Family,
I love you all! I have
missed and thought about each one of you everyday. I want you to know
that while serving a mission is blessing my life, and the life of the
investigators I teach, its also blessing you. God will bless you with
comfort and love and I want you to know that what I am doing is right
and it's important. I am writing each of you letters and have already
sent one to the whole fam. I wont write much more to you each here
because each of you will be getting letters soon. Please read this email
though and know that I am thinking of you and love you.
My MTC experience here has been AMAZING!!!
The spirit is a constant companion here, and can be felt so strongly ALL
the time!! I met my companion Elder Huckvale on Wednesday, and he is so
great!! We instantly clicked are best friends here. I have only known
him for a short time but I can already feel the I have for him as a
companion and as a friend. My other companions in my District are Elders
Standley and Hayter, and Sister Ackley and Magleby. (Not sure if I
spelled the sisters' names right but oh well! :D They are all so
incredible.
Last night Elder Huckvale, Elder Standley, Elder
Hayter, and I stayed up really late (12:00, that's super late for us!!
haha) talking about our testimonies and how/why we decided to serve
missions. I have never in my life felt the spirit so strongly. I want to
share part of that with you:
I started off by reading a note my deceased Grandma
Savage wrote to me years ago that somehow found its way into my luggage.
I truly have no idea how it got there, and I believe she left the note
there for me to re-read. As I began to read a portion of that letter to
my companions I felt her presence and the Holy Ghost so strongly I
couldn't talk or see. Tears flooded my eyes and I couldn't do anything to
stop them. I finally gained my composure enough to read this small
sentence to my companions: "...someone up above is always watching over
you...", and I cant begin to express the spirit we felt as the Holy
Ghost came over all of us as I testified of my Grandma's love for me and
the truthfulness of the Gospel. My Grandma wrote that while she was
still alive and reading that again I felt her with me and I knew that
she was "watching over me". Each one of my companions then bore their
own testimonies and personal stories, that lasted for over two hours!! I
have never spent two hours better in my life! Each one of my companions
had a unique experience and testimony that strengthened each one of us
individually!!
Specifically Priest Quorum and other future missionaries,
The
MTC is hard, It's really really hard. The blessings are amazing, but
sometimes you have to look for them. Just remember to not compare
yourself to other missionaries even if it seems like they are WAY ahead
of you. For a while I felt really discouraged because I was behind the
rest of the class in learning Mongolian. I learned that, while I'm not
learning the language as fast as the others, I excel in other aspects in
the MTC. We all have our strengths, so don't compare yourself, just know
that God has chosen you, by name, to teach in your assigned area. No one
else can do the job you have been called to do. If you remember in
General Conference there was a talk that said something along the lines
of the following:
There was a man called to serve in Presidency and when asked if he would serve he told the presiding leader that he didn't want to serve in that calling because for some reason of another he didn't feel he should. The presiding leader told the man that that position would remain empty if he turned it down. When asked why the presiding leader returned the question with another one: How I can call someone else to do the job God has chosen you to do.
You are individually called of
God to serve a mission and that is something that is completely humbling
and exciting. He knows your strengths and weaknesses and knows what you
can and cant handle. He will give you a mission that will not only
convert and inspire others, but will also help you to grow as a person
and as a Child of God.
A little about the MTC. The schedule is stressful and
you go to bed each night completely worn out. The food does stuff to
your digestive system and makes your fart ALL THE TIME!!!! The people
are crazy nice. you'll have people just randomly ask you about your life
and where your going and where your from, basically your whole life
story. If your learning a language, don't worry it will come. Maybe not
at first but it will come. You will miss your family, its a given. If
you dwell on them, it will make you miss them more, so focus on your
studies; Don't worry you'll have PLENTY to study!!!
Finally I would like to bear my testimony to all of you
that I know this church is true and its through God's grace and mercy
that we have it on the Earth to know how to better ourselves and return
to him. I testify to all of you that I know Joseph Smith restored the
church and the Book of Mormon is God's words written through His
prophets. I know that through constant prayer and scripture reading, our
lives can be blessed. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
-Elder Clement
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