Friday, June 29, 2012

Mission Presidents Training

Elder Case and his companion Elder Gray
Elder Case and his brother, Stephen

Hey Family,

Hope you are all doing well! Thank you for your emails this past week. Sorry I am not able to respond to them. Because they limit my email time at the MTC it is hard to read and respond to emails but I will try and respond to you all through letters. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support. I love you all!

Something that has been on my mind a lot this week is the quote by President Packer: "The study of the doctrines of the Gospel will change behavior quicker than a study of behavior will change behavior." I have been thinking about this because I am surrounded by more than 2,000 young missionaries here, almost all of us still teenagers, and yet when you walk around, you here hymns being whistled and sung, you here people sharing insights into the scriptures and bearing testimony, you see heads bowed in humble and earnest prayer, and you see people becoming converted to Christ. It is incredible. Elder Gray and I keep talking about how there is no other instutition, organization, or anything else on this earth other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ that could so quickly change the hearts, the desires, and the behaviors of us young people. It is incredible to do as President Lewis instructed me many times and to recognize the change that will occur in myself as the Lord gently molds me into who He wants me to be.

President Ashton is going to be the best mission president in the world! I love him and his wife so much! On Saturday they walked into the cafeteria t lunch and I recognized them and went and talked to them and they came and sat with us. I sit with 5 other missionaries going to Houston South, so it was fun to talk to him. We then got to meet with him and his wife Saturday night for two hours and they talk us and pumped us up for the field. I already am getting sad knowing that in two years I will have to leave them. They are absolutely wonderful people. For all you about to have a baby, Sister Ashton was planning on having her baby today. She was just shy of 9 months pregnant while she sat through hours on end of training here at the MTC. Elder Zwick told them to have there baby in Las Vegas (where her parents live and she has had her other six children), take a full TWO WEEKS to recover and then report to the field. Meanwhile, President Saylin will hold down the fort. What a great example of faith and obedience. This will be their 7th child. 6 boys and 1 girl. The oldest is 13.

We got to hear from Elder Perry on Tuesday night. I didn't make it into the actual building that he spoke in so when he finished, Elder Gray and I were able to leave right away and we watched the apostles and presidency of the seventy walk by. I then saw Elder Holland down the hallway on my way to dinner but never got to shake his hand. Security was nuts and they blocked the cafeteria in half the whole week. When Elder Perry spoke, there were ten apostles there and the entire presidency of the seventy. Elder Gray's best friend from Logan is named Elder Fisher. Elder Fisher is companions with Elder Pace. Elder Pace and I have become good friends. He is 18. He graduated high school ten days before entering the MTC. His sister is 19 and she is here right now too. His parents were called as mission presidents and they were here too. I got to meet all of them. It was like a family reunion. Anyways, because his dad is mission president, he got to bless the water during the sacrament meeting that had ten apostles and the first presidency on Sunday! How awesome is that. He was scared to death beforehand but said it was a sweet experience.

President and Sister Ashton ate three meals with us and would just talk and teach us the whole time. It was incredible. We saw him the morning they left for Vegas and he tald us a little about what the brethren taught them. What a neat experience to be able to learn from the Lord's chosen servants here upon the earth.

I have continued to grow in my love for the Book of Mormon the further I study and ponder it. I know it is true and I have learned so much from that book. Elder Gray and I taught three different lessons yesterday in Spanish. That was pretty tiring but it was good to recognize how much we have progressed since our first lesson on day 3. We are learning to teach well with each other. I love him. He is awesome!

Oh and just so you all know. Stephen is definitely winning the whole see Michael the most on his mission game. We ate lunch together yesterday.


Monday, June 25, 2012

First Day of Summer

Hey Family!

Hope everyone is well. Thank you for your prayers. I can feel them. I have never understood what people meant when they said that until now. Today all of the new mission presidents will get here! I get to see President Ashton again tomorrow night. I am really excited to see him. There are rumors that all of the apostles will be here at some point in the next six days, but even if they are, I don't know if us missionaries will get to have any interaction with them.

From what I hear, it sounds like you are all fighting over Bekah and that she is traveling the world. That is pretty fun! When is the California trip? Is that in a month? I was thinking it was right now.

We keep watching past talks from the apostles when they spoke at the MTC and they are incredible! They just say it how it is. Philip, I watched the talk last night by Elder Bednar where he talks about the missionaries that came to his house and then asked for referrals and he said no. That was a good one. We watched "The Mountain of the Lord" on Sunday night for our movie night. That was such a good movie. What an inspiration to see those pioneers give all they had to build the Salt Lake Temple. It was humbling to think about the sacrafices they made on our behalf.

I am enjoying the MTC more with each passing day. Forming great friendships and being inspired by the wonderful examples around me. Our new teacher is the best (besides Stevo of course :) and we have been learning so much from him. Our teaching appointments are going better each time as we continue to learn the language, the Gospel, and how to teach line upon line and precept upon precept.

On Tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Robbins of the Seventy. He spoke about receiving revelation and feeling the Holy Ghost. I learned so much and most importantly learned from him that every time I am reading the scriptures and a verse sticks out to me or I underline a scripture, that is the Holy Ghost prompting me. I have realized that as I study with this mindset and as I record what I learn from my scripture study that I learn so much more and that I invite the Lord to share more knowledge with me. On Sunday Sheri Dew was our devotional speaker. She spoke powerfully on having a clear perspective and having an eternal perspective.

