going to Cambodia) leave today around noon. I'll be with a couple of elders from our branch who aren't leaving till later the rest of today and tomorrow morning.

 

It's been interesting as we've had our last lessons with our "investigators" here. I started really caring about them, even though they weren't actual people. It was just one of my teachers in the chair across from me, but I had received revelation on how to help them and had spent time trying to plan lessons and learn Khmae to help them. I can't wait for the real thing!

 

On Friday we had in-field orientation, which was basically some large group meetings with all the missionaries who are leaving this week (about 300, I'd say) and a lot of breakout sessions (about 40 or 50 missionaries in each one) with several different teachers. It was a fun day, and I learned a ton. A couple years ago, the MTC decided to focus more on teaching during the missionaries' time here, and then teach all the other stuff all at once before they leave - thus, in-field orientation was born. We learned about finding people, working with members in our area, exercising faith, setting goals, making plans...it was pretty great!

 

Elder Federico showed me an awesome way to tie ties - you can tie it IN YOUR HANDS. It doesn't have to be around your neck! It's way cool, and it doesn't take as long to tie it. The knot looks great and the length is perfect every time. I'll definitely be tying my ties that way from now on!

 

On Saturday, we had our last TRC - I believe I explained this before, but if not, I'll do so again. We go as companionships and teach members, like a home-teaching appointment or something, except we're teaching in our various languages. Usually they're returned missionaries who served in Cambodia or in the states speaking Cambodian. There's one woman who comes every week though, and she's from Cambodia! She moved here after the whole Khmer Rouge thing ended. She actually lived in Lowell (a suburb of Boston!!!) for several years before moving to Provo. We taught her last week, it was great. ANYWAY this past Saturday, we knocked on the door of the room where the person we would be teaching was sitting, and he opened the door and it was Bro. Godfrey!!! For those who don't remember, he was one of our teachers, but he had to resign because of school and work. He was such a fantastic teacher, and I look up to him a lot. We haven't seen him in a few weeks, so needless to say Elder Nicholson and I were thrilled to be teaching him. I just want to say right now that that lessons was the single best lesson we've ever had, and not because we had Bro. Godfrey.

When we planned the lesson, we decided to teach lesson 3, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The main points of the lesson are: through Jesus Christ we can be cleansed from sin, faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Since it was going to be a TRC lesson and the individual was going to be a member, we decided to give a bare minimum overview since they know everything already. With each point we had scriptures we could share or personal experiences, etc. We wanted it to be a discussion rather than a lesson.

So we get to TRC (stands for Training Resource Center, by the way) and I have this thought to switch "through Jesus Christ we can be cleansed from sin" and "faith in Jesus Christ". I wasn't sure why, but I told Elder Nicholson and we went with it. We got into the lesson, talked with Bro. Godfrey a bit, and had an opening prayer. During the prayer, I felt inclined to ask Bro. Godfrey if he read the Book of Mormon in Khmae and prayed in Khmae every day. It was totally random, but I followed the feeling and asked him after we closed the prayer. He said that he didn't really use the language that much anymore, and that recently he had been thinking about that. I shared with him the promise from one of the Apostles (Elder Scott, I think?) that if you read 2 pages from the Book of Mormon in your mission language everyday and pray in your mission language every day, then you will be fluent for the rest of your life (and forever). I invited him to do that, and he said that he had been feeling like he should be doing more, so he promised to do so.

After that, we started talking about faith, and we hadn't said more than 2 or 3 sentences when Elder Nicholson asked him if he had any questions about faith or any particular needs concerning faith that we could help with - turns out he did. A couple of things had been bothering him lately, and I knew exactly how to answer his questions. I knew exactly what to say. We talked about how the Lord works through our faith, how miracles come after the trial of our faith, how obedience is an act of faith, how a testimony is never enough, and how we need to be CONVERTED unto the Lord. The words seemed to just flow out of our mouths, and it was exactly what Bro. Godfrey needed to hear. It became a discussion about our Savior, Jesus Christ. We had him read Isaiah 53:4-5 out loud, and I testified of Christ and expressed my feelings about Him. We went over on time because we were still talking about it. It was one of the most spiritual, powerful, and amazing experiences I've ever had.

From that lesson I learned the importance of being guided by the Spirit, and I had a glimpse of what we as missionaries need to be and how our Heavenly Father can use us as His missionaries to meet the needs of His other children. Though I didn't always know that I was receiving promptings from the Spirit in the moment, I know that we were guided by Him. When we had planned what to teach, we were guided. When we changed around the order of the lesson to talk about faith first, we were guided. When I felt like I should ask him about the use of his mission language, I was being guided. As we taught to his needs, we were guided. It was absolutely incredible. I will never forget that.

 

On Sunday, our district sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Khmae in our branch's sacrament meeting. That evening we had a departure devotional with the mission presidency - they gave us some final advice and farewells, and Pres. Brown had us stand as he read off the missions we were all serving in. I'm the only one in this batch going to Massachusetts. No pressure.

 

Packing has been crazy. Meeting the weight requirements is so difficult! I'm going to finish all that up today, and hopefully things should be good!

 

Yesterday, we had our last class sessions, and we said goodbye to our teachers. I'm so grateful for them, they've helped us learn and grow so much while we've been here. We also took pictures with them, and with all of our friends/fellow missionaries here. We had a huge picture-taking party/gathering sort of thing in the lounge of our building. I'm going to miss these people, especially those in my district, but I'm so excited to get to Boston and hit the ground running! I'm so stoked to start working and serving - I can't wait for tomorrow!

 

D&C 31:3

 

Much love,

Elder DeLong