Week 10 Begins!

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello one and all! Hope you all are doing/did well this past week. It was a good week here at the MTC! A little lonely/isolated considering I only got two letters and they both came on Friday, but nonetheless a good week! Today is a big day for my district because it means that we have 1 more P-day, we will be flying two weeks from today, and as of today we have been in the MTC for 2 months exactly (came in May 23rd). So shout hooray for us! This week we got through the 10 commandments and th Law of Chastity with Kim. This week we are planning on the Word of Wisdom and then her baptism! Should be pretty exciting week for us! Zoe is also doing well. Her family is doing better since last week and she is making great progress. We finished up lesson two this week and invited her to be be baptized. She said she wants to but feels a little rushed since we want to do it August 4th (two days before we leave). She is praying about it and this week we will follow up with her and teach the 3rd lesson all about the Doctrine of Christ (my favorite lesson to teach since it's so easy to make applicable to all people.)

My district got to host this past week so that was great! There were 500 new missionaries who came in. Including 118 new sisters--the largest group of incoming sisters that they have had all year.  The first missionary I hosted is going to Singapore Malay speaking, the second was Las Vegas West English, and the thrid was a sister going to Salt Lake City English. The last one was really cool because the people who dropped her off at the MTC were the missionaries that converted her 2 years ago in Wisconsin. It was awesome!  The MTC is now up to 2400 missionaries so meals are more like a chore now as you stand in long lines and can never find room at tables for the district to sit together at. Oh, well. It will be a lot easier in Hong Kong when I'm only looking for two seats.

Devotional Update: On Tuesday we had an awesome devotional! Elder Featherstone (an Emeritus Seventy) spoke to us and shared a number of great stories about his life of service in the church and the need for spirituality. He had a number of great thoughts but shared to quotes that I liked. "Make no small plans, they have no magic upon the souls of men." I took this to mean "go for it". Don't just be average or mediocre. Stretch myself and try to achieve something great. Another great quote was "Spirituality is the greatest gift and talent that one can receive." Knowing the doctrine and being a good orator is important in many ways, but the best thing to have as we teach these foreign concepts to investigators, especially non-Christians like I will teach, is the Spirit. Without the spirit these are just stories. Last night our speaker was Stephen B. Allen who is the  head of the Church missionary department. He comes and is the speaker every 4th Sunday and it was really good last night. He talked about Pioneer day and likened missionaries to modern day pioneers. Our paths are hard and we don't know exactly how it will be, but press forward. He played a recording of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Come Come Ye Saints--we listened to it once, sang softly a second time, and the third time he asked us to sing with conviction and meaning. It was really spiritual experience to me. Music is like that for me. More so than anything else.

I haven't been getting any of Grandma and Grandpa Beus's letters...Are they forwarding them to me? Or could you? Whatever works. Or give me highlights.

A thought before I leave: I'm almost done with the Book of Mormon and this week got through 3 Nephi, 4 Nephi, and now in Mormon. Two verses that I came across were 3 Nephi 12:48, and 3 Nephi 27:27. Look them up and then compare them to Matthew 5:48. In Matthew Christ says be like the Father. In  12:48 he says himself and the Father, and in 27:27 he says himself. I was pondering on this and this is my thought. I'd appreciate correction if I am wrong or if you have any further insight. But In Matthew I don't think he has been resurrected yet. And in both 3rd Nephi's he has been. Though Christ lived a perfect life while on the earth, his body was not yet perfected and he had not completed his work and become immortal as the Father--therefore be like they Father which is in Heaven. Upon the resurrection and immortal body he had proved to have lived a perfect life and could now teach others to be as he is and as the Father. So what I'm getting at is that the perfect we strive for is not just to act like them but to be like them one day. We desire immortality and that is the final step to perfection. Think about that.

Anyway, love you all and appreciate your prayers in my behalf. I need them all the time but especially these last couple weeks here.

 

Love,

Elder Siebach

 

P.S.- Elder Park from one of the Keller Wards left this morning so I am the only Colleyville Stake missionary in here at the time.