The Final Hoorah

Well, I have been at the MTC for 8 weeks as of today. It is crazy to think of all of the "lasts" that are coming up and have passed. Today is my last MTC Pday. I went to the temple for the last time in probably two years. I can now count how many days I have left in the MTC with one hand (when I first came in it would have taken 13 hands).

This week we also said goodbye to one of the members of our Branch Presidency because he left and wouldn't come back before we left. As of this moment in fact, he is in Singapore. His name is Brother Seow and he is the only one in the branch presidency who knows any Mandarin. 

Other news of the week, I can't remember if I mentioned this last time but we got a new district last week (they are going to Hong Kong so we call them "Canto's") and half of them are from the UK. I also got to get a pic with Elder Jaden Howell (he still has 7 weeks).

This may be my last time to tell you running news so it is ok to be a little sad. I matched my lap pr on Tuesday (see my watch pictures - I had to press the lap button again so that you would know that I did in fact get 80 laps :)) This one was a little faster but I had to stop to take a two minute break in the middle so I don't know if it counts.

I got to have some fun doing what missionaries have to do every once and a while and that is fix a tie. As you can see it started out in bad shape but I'm happy to report that it is all fixed.

Sorry this is kind of a boring email, I will make sure next weeks is more exciting! I leave this Monday and I am even starting to pack today!

Elder D Todd Christofferson spoke at our devotional last night. He talked about a phrase that I have heard frequently throughout my stay at the MTC. The duty of a missionary is to "preach repentance and baptize converts." Repentance truly leads to all other parts of the doctrine of Christ, and its crowning event is baptism - where we make a commitment not only to stop sinning, but to start obeying. Repentance is a turning. Another part of the devotional that I really like was this sentence (I believe it was a quote): "It is better to be trusted than it is to be loved." God's love is unconditional, but His trust is not. Strive to be worthy of the trust of your friends, family, bishop, mission president, and everyone.

I have a testimony of this gospel. If you have questions regarding the truthfulness of this message, know that understanding comes over time. We have a Heavenly Father who loves us. Christ atoned for our sins and it is through his mercies that we can receive the enabling power of grace through the atonement.