It is incredible to be able to be taught so often by such incredible people and by the Holy Ghost. This Gospel truly is the Gospel of Jesus Christ restored to the earth through Joseph Smith!

Love,

Elder Case

Friday, June 15, 2012

First Week Down

Happy Father's Day! (to everyone that applies to...sorry Stephen)

I am loving my life here at the CCM! It is such a blessing to see Stephen so often. I think I saw him three days this week. I am learning more and more about how to be a missionary, how to teach, how to invite the Spirit, how to love, how to speak Spanish, and everything else.

Since Sunday is Father's Day, I thought it would be an appropriate time to tell you all that the building I spend all my class time in is the Parley P. Pratt building and the building I sleep in is the Rey L. Pratt (Parley's grandson) building. How fitting that the two buildings I spend all my time in are the only to Pratt buildings on campus. Just a little reminder to me each day that I have a wonderful father at home that has given me a great legacy to follow.

Today is my first real P-Day. It is different from other days in that I got to go to the temple this morning! It was so nice to be back as these past two weeks is the longest period of time I have gone without going to the temple since August. I realized today being back in that Holy House how much I have come to depend on the peace, knowledge, joy, and power that I gain while there. I also have the rest of the day to wash clothes, study, and finish up other little tasks. Sundays here are interesting. We have a wacky church schedule (like Mike and Lizzy) with Sacrament meeting at the end of the day. We have District Meeting, and Priesthood, a devotional at night, a lot of study time, and then we have Sunday Movie Night where we can watch talks by apostles that were given at the MTC. Last Sunday I watched a talk by Elder Holland entitled, "Missions Are Forever". It was the best talk I have ever heard. So powerful and inspiring.

I spend all of my personal time reading the Book of Mormon. I decided that I was going to read it start to finish before anything else on my mission. It has been such a blessing and I am learning so much more from reading it straight through as I can remember all about the past chapters and what everything means in context.

We found out that the "investigator" we have been teaching was really our second teacher. He is wonderful and brings a whole-nuther dynamic to the classroom. It is incredible to be on the Lord's errand and to devote all of my time to Him.

Thank you all for your prayers. I can feel them. I love you all and hope you are doing well.

Love,

Elder Case

Monday, June 11, 2012

Elder Case at the MTC.






I hope you are all doing well! It seems crazy to me that I just barely got here. These first few days have been pretty confusing, but the MTC is beginning to make sense and every single elder that I have talked to says that as long as you can make it to Sunday, it all gets better. The reason why I feel like I have been here so long is that we do so much. We spend our days in personal study, companionship study, language class, or teaching. My companion is Elder Gray. Him and I were in the same American Heritage class Fall Semester at BYU. He is pretty relaxed and we are becoming better and better friends. We taught our first lesson in Spanish yesterday. It lasted 25 minutes and went fairly well considering that we have only been speaking Spanish for three days. Our investigators name is Cesar and he is very helpful at asking leading questions so that we will teach him what we are supposed to. My Spanish teacher is Hermano Wood and the very first day he looked at me and asked if I had a brother named Stephen. I said yes and he said that Stephen was in the Bishopric in his single's ward. The MTC is a small small world. I decided that Grandma Updike would love it here because not only would she find out how she knew everyone, she would also find out how she was related to everyone.

I have already learned a lot of Spanish. I pray in Spanish (as much as I can, sometimes I have to say some things in English), Elder Gray and I talk in Spanish almost all day, and I can understand just about every word that Hermano Wood says (he talks in simple Spanish for us though). Elder Gray taught me an important lesson last night. We had just come out of class and had been in the classroom all day. We were all tired and frustrated because it was a lot of new Spanish and the concepts were confusing. Hermano Wood finally stopped teaching and just asked us what we wanted to learn and what questions we had. Most of the questions we asked were about how to teach with the Spirit, how to learn the language quickly, and how to succeed here at the MTC. He said that we needed to work hard, pray for help and for the Spirit, and have faith that if we do our part, Heavenly Father will do His. He also told us that we need to understand that we need to be on the Lord's time and not try to seek for things in our own time. After this discussion with Hermano Wood, we had personally study time and Elder Gray and I went outside on the grass and were chatting about the day. We were thinking about what we could do to be more obedient so that we could have the Spirit with us more fully. He looked at me and said that even though he wished that he could have more of the Spirit with him all of the time he was amazed at how much he had already received the gift of tongues. He said that on the first day he could barely understand anything that Hermano Wood said but that yesterday he understood almost every word. I realized that I needed to think that same way. I have been pleading with Heavenly Father ever since I arrived to bless me with the gift of tongues and with the Spirit and yet I haven't recognized the answers to my prayers. I haven't expressed my gratitude for the understanding of the language that I have had or for the Spirit I have felt while here at the MTC. It was a humbling experience and I was grateful to have Elder Gray.

Another neat experience that happened last night was that right after Hermano Wood finished talking to us about how everything would be ok, he asked what we wanted to sing for a closing hymn. I suggested "Because I Have Been Given Much". We had enough time to sing all the verses and as we were singing, the Spirit came and spoke peace to my soul. I had the impression that the Savior has been there before and he understands and that I could rely on him for help. It was such a comfort to know that Heavenly Father knows me and is mindful of me. I am so excited to share this work with the wonderful people of the Texas Houston South Mission!

Hope all is well. Let me know how you all are doing. I forgot to email out my addresses to everyone, but they are on my blog that dad is keeping up. The blog is eldermichaelcase.blogspot.com.

I love you!

Elder Case