The Joy of the MTC :)

On June, 29, 2010 Elder Johnson wrote:

While I was reading the Doctrine and Covenants, I came across a verse in section 24 (verse 13). It loosely said that the apostles of the church (or "elders", the one's who's task is relatively the same as ours) have power over poisonous serpents. After I read that, I did some research and found that Christ himself promised that to his apostles. Cool fact. It gives me hope.

This week has been OK...There are, from my research, two types of missionaries. Those who like the MTC, and those who don't. Does it affect the quality of the mission? I don't think so. There are just some people who don't like the boot camp like feel of the MTC, those who don't like to have the same schedule everyday, or who just don't like to fit into a "groove". I am one of them. I'd like to point out that Jesus is as well (at least from my vantage point). Instead of sitting around, trying to teach those who wanted to accuse, he was out blessing and serving. He, like me, would have wanted to be out in the field, learning as He went, and teaching, instead of being in a classroom. The class He would have taught, including Peter, James and John, was hands-on, in the moment, "do what you feel you should do now and we'll talk about what you did well and what you think you need to work on later" attitude.

We live in a slightly different generation, where instead of just sending you out, straight to the field, you learn how to speak first, learn the lessons first. Is it better? Who can say? I probably would have been happy going out without much notice or training like Dan Jones or Joseph Fielding Smith. But alas, in this day we have training first. The Lord, through a prophet, set up this training center, so I smile. Grin. Bear it. Nod along. Six more weeks.

We had the opportunity to be edified on Friday from Elder Dalin H. Oaks, who taught us about how this church is true and how it is different. It was wonderful, and I had the opportunity to be in the presence of six other apostles of the Lord, including Bednar, Nelson, and Christopherson. My testimony grew from the knowledge that they are called of God. You can feel it when they are just in the room with you.