Dear family and friends,
This week has been an over the hill week for me in the mtc and i guess this upcoming week will be the same as well. Ill tell about this upcoming week first and then ill tell about the week i just had. In the MTC there are some changes being made, my schedule that i had just gotten used to is now different. We have been told that missionary work is yet again evolving and that we would be the first to experience it. We were told that when missionaries get their calls they will be given materials to help them prepare much better for the MTC. In the MTC there is now absolutely no Missionary directed time anymore. We have outlined gospel lessons that are to be taught to us instead of us choosing what we do in class for the week, we still get to decide alot of what we get to do as far as language. Our companionshio study is with a teacher instead of on our own. One of the biggest changes is that in addition to the random stranger we teach a lesson to at the end of the week and practice our language, we are assigned a progressing investigator that we will then teach for the rest of the time in the mtc. So in Short, much more busy, very many more goals, 2x the amound of language to cram (even though we were already on double time with that), many more teaching practice opportunities and much better gospel lessons wich is my favorite part.
Now about the week i just had. This week i have been thinking alot about how i can feel like a better missionary. And almost every day i read something or something is said to help me answer that question i have in my mind. One of them being a talk from David Bednar that we watched as a class. These are some quotes from his talk i have taken to heart.
" Your mission was decided in the pre mortal existance, and is not only for two years but for your entire life."
"Return to your home, but do not leave the mission field."
"Every success in the work is a gift of God."
There were many more but those were my top. My other source that helped me to recieve an answer to my questions is a talk sent to me by my Best friend Andrew Fonda serving in Chile. Its called the fourth missionary. It talked about missionaries 1-4 and gets really detailed about them. The first one isnt so great, goes home. Second one stays and doesnt make a difference in himself or anyone else. The third makes a change in others but not himself. Its is the Fourth missionary obvioulsy that all missionaries sould be like. it says so much so again ill just share the parts that ive taken to heart very strongly.
"The greatest battles that anyone will ever have to fight will be within the silent chambers of your heart. That is the battleground between what you want and what the lord wants. THE ONLY WAY TO WIN IS TO LOSE. If the lord wins the battle you both win, if you win the battle you both lose."
"The virtues of mercy, integrity, spirituality, humility, kindness, virtue, diligence, patience, and love become more than principles, they become attributes of his character. (talking about the 4th missionary)."
"Only in losing yourself, may you find yourself. Only by enriching others, may you be enriched. Only be giving may you recieve. Only in surrenduring you may become free."
Mom and Dad these last two are for you because i think they are exactly what you have been trying to teach me my entire life and i havent always been very receptive to listen.
" There are two ways of evolving, Deliberately and accidentally. You can decide who you want to become and work for it, or you can just go with the flow in life and become whatever it makes you......BUt whatever you become haphazardly, it will not be to your full potential."
"In the end, your heart and your will is all that you have to give that the lord does not already have. If you give your time, two years, and your strenght, you give only that which he grants to you with each beat of your heart and each breath that you draw. If you dedicate your gifts and your talents, you only return to him what he already has given you. If you pay tithing you only return to him a tenth of which he has already given you. Everything you have to give to the lord has its origin in him, EXCEPT ONE THING: your will. He does not have your heart, nor your mind, unless you give them to him. It is the only gift you have to offer that he does not already have. And so when you give him yourself, you truly give him everything."
So, how do i become a better missionary? Its by not being a "missionary" at all. Its by becoming a servant. A servant of the lord who gives the only thing that which the lord does not already have, or given me and that is my full heart and mind. Now i know this will be impossible to do 24/7 but im feeling it wont hurt to try and do it as much as i can! Stop thiking about the things at home. The things i packed away in the attick. And focus on the whole purpose of life, because this is the only chance ill get to give it 100 percent. All of those other things can wait and they will still be there later. So, my goal, Focus on my purpose as a missionary to help other come unto christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Recieving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Let Gods will, and not my will be done. Because when the Lord wins I win and i have complete faith in that. Family, ive only just begun my adventure as a servant of God and i know there will be hard times. But its my hope and prayer that i will always remember what i have shared witth you today and would ask for your prayers as well.
I feel the love and support of my entire family everyday and im so thankfull for every one of you because family is what life is about. Its my most prized possesion and im blessed to have one so great!
Elder Ryan D. Anderson
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