Dear family!
How are you all? This week has been such a good one! Can you believe that as of tomorrow, I will be in my 6th week here at the MTC?? So strange! Then it's less than 3 weeks until we leave for Poland...ahh! The Bulgarians left this morning which was bittersweet. We're so excited for them because they were going to go to Arizona but then their visas miraculously arrived on Friday! So they were very very happy. Last night we sang "God Be with you til we meet again" in polish, which translated is actually "God don't abondon us until we meet again" it was very nice. We sing a lot better now then we did at the start! Because we can read faster :)
Anyway probably the best thing that happened this week was reflecting on Elder Bednar's talk from Xmas here called "the Character of Christ." It was very good. Elder Bednar talked about a quote from Elder Maxwell:
"There would have been no atoning sacrifice without the character of Christ."
So then he talked about character and how every action the Savior did was turning outward. Even when He had every reasonable justification to turn inward and focus on himself (like any natural man would do), but He looked outward and focused on others and His Heavenly Father. He encouraged us to study the New Testament and look for those moments of selflessness, putting off the natural man. And he quoted Mosiah 3:19 a number of times, explaining that through the Atonement, we too can become saints and put off the natural man. He asked us what are the implications of this for missionary work? Basically: This isn't about me. It's about Christ and it's about those people that can come unto Christ through attaining a testimony AND become converted to the Lord.
One really cool insight Elder Bednar had on Ether 3 was about the stones the Brother of Jared brought to the Lord. Like the Brother of Jared, we need to come to the Lord not only with our problems, but solutions. Come to him with a proposal. Elder Bednar read verse 4 and explained that the Lord touched each one--why did he touch them one by one? Why not change all sixteen at once? And AFTER the stones were illluminated, the veil was lifted. So the Brother of Jared's faith was increased as he saw the evidence (the stones lighting up) each time until his faith became pure knowledge and he couldn't be held back. Anyway then Elder Bednar related this to us. He said those individual stones represent the people we serve. When we turn outward and watch them become illuminated by the Master's hand, our faith increases.
He also talked about becoming selfless is a line upon line process. As we do a little bit every day, the enabling power of grace comes in and increases our capacity to become like Christ. His grace is what saves us. The faith neccessary for salvation has three parts:
1) Faith to accept the idea that God exists
2) A correct understanding of His character and attributes
3) Actual knowledge that the course you are pursuing is in accordinance with His will
What else to tell you sweet family? Our investigators are doing well! We have a new one named Zbyszek (z-bih-sheck) and he is super nice. I like him a lot. It was kind of sad/funny last lesson, he told us how his wife and daughter DIED and I was the only one who understood! my companions thought he said they got divorced but they didnt' look terribly sad. So i was like I'm so sorry! that is really sad. And after they were like what did he say? Sister masters was like ah!! they died!!
I love you all. Remember Mosiah 3:19--put off the natural man! yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit :)
Love,
Sara
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