Llegar a Ser un Misionero "Predicad Mi Evangelio"

Hola Hola!!

How is everyone? Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and vacations! It has been fun this past week to see Elder Holmes multiple times throughout the day because we are on the same daily schedule. We have enjoyed our time on the bball court, it has brought back some great memories of good old church ball! Things are well as always here at the MTC and things have definitely slowed down since the Mission President Seminar we had last week. Last Thursday, we were priveleged to hear from Elder Bednar, a modern-day apostle of Jesus Christ. With him were 6 other apostles, namely Elder Anderson, Nelson, Scott, Holland, Oaks, and Ballard. The Spirit was so strong just simply being in the presence of these servants of the Lord and the reverence was amazing among the missionaries. Elder Bednar spoke to us about "Becoming Preach My Gospel Missionaries" (Llegar a ser un misionero predicad mi evangelio). He addressed 5 points that missionaries should: 1. Understand that they serve and represent Jesus Christ 2. Are worthy 3. Treasure up words of eternal life 4. Understand that the Holy Ghost is the Ultimate Teacher 5. Teaching is more important than just talking or telling. These points are simple, but extremely important. In his conclusion, Elder Bednar got emotional and then declared in a soft but powerful voice, "You can do this." We were all edified and strengthened by this experience to learn with apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. This week we recieved a new teacher who replaced our teacher that we grew really fond of. We were disappointed at first but when we began learning from this teacher (who is actually 2 weeks off the mission), we realized that we were supposed to learn from him these last two weeks of our MTC experience. He immediately started helping us improve our teaching skills and our abilities to love those people we teach. I also learned a lot about obedience while thinking of our Savior this week. Jesus Christ never had a personal agenda, He solely did the will of the Father, with 100% obedience. We can learn a great lesson from this example that as we are 100% obedient as missionaries to the mission rules and as God's children being 100% obedient to His commandments, we will have the Spirit to be with us in order to help others come unto Christ and look toward His perfect example as well. I also realized that "a missionary is one who leaves his family for a short time so that many other families can be together for eternity." This quote really hit home for me as I once again realized the importance of this calling to be a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. We recieved our travel plans today and I will officially be leaving the MTC heading for Mexico on July 11th! This day is coming up very quickly and I am very excited to begin finding those who are searching for truth. It will be difficult, especially at first in my broken Spanish, but I know there are so many of you supporting me and praying for me. The Lord will strengthen me in any trial or challenge that I will have, what a comforting thought! I miss you all, summer is flying by so have some fun while it lasts!!! Les Quiero Mucho!

-Elder Stutz