MTC

Friday

It seems many of the special spiritual moments I experienced throughout the week were related to video clips with Elder Holland as part of the message. He has a way making a point that touches my soul. Some of them I had heard before and been touched but not as deeply as this week. The training today closed with the vignette about the Idaho potato farmer. He was a service missionary in a Russian country. He planted a matching field of potatoes to the locals and produced 11 times their crop.

Thursday

We had some really neat experiences today.  Our pretend investigator was Amanda about age 30.  She was in a wheelchair. We meet with the investigators in a mock living room that has a camera set up so that our instructor can observe us along with his other three couples as we teach in separate rooms. Amanda made us go out and come in again because we didn’t knock, we had just walked in. However, she immediately warmed up to us as we joked with her.

Her scenario was that she smoked and did some other things. She got in a car at age 17 without having a driver’s license and hit a tree and rolled the car three times. She was thrown from the car and ended up in a coma for six months. She now wonders what her friends are doing who are on missions and why she can’t go see them. She is curious about their beliefs.

We taught her the second discussion.  She was concerned about where she would be after this life. She was concerned that my ruffles on my blouse wouldn’t stay a certain way. She said that Elder Ross was “hot” for an old man and that she would have dated him.  She seemed content with her situation and isn’t bitter about being in a wheelchair. She seemed to feel that she was saved from death because there was more for her to do.

After the end of the lesson we asked how close her pretend scenario was to her life. She had been a wild inactive teenager smoking, doing drugs. She had a baby that she gave up to the church social service for adoption. Her son is now about 17. She hears how he is doing from time to time. She can’t remember if she writes back. There seems to be some cognitive damage although she is bright and sharp in her questions and knew exactly how to make it tough for us to teach her.We saw her later in the cafeteria with her father.

I thought my testimony of the Book of Mormon was already strong, but today it seemed to double. It is such an amazing book. Our Elders in Tobago only carried a Book of Mormon and I thought they should have the other scriptures as well, but no longer.

Overall it was our most spiritual day thus far. I especially enjoyed the 20 mark story told by Elder Bednar about Elder Packer and his wife were visiting his mission when Elder Bednar was 20. I had heard it in General Conference and had wanted to hear it again. The Lord is in control and watches over us.

Wednesday

We had to teach an investigator cold turkey. We did OK. It was an interesting experience. It was a different approach than we used the last time we were here.