I've just learned so much while here in the MTC it's amazing. I know have two companions because Elder White left, so know I'm in a trio. We have already progressed to being able to teach entire lessons in spanish, and although we can't say everything we want to, and our grammer is terrible, we can communicate the pure and simple truths of the gospel and we have been able to have the Spirit strongly present when we teach and bear testimony even thought the people we are teaching are only pretending to be investigators.
One thing we've discussed a lot here is the difference between having a testimony and being converted. Elder Bednar gave a MTC devotional about it. It is simply not enough and never will be enough just to have a testimony of Jesus Christ and his gospel. We are told to believe and become converted. Elder Bednar said that being converted means consistently doing that which we know to be right. Elder Bednar also said that we should not be converted unto the Church or programs of the Church or leaders in the Church, we MUST be converted unto Christ. Only when we are converted unto Christ will we be able to keep everything in it's proper perspective. To many people are converted to the "church" and when the church changes something individuals become upset and leave because they believe the church is no longer true. They were converted to the organization of the church and not unto Christ. Now if you are truly converted unto Christ you will be a strong member of the church but if you think about it there is a difference between being converted to Christ, and being converted to the Church.
Elder Bednar also said that when we are converted unto Christ we seek to follow the character of Christ. Now I've sat in about a billion lessons where we listed attributes of Christ, but I've never heard it so nicely summed up as the way Elder Bednar put it.
The Character of Christ is turning out towards others when the natural man would turn in and focus on themselves.
Think about the atonement. After suffering agony beyond what we physically can comprehend or imagine, the Savior still looked towards others. Immediately after the atonement he must have been in a state of extreme exhaustion, he would have been suffering from much blood loss, thinking clearly would have been difficult, and he was just betrayed by one of his friends. After all of this, how many of us would have cared about the ear of a guard? When compared to what Christ went through and ear was nothing, and instead of asking for others to help him, Christ went to help someone else.
One of the thoughts that I had during this week was, Christ loves all of us. He is are older brother and he so badly wants to spend time with us in the Celestial Kingdom. He wanted that so badly that he was willing to suffer anything and did suffer everything so that he could. What exactly are we doing so that we can be with him?
I love you all so much! I'd love to hear from everyone!
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