Christmas in the MTC

This week was alright. Time here is weird, it feels like it goes on forever it's only been two weeks but it feels like much longer! We've learned so much though! Since it's Christmas we have a different substitute every day, but the crazy thing is that each substitute brings something new and important to our district. Our mock-investigator was our first teacher, his real name is Brother Fullmer, he's a cool guy. He's been focusing a lot on Spanish and not getting too stressed out about not knowing a lot about the language because he said that was our main problem in our lessons. He left on Saturday and since then we've had Hermano Russel (he was super spiritual and just knew how to get us feeling sincere while we read the scriptures), Hermana Arbon (She was super happy about everything and tried to find out our weaknesses and work on them as companionships), Hermana Valdez (she is our first native spanish speaking teacher and she likes to focus on the language but is also amazing about getting to know your investigator and teaching us to teach people not lessons), Hermano Hardy (Another spiritual powerhouse that likes us to focus on prayer before, and after lessons as well as at all other times necessary). I probably forgot some but those are the ones that stick out in my mind.

Christmas at the MTC was awesome. We woke up just like any other day at 6:30 and all opened our presents. Elder Stephenson was like a little kid, he wouldn't shut up the whole week about wanting to open his presents early and every time we told him to just do it and he'd talk himself out of it. After we opened all our presents (Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff, your the best!) we were bussed up off West Campus onto main campus. The first part of Christmas at the MTC was a missionary talent show. There was all kinds of crazy stuff like a magic show, a violin solo (Sounded like a rap version of Kashmir, It was Awesome!), people that could play the piano upside down, all kinds of crazy acts. Next came lunch. The cafeteria on main campus is massive, there are 2100 other missionaries here at this time so it would have to be I guess. The food was pretty good. Next came the main event, Elder Bednar and his wife came for the Christmas devotional. It was awesome to see him come in, he isn't a very big guy or physically demanding but he brought a presence into the room that was demanding and powerful. The devotional wasn't anything like what I was expecting. Instead of giving us a General Conference kind of talk he talked for two minutes about how we are all agents unto ourselves because The Lord gave us agency and that we need to see our investigators as agents (who can act for themselves), rather than objects (that can only be acted upon). He then passed out 200 cell phones among all of us and told us that the same thing was being done in other MTC's across the world live so that anyone who had a question that they wanted to ask an apostle were welcome to do so. He answered these questions for about an hour, these are some that stick out in my mind.

Why do we as missionaries feel so inadequate? Because you have some realizations as to the magnitude of your calling. You are preparing the world for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't feel at least a little inadequate with that then there is probably something wrong with you. He said he has never felt he has had the ability to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ on his own strength and knowledge. Inadequacy can be a stepping block if it drives you to seek more earnestly to find the Lord. It becomes a tool of the Adversary when it makes us become overly critical, or discouraged. Discouragement is only a weapon of Satan's.

What is your favorite scripture? He told us he doesn't have favorite scriptures but favorite themes. He shared 3 Nephi 11:14-17 and emphasized the words one-by-one. Christ did not invite one man to feel the wounds and then tell others what he felt but invited all to come and get that witness for themselves one-by-one. "Missionaries don't teach a family of 7, they teach 7 ones in a family." This theme of one-by-one is found throughout the scriptures and is vital to understand as a missionary.

What is the most important trait of a successful missionary? The trait that every successful missionary has is to learn that this mission is not about them. Once you discover that the mission is only for others then you will find your purpose there and will have success. Get out of the way and let the people be your focus. You can only find your life once you lose it.

Why is there still a lasting sense of shame and a memory of sin even after we have sincerely repented? In the scriptures it says that those who repent, the Lord, not us will remember them no more. The memory is a safeguard for us. The only way to remove that scar is to replace those memories of sin and that shame with 1)daily sincere prayer, 2)replacing memories of shame with memories of righteous acts.

Most important doctrine for a missionary? There are 2 aspects of the Atonement every missionary must understand. There are two powers given manifest through the Atonement 1)The Cleansing Power to remove sin. 2) The Strengthening Power to enable the righteous to do righteous act that seem impossible. Missionaries must rely on both of these in order to feel empowered and redeemed through the atonement.

There were tons of other questions he answered but these are the ones that I can remember off the top of my head.

Overall it was a good week. We sometimes get discouraged when we can't seem to learn the language but we always get over it usually through prayer. Sincere prayer really is powerful, and does get me and the other Elders in my district through the rough patches of MTC life. We'll make it!

Elder Roberts.

