Week 5

Dearest family and friends,

Happy Birthday Dad.  I wrote you a letter, but I sent to St. Louis.  Hope everyone is doing well.  I leave now for the Land Down Under in about a month.  I love MTC, but I am excited to get in the field.  The last week was great.  Thanks for cinnamon rolls, mom, and dad.  I shared them with the district.  They were delicious.  It was a fun way to celebrate our halfway point.  Life is good.  I have a little bit of a cough, but I'm feeling better.  I've taught a lot of lessons in the last couple days, so it has been pretty busy.  Sometimes we role-play with each other.  I cast myself as a 101-year-old man. I guess I try to enjoy the moment.  I continue to sing and whistle frequently.  My companion is very patient with me.  Haha.  He honestly is great.  I think we're really learning from each other.  

Thanks Peter for that scripture 2 Timothy 4:7.  I've thought about it a lot these couple days.  I promise I'm trying to give it my all.  It's not easy, but I'm doing my best.  In these couple days, my appreciation for the Bible and Book of Mormon has grown.  My companion and I taught a returned missionary who went to California, Vietnamese-speaking, about how revelation comes through the scriptures.  We taught entirely from Alma 34 because we wanted to demonstrate how much we learn from just a couple verses.  He thanks for our testimonies.  The language is coming along, but I feel that as we teach with sincerity and love, the people we are teaching will feel it.  I feel that love is such a critical component of teaching.  We have been working on teaching the individual, not simply a lesson--teaching the doctrine, but teaching a lesson that is for them.  I have felt our teaching become stronger in these past couple days as we have done this.  

We also taught a lesson about prayer and how it is a way in which we can literally communicate with God.  We read the story of Daniel.  I like this story because it represents that prayer is so important and critical, that Daniel would be willing to sacrifice his life to pray.  I know that prayer is real.  I have been comforted and received personal inspiration when I remember the place of God in my life.  In Daniel 6:27, it talks about how he was delivered and rescued.  We then bore witness that God will bless as we heed his commandments.  We also bore testimony that God will answer her prayers as we simply say a prayer in faith and knock (Doctrine and Covenants 84:63).  I know that Christ said we should keep the commandments simply because we love Him, but I do know that great blessings will come also.  Yet, trials and tests will arise.  I love Psalms 37:34 and Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 because it reminds me that Christ will be there for us and will be a side, even to lift us up.  As Peter had faith and walked on the Sea of Galilee, Christ can also lift us up in our sorrows and trials, and help us rise and overcome all.  

I want to tell two quick stories:

A story from church:  One is about a man named Wendell Johnson.  He was a high school athlete, and popular and artistic.  When he was in tenth grade, he broke his neck and became paralyzed from the neck down.  Yet, he refused to stop.  He was able to gain some motion in his shoulder and elbow on one side.  He taught himself to paint.  Look up the picture he made of Christ.  It took him over eight months.  Yet, it was also down with vertical strokes.  He married, had one child, taught Sunday School, and became the Justice of the Peace of Mapleton of the town he lived.  It was said at his funeral that he was "bushel exploding under the noonday sun . . . given one talent and returned 50 . . . a mustard seed that became a sequoia."  I know that everyone has gifts from God.  This taught me that we should not only endure life, but endure well.  I know that each of us can do mighty things through God.  Life may get hard, but I will remember Wendell.

Story 2:

I met an Elder from the Phillipines.  We talked for about an hour before the Devotional last night because he was separated from his companion (his companion gets impatient with him I guess because of the language barrier.  This Elder though is one of the most humble and pure individuals I have ever me.  He is learning both English and Chinese.  Isn't that amazing?  He was baptized when he was 14 years-old.  His father would beat him when we went to Church activities.  His father then left his mother, brother, and sister when he put in his papers to serve a mission.  As I talked to him, I knew that God loves him.  It made me want to cry.  I love him and I know God will bless him because he is serving a mission.  This Elder made me realize the sacrifice some people make to serve missions and to be baptized.  I'm privileged to have met him.  I felt impressed to share with him 1 Nephi 21:14-17.  I wanted him to know even more that that God has not forgotten him and his love for him in written in the palms of his hands.  I inspired each day by the people I meet.  Hopefully, one day, I can have the same faith as this Elder. 

I love you all.  Dad, Happy Birthday!  Mom, be safe on the roads and keep enjoying all your visiting with family.  Sarah, thanks for your blogposts and I think it is so cool that you are learning to repair books.  Anna, hope you're enjoying Quickwater.  I'm sorry about all the car troubles.  Hyrum, keep dancing away.  You have to gift to bring a smile to people's faces.  Peter, keep singing Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra.  I remember going through the Lincoln tunnel with you last year singing New York, New York.  Elias, I'm glad you loved the rafting trip.  Thanks for your encouragement.  Thanks mom for the picture at Matthias' gravesite.  I've thought about him these past couple days.  Because of 3 Nephi 17, I know I can trust God with Matthias.  Christ will always look after the children. 

Yours in the gospel of love.  Please pray for me as I pray for you.  For we all need it. 

Elder Shumway