Querido Familia e Amigos,
 |
| Mason, Sara and Adam OCTOBER 2000 |
After six weeks at the MTC it's strange to be heading out.
Sometimes while we're here we've forgotten that there is an outside world
almost, hard to imagine a place where people don't have nametags, walk around
with phones and hold hands with the opposite sex. Every once in a while we will
see a teacher or a senior couple pull out a phone and we're like WOAAH!! WHAT
IS THAT? Honestly that's not even an exaggeration. Whenever we walk outside my
companion points to the mountains and says "Those are fake," and some
days we question reality when they look just a little too much like a fake
backdrop for an old movie....
Speaking of my new companion, I HAVE A NEW COMPANION! Yes
that is companion number FIVE in SIX WEEKS. I guess I must be difficult to work
with or something because I have just blown through companions. Actually what
happened is that he is headed to Toronto Canada Portuguese speaking so he needs
to be able to understand the Continental Dialect which his first district was
studying to go to Africa in Mosambique and Cape Verde and then he spends this
week studying the Brazilian dialect with us. It was actually really hard to see
his district go because we grew almost as close to them as we did as a
district. They left Monday and Tuesday morning and I couldn't believe how much
I was missing them after only knowing them for a few short weeks.
Elder Langdren and I have had a great time together. Since
this has been my first time with just one companion it has been a new
experience and I've loved every second of it. We have a room to ourselves as
well which is nice to just have a bunch of extra space and it's been really
cool to just have deep conversations in our down time. It's been cool for both of us because we both want to be super diligent and obedient and we have had the Spirit edify
us so much more as we have worked for it
.
So one of the things I've thought about the most this week
and at the MTC in general is the scripture in Alma about "Having the image
of God engraven upon your countenance." There are some videos that we get
to watch on sunday nights that are recordings of previous firesides at the MTC
from Apostles and Prophets and I'm pretty sure they are only available here.
The number one video is by far the one from Elder Bednar at Christmas 2005
about the Character of Christ. He talks about how the Character of Christ is
that when the natural man would turn in, Christ turns out. He describes the
natural man by paralleling it with the Cookie Monster "I want cookie
NOW!!!" and how sometimes we as missionaries say "I want Baptism
NOW!!" or "I want investigators NOW!!" and we forget our
purpose. "It's not about you" he says, "so quit worrying about
yourself and get to work." As a missionary I am a representative of Jesus
Christ. That means I am standing at doors and sitting in lessons acting more or
less doing what Christ would do if he were ministering. In order to do that
effectively I have to turn out as he would do. Elder Bednar says that as he
talked to recent converts and asked why they let the missionaries keep teaching
them they said that often they understood very little of what the missionaries
were saying, whether out of complexity or inability with the language, but they
let them back because of how they felt. I hope to be able to be a conduit of
Christ's love for the people of Colorado and then those in Brazil.
On a fun note my former companion Elder Moore caught a
little bird the other day. It was cool and he was petting it and everything and
I know that he loves baby animals and that's a calming thing for him while he's
away from his farm so I was happy for him. So we went to lunch and he kept it
with him just kind of holding it and petting it and next thing I know a Sister
made him jump and the bird goes flying around the cafeteria!! It was
ridiculous. He caught it back pretty quickly but not without making a bit of a
disturbance. Good times.
One last note I saw my man Sean Clancy here the other day.
He came to my table and looked past me and after asking if we were speaking
spanish or portuguese asked if we knew an Elder Della-Piana, then I did a
double take and realized who he was and it was super awesome to see him.
Well I'm signing off for now, I love you all. Know that
Christ loves you too and wants to hear from you so pray and then search the
scriptures because that is where you will find answers.
Love,
~Elder Della-Piana
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