Obedience Talk Elder Roberts gave at his Farewell Dec 8th, 2013

Dec 11th, 2013 

And he's off . . .  Dec 11th, 2013

“And it came to pass that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Take now thy son, 

thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer 

him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And 

Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the 

burnt offering, and went unto the place of which God had told him. And they came to the 

place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and bound Isaac his 

son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and 

took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, 

and said, Abraham, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: 

for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only 

son from me. By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this 

thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and 

in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which 

is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed 

shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Today brothers and sisters I have been asked to speak on obedience. What it means to 

obey? and why we should obey? 

1) What does it mean to obey? Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained obedience as “The first law of heaven, the cornerstone upon which all righteousness and progression rest. To be obedient is to be compliant with divine law, in conformity to the mind and will of deity, in complete subjection to God and His 

commandments.” 

Obedience to our Father is possible because of 2 things. 

1) Laws were ordained by the Lord so as to guide us along the pathways of life and enable us to progress to something greater than we were before and ultimately to become like Him.

2) The Lord gave man agency so that he could choose for himself to obey God’s will or his own. 

By Elder McConkie’s definition we can understand that to obey is not only to do the outward appearance of what is right but to bring all that you are into compliance with what the Lord has decreed. It is essential in true obedience however that we do things of our own free will and not because we are made to do it. If we are forced to do what is right we do not learn the true law of obedience because we had no option of 

disobedience. The Lord emphasizes this point in D&C 58:26-28: It reads. “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I  say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their 

reward.” The Lord expects us to know His will and to act always in compliance with His teachings, but not to know the perfect answer in all things. He expects us to learn His will through the scriptures and living prophets but He will never force it upon us. This is true obedience to know the will of God and do it “of your own free will and choice.” 

2) Why should I obey? What are the blessings of Obedience? 

The Lord revealed the answer to both of these questions in The Doctrine and Covenants. In D&C 82:8-10 It reads - “And again, I say unto you, I give unto you a new commandment, that you may understand my will concerning you; or in other words I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation. I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, 

ye have no promise.” 

Joseph revelation touching on obedience continues in Section 130:20-21: “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”

By both of these teachings given by the Lord it is clear that not only can we obtain blessings through obedience but it is the only way to obtain blessings. Blessings are just the natural byproduct of obedience to our Father and His Son. Any progression in this life is directly in correlation with obedience. 

Another point on obedience is given by the Lord to Joseph once again in D&C 105:6 “And my people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer.” The Lord does not promise perfect lives to those who are trying their hardest to be obedient, life is supposed to be a time of testing and trials even for the faithful. A promise is given however to the disobedient that only suffering can come about by transgressing the word of God. Luckily the suffering that is caused by disobedience can lead to good if the unfaithful realize why they are being chastised and they learn to change. 

Going back to the story of Abraham and Isaac, Abraham loved his son but didn’t even hesitate to obey the Lord. It says that “Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took Isaac his son, and went unto the place of which God had told him.” Abraham of course didn’t want to sacrifice his son to The Lord but didn’t hesitate in obeying God’s command. And as it says also because of his obedience all that are of the Seed of Abraham or are a part of a tribe of Israel are blessed because of his obedience. Israel became God’s chosen people because they had shown to be more obedient than the other nations of the earth. We can all enjoy the same promises and blessings given to Abraham through our own faithfulness and obedience. 

As always the perfect example of all good qualities is our Savior Jesus Christ. His entire life was in submission to the will of the Father. His perfect obedience and subjection to divine law culminated in the greatest act of obedience and love – The Atonement. 

Luke 22:41-44 – “And Christ was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying ‘Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. . . And being in agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” 

A pain that caused the Son of God to bleed – an agony that made our Savior tremble was not enough to turn Him away from what was required by the Father for His children’s salvation. The truly amazing aspect of His subjection to the Atonement was the fact He did not require it’s saving power for Himself but submitted His will to the Father to show obedience, even unto death, and on our behalf to show infinite love. 

“Not my will but thine be done.” It couldn’t be put any simpler and any more absolute. 

We can give talks and discuss it all day but all that can be said about obedience is wrapped up in those 7 words. 

I now want to share a story of my own efforts to be obedient and hopefully tie this principle into my mission. 

For those that don’t know me I was not exactly an ‘obedient’ kid growing up. I didn’t want to read my scriptures, I didn’t want to go to church, and there was no way I was going on a mission. The older I got the farther away I drifted from the opportunity of a mission and I was fine with that. That all changed when I went up to Utah State last Fall. I got up there thinking sweet now that I live alone I won’t ever have to go to church again. Then I started to look around at all the great people that were going up to school with me. I was meeting all these good Mormon kids. So I started going to church and changing my life around a little bit but still was determined to not go. A couple of months passed this way and I was starting to feel like I wasn’t moving forward in life. Like all my schooling and what I thought of as progression weren’t actually getting me anywhere. 

