#AllTheSpirit - Week 2

What an amazing week Here at the MTC!! Not too shabby at all! Last Tuesday night we had a devotional, the speaker was Bishop Causse of the First Bishopric and his wife. It was so good!! A lot of his points and quotes were so good and inspiring.. one of my favorites was "We need to be the Missionaries people think we are." That truly hit home. People think missionaries are the kindest and most generous people in the world, we HAVE to live up to that! He then ended the meeting instead of singing a closing hymn, he played an absolutely BEAUTIFUL arrangement of Come, Come Ye Saints on the piano. I had no Idea that he could play so well, and it was definitely one of the most spiritual moments I've had here at the MTC. That has personally been one of the hardest things for me being on a mission, there is no time for beautiful music! But in the field I'll probably have more time and that will go better! We then had a pretty normal week teaching investigators and such. I'll admit, I got a little teary saying goodbye to Catherine and Sydney on Saturday. They are both just wonderful and happy ladies and have helped me and my companions come so far in teaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! I can only imagine how hard it will be saying goodbye to people out in the field that I have known for weeks and even months!! Elder Timmreck has been quite sick this week! He missed a couple days of class, luckily for me, Elder Nay was sick as well, so they stayed together while I went to class. Until today he had been getting better; he kept us up coughing last night. He started coughing up blood so we had to take him to the BYU doctor this morning. We spent like 4 hours there this morning, from like 7:30-11:00. So unfortunately we had to miss the temple. :( But I'm  glad we could get some antibiotics in him for the mission field. Homesickness has been going away surely but slowly. I asked brother Nielsen (our Teacher) for a blessing last Thursday. It was a beautiful blessing and it said everything that I needed. It made me feel tons better. Elder Timmreck asked me to give HIM a blessing when he started getting sick. I was a little hesitant at first because I had never actually given one before. But I said a little prayer asking to have help saying the right things, and it went pretty well. I blessed that he would feel better as well as receiving comfort for some personal issues he may have. When it was over he stood up and his exact words were, "You have no idea nor can I tell you how inspired that truly was!" So that was cool! The spirit was definitely SO STRONG!! That was truly a blessing for me as well as him. I love being a missionary! It's pretty dang awesome, and the time starts to fly by! I can't believe that I'm already headed to Missouri tomorrow morning! I've seen so many blessings from God just being here in the MTC. I knew my friend Elder Colby Larson was here and I kept looking around for him the first day I got here! I got really sad when I couldn't find him. But then when we got back to our residence hall that night and I found out that HE WAS STAYING IN THE ROOM RIGHT NEXT TO ME!! Out of all the hundreds and hundreds of rooms here at the MTC he was right next door! Or the fact  that Sydney was so into Scottish history and bagpipes! It was awesome I could even have someone to talk to that knows about SFU or even just how bagpipes work in general! I also met a cousin of a dear friend\elder of mine that was serving in Boise, it was Elder Stapely's cousin! Elder Stapely was one elder that helped me realize that I truly did want to go on a mission and was very supportive of me! Those are just SOME of the blessings that I've seen! #CountYourBlessings is totally true! I love this gospel so much! I love Christ and am so excited to bring people unto him! Thank for everything! I know this is where I need to be and I love it! Until next week! -Elder Samuel LaVar Ward 

Just a normal day in class! 

                                     Last lesson with our investigator, Catherine!

This is my awesome teacher Brother Nielsen! 

                                         Our district in front of the Provo Temple!

                                              Elder Kirkham and Elder Timmreck.

                                             My last lesson with Sister Luft. 

#LuftLevel- Week 1

HELLO!!!!

