Monday, July 30, 2012

3 Births

Family,

Just for the record, three babies have been born in our family since I left on my mission and I haven't even left the MTC. That is crazy! Sounds like you are all doing well. I just got the update from Stephen as he and I had lunch yesterday. How awesome is it that I get to eat lunch with my best friend at the MTC? Good luck to everyone with your plethora of travels. And congratulations to David and Cami on their new baby! I am so happy and excited for you.

As always I am wonderful! Elder Gray and I have a temporary third companion from the advanced district. All of his district already left but he didn't have his travel plans. He has been with us since Wednesday and he leaves on Monday for the Arizona Mesa Mission! He will only be in our mission until he gets his visa and then he goes on to Veracruz Mexico. But I am going to give him our address and phone number and if he serves in the Via Verde branch you all need to find him and tell him how much I love him and how wonderful he is. His name is Elder Soto. He is from California. His dad died when we was 14 and he joined the church during his junior year of high school. He has been a member for almost two years now and is such a powerful missionary. The temple is open again and we went with him today. It was only his second time but it was a sweet experience. We have taught four lessons with him and the last two have been incredibly powerful. When he bears his testimony, he can relate perfectly to the investigators stories and you can tell that he is converted. It is powerful. It has made me think about Mike Shuga and how powerful of a missionary he is going to be. I have known at least ten missionaries now who are converts within the last two years and all of them are the hardest workers and extremely focused.

I have continued to study the Book of Mormon and have spent this past week or so reading from Alma 17 on. I am now in Alma 31 and I could not be any more excited to be a missionary right now. When President Ashton was here for Mission President's Training, he told us to study the stories and Ammon and his brethren and learn what they did to bring thousands of souls to Christ. I have been studying it in great depth and have learned so much. They were incredible missionaries. Two things have stuck out to me above all others. The first is that they became an instrument in the hands of God and the second is that there is three different accounts of them teaching and they begin by asking, "Believest thou that there is a God?" I have wondered on this question and have come to realize that it is the most fundamental doctrine of our life. The song "I am a Child of God" has taken on so much more meaning in my life. It is incredible to me to think that there are people that don't know that they are children of God. But we are. I know that. I know that God loves each and every one of us with an infinite love and that He wants nothing more than to have us return to our heavenly home to dwell with Him forever.

Thank you for your emails, your love, and most importantly your prayers. I love you all and I pray for you daily. I am so grateful for our family and for the blessing that I have had to grow up in a home not only where the Gospel is taught but where the Gospel is lived. Thank you all for your examples of righteousness.

Love,

Elder Case

Monday, July 23, 2012

Reporting to the Lord

Hey Family!

Hope you are all doing well and home safe from California without too bad of a sunburn! Dax looks like a cute little boy. It is crazy to think that he will be two when I get home! Thank you all for your love and support and prayers. It seems like everyone is super busy right now and that life is hectic.

Life for me is wonderful. I cannot imagine being any other place on earth than serving the Lord full time. Yesterday was the best day yet! Elder Gray and I had set some goals and then just worked super hard the whole day and received some incredible blessings. First of all, we have started waking up at 6:00 every morning and running around the MTC which is just a good start to the day. We use the 20 minutes as a time to practice Spanish and the grammar that we learned the day before. We also have set the goal to only speak Spanish for our last three weeks here. We haven't been perfect at it but have certainly improved dramatically in our efforts and ability. What a blessing to receive the gift of tongues so rapidly. I know that I still have a long way to go, but it is incredible at how far we have come since day one. Our roomates shipped out earlier this week and we didn't new roomates, so we did some remodeling in our room and put our bunkbeds together. I have bottom and he has top. Now we each have our own king size bed. We definitely are living the spoiled life at the MTC. I will send pictures home this week so you can see it.

We had a really neat opportunity to help a new elder that came into our zone. He was scared to death, didn't know what was going on, planned to be here for nine weeks but was only here for 2 weeks and a day, slept in three different rooms in three nights, and so many others crazy issues. We only had the opportunity to know him for three days but in that time came to love him so much. It is amazing how serving people has that effect. He left this morning and we saw him off. It was an incredible experience to see the hand of the Lord in his life and ours.

Elder Gray and I are already worrying about not being companions in the field. We have been trying to figure out what we can do to receive a promise from President Ashton that we will be albe to serve for at least one transfer together. So far, nothing too convincing. We have become the best of friends and enjoy everything we do here at the MTC. Also, a bunch of my boys from my elders quorum are here now and it is so good to see them and see that they are continuing to do and be good.

One of our teachers talked with us as a district earlier this week about reporting to the Lord each night. I have heard about this a number of times but have never really applied it. I started to this week and boy has it been good for me. Each night I kneel down and discuss my day with the Lord, my failings, and my accomplishments. I express my gratitude for His help throughout the day and try and recognize all the ways I saw His hand in my life. I have become so much more appreciative for prayer as I have done this and I have been able to feel the Spirit more than ever as I then make a conscience effort the next day to improve from the day before. Line upon line, I have found that I can improve.

