Ola!
Hope everyone had a good week! The weeks keep going by here. The days seem as long as weeks, and the weeks seem as short as days. If that makes sense. Haha. Thanks for the Dear Elders I got those are always fun to read.
Mom, I´m not sure about the mosquito netting thing, but I not gonna worry about it right now. I imagine they will let us know if we need something like that. In our ´´malaria safety´´ seminar, they told us that your apartments will most likely have screens and things to prevent mosquito's. But if not, then that is when we would need to sleep in. So I guess we´ll just wait and see! We also received our prescription for our malaria pill. We take that starting 2 days before we leave. It´s crazy to think that we leave in just 27 days! It´s not very far away.
Dad, sounds like golfing´s been fun! I´m definitely gonna miss playing. We definitely gonna be playing all summer when I get home. Deal?
I also loved reading your talk you gave in the 5th ward. That's cool you got to talk with Bro Fugal. I love him. He was such a good young men's leader. Make sure you tell him hi for me! I also loved the topic of your talk. I've noticed that you've really strived to help people understand (especially the youth in the stake) the importance of conversion. I've heard you talk about it before, but I don't think I really understood what it meant until I came out on my mission. There is definitely a difference between a testimony and being truly converted. A counselor in our branch presidency was talking to me in our weekly interview for example. He told me that the purpose of the MTC is to change testimonies into conversion in the missionaries. It is definitely important to experience that before you come out here, but also think we he said is true. I thought I had a pretty strong testimony when I came here, and I was converted. But it's amazing how much that's grown in just two weeks.
Coincidentally, I watched one of Elder Bednar's MTC devotionals on this. I loved It. He said that a testimony will never be enough for us in this life. He said that even though we might have a testimony, we are still able to fall away from the Church. He promised us that If we are truly converted to the gospel, we will never fall away.
So how do we become converted? We already know what a testimony is, but being converted is being consistently true to what you know. We need to act on our testimonies. And strive to be like our Savior. That is how. Dad, you also helped me realize the importance of this. I loved your talk, so thanks! You also made me think that it is important that I help investigators to be converted and not just have a testimony.
Anyway, my week was good! Elder L. Tom Perry came and talked to us on Tuesday! That's 3 apostles already. And I sat 4th row for Elder D. Todd Christofferson. So cool.
True or false I get along with my companion? False. We got along great the first few weeks, but it's gotten worse over time. We are having a lot of companionship inventory to clear things up. But we both strive to be obedient with exactness, so that's good. It's just impossible to have the Spirit when there is contention. So we work things out, even though we don't agree on anything.
I ran into Elder Neal Anderson (friend from high-school). He's enjoying the first week at the MTC, but is a little discouraged with the language. But everyone Is discouraged about their language. So I guess that's normal.
Other than that, not else is too new with me! I hope baseball and everything is going good with everyone. When does school get out? Is everyone excited? I would also love another NBA playoffs update. LeBron better take this year! I love him. Haha
Well have a good week everyone! Love you all!
-Elder WIllIams