The MTC is pretty legit, I'm not going to lie I've been rather homesick- but it gets easier everyday! My companions are pretty awesome, we are the only ones in the MTC to have a trio! Their names are Elder Timmreck, and Elder Kirkham. We get along really well, and teach well together as well. The spirit is always in our lessons with our investigators, and they always seem to be interested in what the spirit is saying. So that's awesome!! The spirit here in the MTC is so strong! (especially in our district meetings and lessons.) Speaking of which, I am called to be District Leader, which I am not really sure why, haha. Its definitely been a learning experience, a lot of hard work, but definitely rewarding. The Elders in my district are us three, another companionship Elder Fisher, and Elder Nay, and a sister companionship, Sister Clark, and Sister Baadsgaard. The sisters are so awesome and so funny! They definitely bring that extra level of spirit and spunk to our class. The first day was hard,  they threw a new group of us elders into a discussion with an investigator. It definitely humbled me, and the skills I might had in teaching the gospel, haha... but it was a good experience to see what we were up against. The spirit at this place is so strong, and I love it! It sometimes is even too much to handle... which is good! I really miss the family and have had a few hard times, but it always gets turned around one way or another. The Branch Presidency, President Hodges, Brother Litster, and Brother Weiser,  are all really really good to me. A really cool thing we did in class this week were demonstrations. Our teachers, Brother Nielsen, and Sister Luft are absolutely incredible. Sister Luft kind of has me more interested. We did a demo where she was the missionary, and Elder Nay was the investigator. He pretended to be someone he knew that doesn't have the Gospel. She started out by not really teaching, and getting to know him, which I loved. Then she started talking about the BOM, and doing super awesome. I couldn't help but think that this is how I want to be as a missionary. She tailored the lesson to the investigator. She was going along about the BOM and then went in talking about the First Vision/ Restoration. Then the Holy Ghost hit me like a bus, she recited the First Vision word to word as Joseph Smith said it, from memory. Everyone started crying, and I knew that someday, hopefully soon, I HAVE to reach #LuftLevel. She is such an awesome lady!! And Brother Nielsen gave a similar experience as well, I just don't have time to talk about it. This week has felt sort of long, but has also FLOWN BY! Don't ask me how to explain it. haha. We got to watch a talk by Elder Bednar given on Christmas Day at the MTC in 2007, called the "Character of Christ." It was sooooo good and so powerful! I've learned here at the MTC that we are not here to teach lessons, but to teach people. And really, it has NOTHING to do with the church, like at all. It's about being CONVERTED unto CHRIST. And I don't mean just having a testimony, it's being CONVERTED. I was finally able to grasp that the Gospel isn't just about the church, it's about Christ, the modern day prophets, and the scriptures. Of course the church plays a HUGE role because it's the only one with power and authority to perform the necessary saving ordinances. Its really a glorious and beautiful thing. I can't wait to help others learn about the Gospel, and to help them be converted unto Christ. All I hope is that along the way, I can also become even more converted unto Christ. Today we got to go to the Provo Temple, which I have to admit, is not a very pretty temple. But the inside is a lot better than the outside! What's important is the ordinances that take place, which was great as always!  I have had to use my counseling authority as District Leader, Elder Nay and Elder Fisher got into an argument with yelling and so forth. I immediately felt the spirit zip right out of the room, and that's when I got involved. I counseled that we are here for the Lord, and we shouldn't worry about the petty little problems. This is two years we have to be serving others. I prayed with them and asked a blessing to help them solve their differences, and they are working on it. Unfortunately, we all had investigators to teach after that incident. I was worried that the Spirit would not be there during our lesson, but I felt the spirit as strong as ever, and I know Sydney, (our investigator) did as well. I knew the other Elders wouldn't have the same spirit in their lesson, and they didn't. But they saw what happened, and are working on it. Sydney is on the board for the Payson Utah Games, and she says she thinks she has seen me with the Snake River Band! She talked about Scottish history a lot, and bagpipes which really comforted me! I know that was right from the Lord, and I was so grateful for that!! I love this Gospel! I love Christ, and I am so grateful that I am able to do this! The food is really goo and four square is awesome!! I love and miss you all so much! I can't wait to see you all again, but that's not for a few days/years! NBD!! I'll try and send pictures, but I don't have a chord to upload them, so I'll see if someone else's fits! Sorry about that!! But thanks for all the emails, Dear Elders, and mail! It keeps me going!! Keep them coming! Keep up the awesomeness everyone! Until next week! <3 P.S. 143