Dear Friends and Family,
Two weeks down, 4 days to go! I head out for Raleigh at 4:00 AM on Monday! I am SO excited!
This week was pretty crazy. Saturday evening, I started to get sick. That night, I was having a really hard time falling asleep because I couldn't really breathe very well. After hours of heavy breathing and scaring my companion, I was finally able to fall asleep at 2:30 in the morning. When we woke up, I was still having a hard time breathing. We went to the doctor to see if he could help, and he sent us out into the "real world" to go to the InstaCare, which was a bummer because I missed our priesthood meeting. It turns out that everything was fine, and a new inhaler and some medicine to take care of congestion did the trick. Sacrament meeting was AWESOME. It was all about the Atonement of Christ and His earthly ministry. The sacrament was blessed in sign language by the ASL district in our branch. It was really cool to watch, and what was even better was how the Spirit grew stronger even though they weren't saying any words. The Sunday devotional was also super great. It was given by the director of missionary services, and it was about Christlike love and charity, which just so happens to be the Christlike attribute that I've been working on currently. After the devotional, I went on a split with our district leader, Elder Robledo, to take pictures with our respective friends. It was great to see a bunch of my friends from the Logan institute choir and Latter-day Voices. After the pictures were taken, Elder Robledo told me that his head really hurt from getting elbowed while playing basketball in gym on Friday, and he asked if we could run to the doctor again. 10 minutes later, we were back among the Gentiles in the emergency room. Hours passed, and a CT scan showed that there was no brain damage, so they just shot him up with a lot of pain-killer through an IV for a good 45 minutes while I just reviewed past notes that I had taken during my scripture studies over the summer because my little notebook was all I had with me when we got out of the devotional. When Elder Robledo was ready for release and our ride had come to take us back for the MTC we walked out into the parking lot when a man ran after us yelling, "Elders, Elders!" We talked to him and he asked if we could help him give a priesthood blessing. It was already 45 minutes past the time we were supposed to be asleep in our beds, but we followed him back into the hospital to administer to a frail, frightened woman, who apparently was just about to be prepped for surgery. As we headed back to our rooms, Elder Robledo and I discussed the day's events. It was very interesting to us that even though he got hit on Friday, the symptoms didn't begin until Sunday night, which placed us in the emergency room just at the right time to be able to help with that late-night priesthood blessing. I know that the Lord uses His children to help His other children, and I am so happy, excited, and honored to be nothing but an instrument in His hands for the next two years.
My favorite part of the MTC is the Training Resource Center (TRC). Every day, we do a lot of role-playing to practice our teaching skills. But in the TRC, the role-playing is completely different. We meet with real people, who have their own real stories, and we get to teach them for practice. A lot of them are new converts, but many of them are inactive members or nonmembers, and, to be honest, you can't really tell which category they fall in, and they aren't allowed to tell us. My favorite investigator in the TRC is an elderly man named Melvin. He is struggling with the recent death of his wife. When we first knocked on his door, he barely even let us in, on the condition that we could chat with him, but we couldn't teach him. As we talked more about him and his recent loss, some things led to another, and now he knows all about the Restoration of Christ's gospel through Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, the Atonement of Christ, prayer, eternal families, the plan of salvation, temples, and the different steps we must take to come unto Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). As we taught him that he could live with his wife again for eternity, he completely changed. Now, he is interested in being baptized and is making great progress. In our last discussion, as we testified to him that he could live with his entire family again for eternity, the Holy Ghost flooded the room and taught him that our words were true. Even more miraculously, the Spirit told us that he knew it was true too! The Holy Ghost literally showed us his thoughts and feelings. He prayed at the end of our discussion to have help to change so that he could receive these blessings and to know with a greater assurance that our words were true. My testimony of the principle taught in Moroni 10:4-5 has grown so much stronger. I only have 3 minutes of computer time left, so I'll let you read it yourself.
I hope all of you are doing well! The best (and sometimes worst) part of the day is when we check the mail. I love hearing from you! Please write me more! I have one more scripture that I want to leave with you before I go. It's in Alma 7:11-13.:
"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith that he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me."
I love you all so much!
Love, Elder Schank
