Third MTC Email

Querida Amigos--

All is well here at el CCM.

We have a new investigator! Her name is Eliana. She lost her husband a few years ago in a car accident. She is such a sweet spirit! She is pretty receptive to our message and right now we are trying to help her understand the Plan of Salvation and baptism right now. How we love her! I hope and pray that our lesson goes well tomorrow and that she will feel and understand what will be most helpful to her.

We are continuing to teach Fabian. I love teaching him too! He is so sad and has so little hope about life, but as he has learned about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are beginning to see a light of hope in his eyes.

This gospel is so amazing! It gives meaning to and a purpose to life! It helps us answer those important questions of "Who Am I? Where did I come from? and Where am I going?"
This week I learned to be flexible--just because we have a lesson planned does not mean we will/should teach it that day. Sometimes going a completely different route is much better. That doesn't mean don't plan--it just means plan as best you can and allow your plans to be changed and  follow the Lord's plan for you and for the investigator. I also learned it is much more beneficial to keep it simple, teach from the heart, and LISTEN! Listening is so important!

The weeks seem to be flying by. I can't believe I've been here 3 weeks!

On Sunday Sister Anne Clegg taught Relief Society. She is on the General Relief Society Board. (Sister Clegg is a womens' leader in the church in Salt Lake City) She taught us 3 things we need to know before we leave the MTC: 1. Know your purpose, 2. Be bold, and 3. Expect miracles. Then for the Fireside that night Brother Richard I. Heaton (another church leader) taught us about not worrying about what to say--we need to rely on the Spirit.

On Tuesday, we had the FIRST EVER missionary devotional at BYU's Marriott Center! (Usually the missionaries just meet at the Missionary Training Center but there are so many of them, that they changed the venue. The Missionary Training Center is located just up the street from the BYU Campus) We all got to walk over and have choir practice and then have a devotional there.

Elder Mervyn B. Arnold of the Seventy spoke. (Elder Arnold is a Church leader in Salt Lake City.) 

Over half of the MTC was in the choir--over 2000 missionaries in the choir! We sang a neat arrangement of "Called to Serve." (It sounded a lot like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Version.) What an amazing Spirit was there!

Elder Arnold then talked about 5 things we can do to be successful missionaries: 1. Understand who you are, 2. Each of your has been given specific gifts and talents, 3. Understand the sacredness of your call and what you covenanted to do when you accepted your call, 4. Understand and observe the law of the Gospel, and 5. Understand your purpose.

What a blessing to be here at this time and to experience the hastening of the work!
How grateful I am to be serving the Lord! I know this is the Lord's work. I know The Book of Mormon is the word of God! I know that God loves us and blesses us when we are striving to follow Him. I know that the Gospel blesses families!

I love you all so much! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Se amo mucho!

Hermana VanWie

This is a picture of Anne and her companera (companion) Hermana Stoelzing