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