Elder Wold's Week #2

Wolds,

Well hello there! This week at the MTC has been awesome! Our district of about 15 missionaries has really grown together in love! We are like a giant family now and I love it! Classes have pretty much taken up or week with about 6 hours a day but there has been so much I have learned. This week we have also started to teach investigators twice a day. Elder Hall and I got Kendra and Sofia and they are the best. They have asked really good questions and have just been excellent investigators, although I'm pretty sure they are just members playing investigators. We have learned so much in the power of questions (thanks Brother O'hare) and how important it is to teach people, not lessons. 

I think the biggest lesson I have learned at the MTC thus far is actually not really about missionary work directly. The first couple of days were hard and dragged on, and I kept thinking about myself and how I am not cut out from this. But then we watched a video from David A. Bednar on Sunday night titled characteristics of Christ that really hit home for me. It was given on Christmas day some years back at the MTC. In it, he talks about selflessness and how the Savior, who went through the most pain and agony ever experienced by man, turned outward instead of trying to gain sympathy from others. This really stuck with me and I decided to use this method to cope with my harsh thoughts against myself and all the things I thought I deserved sympathy for. As I did so this week, I found that my trials became easier to bear, and that my thoughts on my MTC experience had gone from negative to positive. Now I am not saying I have mastered the art of selflessness, I had hard moments this week. I only want to share this because I know it is a way to be closer to God, feel the spirit, and to easier endure to the end. I know this is short, but it's hard to write about everything here, a lot of it cannot be written about, it just needs to be experienced! Anyway, I love you guys! Keep doing the daily things that will help you build faith in Christ!

Love,

Elder Wold