I was so frustrated with this. I worked so hard to get up there and get a place to live and be happy and I WASN’T HAPPY. So one night last November I looked out into Logan and saw the Logan temple all lit up. I decided to walk there and see if I could figure out why I was so miserable. I couldn’t go into the temple at the time so I just strolled around the grounds and looked up to it and started to pray. “What is it Lord? Why am I not happy? What is it I need to do?” and the surest answer I have ever gotten through prayer 

came to me. I have never been so sure of divine intervention and the Lord’s will in my life. I needed to go on a mission. I don’t need to tell you that the last thing that came to my mind was “Not my will but thine be done.” I was so angry. But here I am over a year later. And because of that one night and my, at first, reluctant choice to obey what I knew was my Father’s will I am going on a mission. It has been one of the hardest things I have ever done to put everything on hold to do what I know I need to but I know that I have been and will be blessed for my obedience. I am so grateful for this opportunity to share what I know about Jesus Christ and His gospel with the people down in Mexico. This alone is a great blessing. 

Testimony.

1st Week in the MTC

I kid you not this is the most amazing, but hardest thing I've ever done. And I'm not even in Mexico yet! I got dropped off a week ago exactly and its felt like so long ago its just a blur. Literally like it was part of my distant childhood. Our teacher is Hermano Brown and hes such a cool guy. All he does is speak Spanish to us all day every day. At first I hated it but after a while I realized how much it is helping us to learn!

I'm not kidding when I say that only God's help could have us progress this fast. We were giving lessons in Spanish literally two days into the MTC. Don't get me wrong its not like we're speaking flawless Spanish and people were overcome with the Spirit but our memory of our lessons, and what we are taught is Amazing! The Gift of Tongues! So far we've learned how to pray, how to bear testimony, how to say basic phrases, and about 1000000 gospel words. 

So my companion is Elder Adams, he is from Olympia Washington and is going to Torreon as well. He's an alright guy. The other Elders in my district are Elder Locey (from Hawaii), Elder Stephenson (From Las Vegas), Elder Cazeau (From Twin Falls, Idaho), and Elder Page (from Bountiful). They are all going to Augas Callientes Mexico. We're already like brothers, when your with people for every hour of every day you can learn a lot even in a week! The best times are gym times! Basketball gets intense because we've all been cooped up in a classroom for six hours and we only get 50 minutes of exercise - so we make it count!! No ones cried yet.... Gotta work harder!

As far as mail it's honestly a little embarrassing. Since I got here I've gotten three packages and seven letters... everyone else in my district has gotten.... one letter max....Hahahaha even now they're talking about how much they hate me. It's cool. One of the packages has an awesome coat in it that someone sent me but I don't recognize the address. Whoever it was THANK YOU!! The other two were Christmas packages and I'm very grateful for them, as are my companions when 10 pm roles around and they want something to eat. 

The MTC really is an awesome place! Were assigned to West Campus (Where they send all Spanish speaking missionaries), and everyone is super supportive. The crazy part of it is the mock-investigator stuff. Our districts investigator's name is Diego. Although we can say alot more than we thought we could to him in Spanish it sometimes gets really frustrating when we want to say something and don't know how! He never breaks character but luckily he is a pretty easy investigator. I honestly expected to hate the MTC but it's actually a really cool place!

We've had two devotionals so far. The first was the BYU men's chorus who came to sing to us and share spiritual thoughts, and the second was Elder Rasband of the Seventy. He talked to us about spiritual gifts - those we have, those we want to develop, and how they are to be used to benefit God's children. He invited us, so I'll invite you to think about and write down at least one spiritual gift you have and how that can benefit others. As well as devotionals we got to see a talk given by Elder Bednar that is only shown in the MTC that every new district is supposed to watch their first Sunday. He talked about how the mission is NOT ABOUT YOU! Whenever things got tough for Christ He would turn outward, and reach out to help others whereas we as humans are constantly thinking about well what about me? Why is it so hard? Why am I not getting all the blessings. If you came on the mission to find yourself and that is all you focus on you never will, it's only once you do as The Savior did that you will find why you came and how your challenges are for your good.

I've felt so much strength and confidence since I got here. This email really can't cover what the first week in the MTC is really like but let's just say it's only been a positive experience so far for me. On our first night staying in our residence the heat was broken so we were FREEZING! The next morning we told our Zone Leaders and within hours they had it fixed and blazing at 90 for when we came back home. That's just the kind of attitude that is here and it's awesome!

TENGA FE! (Keep the Faith)

Elder Roberts