Last day at the MTC

Within 24 hours I will be in Missouri! Crazy to think how fast time flies. This last week has been amazing though. We had our In-field orientation on Thursday. It was filled with a bunch of workshops to help us learn how to find investigators, planning, and working with members. I was so impressed with all the work they put into this 7 hour orientation. At the end, they even had a play about the importance of member-missionary work. One of the actors was Elder Christensen from the District!! haha They made a joke in the play after they gave a lesson. Elder Christensen turned to his companion and said "That lesson was so good, I think it could have been on the District." haha He is kind of a celebrity here. I have seen some people secretly take pictures of him in the cafeteria. 

Friday was our last day of teaching our two investigators. We finished teaching Shawn and it went well. I think he felt the spirit and we left him with our testimonies and an invitation to continue reading the Book of Mormon as he continues to prepare for baptism. Our last day with Kitty was great too. Last time we were worried because she would pause with a very confused look on her face, but the more we taught her, the more we learned that we could use that to our advantage. She would really think about what we would say and we would just let the spirit work on her with that silence. Our last day with her we didn't end up teaching her the lesson we prepared. Instead, we answered all the list of questions she had and I even played the piano for her as my companions sang Be Still My Soul. Sometimes people don't even need lessons, they just need a friend. She said that she was going to watch Conference with her roommates. Hopefully she will continue with the missionaries who will take our place.

Conference was awesome!!! I loved every minute of it even though I was exhausted. My favorite talk was probably Elder Bednar's talk on missionary work at the very end. It was exactly what I needed to hear. The choir in the priesthood session was full of missionaries. We got to watch a little of their performance on Sunday night. During the week, it was so cool to hear them practicing as we passed by the hallways. I think I even saw Uncle Dave from the choir made up of people from the Grantsville and Tooele area! Correct me if im wrong, but I got super excited when I thought I saw him.

Sunday night we had a devotional given by Vai Sikahema. He used to play football for the Green-Bay Packers. I was so amazed at his message. He told us about an amazing story he had about missionary work. Hopefully I can sum it up. He was boarding a plane that was headed to Salt Lake. A couple seats over from him, there sat a young boy with a BYU tshirt on. His name was Scott. Vai knew immediately that he was a mormon. They exchanged small talk and then another lady came and sat between them. During the flight she pulled out a Bible and started to read. Vai started up a conversation with her that eventually lead to the topic of Adam and Eve. She asked about his church's view on what Eve did. He responded by saying that our church has a positive view about Eve. She was so surprised because she had never heard that view before. She then asked about how we would ever be forgiven of their sins in the garden. He responded that we would not have to account for their sins. He continued to say that that principle was so fundamental that even children know it. Vai turned to Scott who was intently listening to the conversation and asked him if he knew anything regarding Adam's transgression. Scott replied by reciting the second article of faith stating that we will be punished for our own sins and not for Adam's transgression. Vai was so happy that he knew that article. Anyway the conversation went on and there is more to the story but Vai ended losing contact with the lady and he doesn't know whether she ended up getting baptized or not. But the amazing thing was, that years later, Scott contacted Vai. Scott told him that while Vai was trying to convert the lady on the plane, Vai was actually converting Scott as a child. God works in mysterious ways and Scott ended up serving a mission and thanked Vai for being a critical part of his own conversion. I liked this sotry because even though it didn't end up resulting  in a baptism, there was still good missionary work happening. Vai said that successful missionary work doesn't always result in baptisms, but that successful missionary work is found in the teaching. It was a wonderful message.

Today has been great too. I have been packing and I was able to go to the temple this morning. I saw the newest film. How lucky am I!? I have seen a different video each time and I have seen them all in order of when they were made. I really like going to the temple. Each time I feel more and more like I belong there even though I'm not perfect. Keep going to the temple, as it will bless your lives. And how lucky are we to even have so many choices of temples to go to. There is no reason not to do the Lord's work. You don't need a badge with your name on it to do missionary work. You just need a badge on your heart.

I am going to send pictures in a separate email. :) Love you all!!!!