I am still reading the Book of Mormon and loving it so much. I just read all about Alma and Amulek today and was grateful that I don't have to endure their same trials. What a great example of a missionary companionship. I also will finish reading Our Heritage today. I have gained a renewed appreciation for the pioneers and their many sacrifices. I have loved reading through the book and knowing just about every place in there. It was much more powerful for me because I could remember Haun's Mill, the Kirtland Temple, Nauvoo, the Sacred Grove, and especially Carthage Jail. Thank you dad for planning those wonderful trips and for allowing me every opportunity to grow and strengthen my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this work is true. I don't think I have been happier in my life. It is wonderful. 

I love you all and pray for you often.

Elder Case

Friday, July 13, 2012

The Gift of the Holy Ghost

Hi Family!

Hope you are all doing well and that those of you that aren't restricted by a due date in the next week are enjoying yourselves in California! It looks like you had a fun time in NYC Mary. I am super jealous! Thank you all for your letters and emails and DearElders. They are a great support. Thank you even more for your prayers. I love you all!

This week for our devotional Sunday night we had the MTC Executive Director speak to us. He gave a wonderful talk about missionary work and taught us powerful principles. What Elder Gray and I liked the most though is that he taught about the gift of the Holy Ghost. He told a story about some missionaries that were having a hard time committing an investigator to baptism. This man talked to the investigator and explained that when we are baptized we can have the gift of the Holy Ghost to be with us forever. The man then was baptized. As Elder Gray and I have thought about this story, we taught all three of our "investigators" about the wonderful opportunity we have to have this gift. All of our investigators finally committed to baptism. This was the key.

This has made me think about how I feel towards the opportunity that I have to have the Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead, with me at all times. It has been a humbling experience to realize that I have taken this gift from God for granted at times in my life. We then watched an MTC talk by Elder Bednar last night in class entitled 'Recognizing the Spirit'. It was powerful. He said, that if we wonder whether or not we are being led by the Holy Ghost, to "quite worrying about it!'' He was pretty blunt. He said that if we are keeping are covenants, obeying the commandments, and trying to be and do good, that the Lord will guide us. He said that the Lord couldn't afford to not guide us because we still haven't overcome the natural man. How grateful I am for prophets and apostles in this day and age. For the opportunity to be participating in the greatest work on earth, the gathering of Israel.

Other than that, I am doing wonderful. I am happy and well. Thank you for your prayers. I return them all to you.

Elder Case

Friday, July 6, 2012

Fourth of July

Hola Familia!

I hope you all are doing well. Thank you for your emails, letters, and prayers. They are a great support. This week has been incredible. On Sunday night for our devotional we had a man that was dressed up as Willard Richards. For the opening song we sang, "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and the Spirit testified to me that Joseph truly did see God the Father and His Son. Then this man, gave an hour long presentation on Joseph Smith. It was all memorized and he quoted a lot from the journal of Willard Richards and others journals. For the closing song we sang, "Praise to the Man". I have never before in my life felt the Spirit testify to me like it did on Sunday night. I now know to my very soul that Joseph Smith was called of God. I cannot describe the power of that experience but I know that as I spend the next two years testifying that Joseph was a prophet and that he truly saw what he said he saw, I will be able to do so with power, with authority, and with all of my being because I now know and I will never be able to forget that feeling. After the fireside we watched the Joseph Smith movie. I won't even get into what that did to me. The MTC is a place of power, a place of the Spirit, and a place of truth. It is truly incredible.

We got to watch the fireworks! Beforehand though we had a wonderful fireside. During which we sang "America the Beautiful". I am coming to realize the power of hymns because as we all sang that hymn the Spirit came. I started crying as I realized that this is the promised land. This is the land that the Lord has watched over and carefully prepared so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ could be restored once again to the earth. What a blessing it is to live here. After the fireside we were instructed to not reture to our residence halls until after the fireworks were over. I felt like the most rebellious soul not being in my bed at 10:30. It was a fun night complete with bagpipes, speakers, the fiddle, and lots of singing.

Some fun stories that I have been forgetting to include. My very first night here I didn't have a towel (you were right mom) so I had to borrow one from Elder Gray. While in the shower I was shaving (never a good idea without a mirror) and then someone turned all the lights off. I cut myself really badly and was bleeding all over the place, there was no light, and I got blood all over Elder Gray's towel. It was funny. Another funny story was that during our second lesson, Elder Gray was teaching the Atonement and instead of saying "podemos ser limpios de nuestros pecados" (we can be clean of our sins), he said "podemos ser limpios de nuestros pescados" (we can be clean from our fishes). Our investagator/teacher died laughing. Last story was that we were showering the other day and our roommate closed the door (which automatically locks) and when after our showers we were all just standing in the hall in our towels for 30 minutes while we waited for someone else to pick up a spare key for us. The other Elders had quite a laugh.

Anyways, my time just ran out. I love you all and I am learning and loving this place and this Gospel. I know with all my heart that it is true. Thank you for your prayers.

Love,

Elder Case