Thanksgiving in the MTC

This week was really good! Since it was the week of Thanksgiving, Elder Oaks came for our Tuesday fireside. He told us to remember who we are and who we represent. He said he had a missionary ask to take a picture with him once then ask him "can I give you bunny ears?" Elder Oaks was shocked and said he doesn't mind Dallin Oaks having bunny ears, but not an Apostle of God.

Thanksgiving dinner was pretty good. I stayed gluten free and was the only one in the cafeteria who wasn't fed turkey from a can. Haha. They made me a special pumpkin pie which was nice of them, but it wasn't the best thing I ever tasted. It was rubbery. We had an AMAZING devotional from Elder Holland that was SO cool. I want to share what he said because it was so neat. He was really relaxed in his talk and he just answered questions missionaries from the MTC had written a few weeks ago. Here are the best ones:

1) What happens to the sealing when people are divorced or don't keep their covenants, etc.? What happens to me? He said that nothing one person can do, will screw you up forever. So we would still keep our sealing to God, even if a temple sealing wasn't kept. He said, "you're all going to be busy being gods anyway, you won't really care how you're sealed to your parents". He said to just keep the commandments and the sealing promises would still be ours. He said whenever there's something we don't know, cling to what we do. "Don't hyperventilate over some Parley P. Pratt quote you find that you don't understand". Haha. I thought that was hilarious.

2) What if someone says, I'm good with God, I don't need to be baptized? He just said, "who cares if you love God and he loves you? The fact is that you HAVE to be baptized to enter the kingdom of God. And that's all there is to it." And what if an investigator says I was already baptized by Uncle Henry? "Frankly, we don't care about Uncle Henry and his baptism." haha

3) Why is life so hard? Elder Holland says he believes that the natural man is not inherently evil like everybody thinks. He said everybody was born an innocent child and with glory and godhood flowing in their veins. We are God's children so we were meant for great things. We are most like natural resources that are unstable and dangerous, but after the 'refining' though trials, we become precious and valuable and able to do great things.

4) If God can see all time as if it were present, why should I even try? His response was so great. He said, "Why is it that when people think that God can see all time before him that He naturally can see them going to hell? WHY do you guys always think you're going to hell?? God DOESN'T know where you're going. He sees it happening, but he doesn't control or know where you're heading. What he does know is that you're wonderful. You're not a rat, you're not a mess, and you aren't a mistake. By all means, you're going to heaven! Come, on we're on the glory train! Don't assume your'e going to hell. Only you can control that."

Then he said that it was okay that we were homesick because now we know how God feels. He said that we need to make sure that we get God's children home so there aren't any empty chairs at Thanksgiving. And in the best Elder Holland way, he slammed his fists on the podium and said, "The Church is true! I would not devote my life to a fairytale".
It was SO amazing!

Anyway, we did a huge service project for the humanitarian center. I put 2 gauze pads together then passed it to the girls sitting next to me. Haha, I didn't feel very useful, but it was fun.

Thank you all so much for all the letters and packages by the way!! I wish I had more time to write you all personally and thank you. I got a nice letter from a couple friends, which have been so nice! It was so nice!!

Oh yeah, haha, Thanksgiving evening we had another devotional with the MTC president that was a TRAIN WRECK! He had a couple musical numbers then he said anyone who wanted to come up and share something they were grateful for, could come to the microphone. And of course, every immature, dufus missionary who thought he was the funniest guy in the world got up and shared embarrassing comments. My favorites were "HOSANNA baby, this Church is true, Wahoo yeah!" and "People call me rags. Some of you might say my hair is too long for a missionary, but the rest of you think I look like Clark Gable" and "My girlfriend wrote to me the other day about the temple and eternal marriage and blah blah blah..." It was so horrible. Most people had their heads in their hands.

So every Sunday they call 2 missionaries from our zone of 40 to give a spontaneous talk and yesterday, I was called. :( It has to be in Chinese, is the worst part. So I said about 3 sentences then read a long quote from the Book of Mormon. The new missionaries were so impressed because they thought I wrote the whole thing. Haha, nooooo, no I didn't. The Chinese has been a little frustrating. I can understand a lot more than I thought and I have a really good memory for words, but grammar is beyond me. It's SO hard to think in Chinese and reorganize things in your head.

All in all, I am used to things here and really like it. My companion and I have made good friends with the other missionaries. I really love the feeling there is here. I don't think I've ever felt closer to the Lord. The opportunities we have to teach are so neat. I didn't know that I'd love teaching so much, but there's something really special about bearing your testimony all the time. I am learning so much about the gospel I never knew before and things make so much sense. I am so glad I'm here. The Church is true, it's not a fairytale. :) Italked to a lady on the phone at the RC the other day who was reading the book of mormon. She asked what persecute means and what the name of the Brother of Jared was. It was so cute. I just love it.

Anyway, my time is running out quickly!! I love you all and hope to hear about your Thanksgivings! I wish I could write everyone individually. Love you all! Keep in touch!!