12-5-13

Hola!!!!

Wow!  Thank you for ALL of the emails!  I barely have time to read through them all!  But, thank you!!  I will try to write back as many personal letters as I can throughout the week :)

Wow - so much to say and so little time!  But I'll do my best!  

Thanksgiving Day was a great day!   Russell M. Nelson came and spoke to us about being the most effective missionaries we can be...of course :)  It was wonderful.  I have had the privilege of being in the MTC choir now for 3 devotionals!  The one on Thanksgiving, one with Jan and Philip Trost, and the MTC  Presidency and their wives) and one with Bruce C. Hafen.  WOW!!!  There are SOOO may opportunities to receive revelation here from prophets and apostles of God, it just blows my mind.  Even at BYU there are tons of opportunities to hear from general authorities, but here, it is magnified.  They know we need it I guess haha!!!  We have a Sunday Devotional and a Tuesday devotional every week.  And then last week with Thanksgiving, we had another devotional fireside with Russell M. Nelson!  Elder Ballard was also supposed to come this last Tuesday, but it snowed so much that he wasn't able to travel here from wherever he was - so Elder Bruce
>  C. Hafen came.  It was another incredible, inspired talk!!  Elder Hafen read to us from D+C 109 (the Dedicatory Prayer for the Kirkland Temple).  In vs. 22 - "thy servants" - that's us!  That is the missionaries!  Vs. 23 - they will bear great tidings.  Vs. 38 - put upon the servants the testimony of the covenant.  Vs. 39 - whatsoever city thy servants enter, let them gather the righteous.  Read this section again when you have time.  I know that the Lord covenants with us to give us His power.  To Endow us with His power.  And these covenants are eternal!!  My testimony was strengthened as I listened to Elder Hafen bear testimony of the sacredness of the Temple Covenants we make.  These covenants and this power is given to us..."that we may not faint in the day of trouble."  As members of the church, we are missionaries to everyone around us.  As full-time missionaries, we have the responsibility to share the Gospel with everyone!  What
>  a blessing it is to know that the Lord has endowed us with power through the covenants He has made with us.  Elder Hafen also quoted - Alma 28:8 - the people experienced "sorrows and afflictions, but also incomprehensible joy."'  As we do our best to share what we know with others, we will have sorrows and afflictions, but we will also have incomprehensible joy.  It's inevitable that challenges and trials will come as we are trying to share the Gospel and as we are just living life.  But, I know that we will also have those moments of incomprehensible joy that will come because we are striving to help others feel of God's love for them.  There WILL be joy as we open our hearts and as we are responsive to the Spirit.

Another thing that touched me this week was during the choir rehearsal for the missionary conference on fast sunday.  I love our choir direct, Elder Eggett.  Devin - you HAVE to be in the choir when you are here.  You will LOVE it!  Do everything you can to try and be there for that.  So many people want to be in it and they can't fit everyone in, so make sure you leave early to try to get there for choir when you can.  So, we were singing Angels we have heard on high.  Elder Eggett started asking us if we really understood the greatness of the condescension of God.  Here is Christ, the creator of worlds without number.  He agreed to come to the earth to be born as an infant.  Comparing an infant to the creator of worlds without number - why would the Savior decide to come to the earth to be born as an infant?  Do we really understand the condescension of God?  He agreed to come down to the earth because HE loves us tremendously and wants us
>  to return to live with Heavenly Father and gain eternal life.  I love the Savior and I hope that I can share that love for Him with everyone I meet.  I want to share my testimony of the Savior with everyone.  If we know the Gospel is true, then why are we so afraid to share it sometimes?

Another thing that was so wonderful to watch was the Character of Christ, by Elder Bednar.  Wow.  I am going to go watch it again - there was SO much!  Every Sunday night, you can watch church films or talks that they have set up for the missionaries.  Elder Bednar spoke of the Character of Christ and how there are SO many examples of Christ, throughout the scriptures, turning outward instead of inward.  In the Garden of Gethsemane - he took on the pains, the sorrows, the afflictions, the depression, the tragedies of every person who has ever lived and who will ever live.  If any one of us would have had to take on that pain, we would have died in an instant.  But, because He was the beloved son of God, He could take on those pains - it was so painful that he bled and sweat from every pour.  After hours of agony in the Garden, Judas and the mobs of people came to take him.  In anger, one of the apostles cut off the ear of one of the guards.
>   Even after Christ suffered in agony, he turned outward and healed this man's ear.  When any of us go through hard times, the natural man within us wants us to turn inward, wants us to feel sorry for ourselves, wants us to selfishly keep to ourselves.  But Christ's example of turning outward is the ultimate example.  I want to be even better at turning outward as Christ did.  It is so important for us to read the scriptures everyday, to be reminded of Christ's example of turning outward.  

I love you all - I hope everything is going well for you!  I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve Heavenly Father.  It's challenging, but I know it will be a blessing.

Love, 
Hermana Carroll