2 August 2018 - Elder Brigham Milius Week #2

Hello Children of a loving Heavenly Father,

Another good week here at the MTC. Last Friday we started off the day by doing a Book of Mormon read in class. If you open up the Book of Mormon and have the spirit with you, you will always get something out of it. I actually have a cool story later about this but ill tell it later. I said a prayer that I would get something out of it, and I brought by journal so I could write down promptings. I can not even remember what we read but I remember what the Holy Ghost told me to do. I have been asking people to pray to God and ask questions but I have not been doing it myself. I asked myself when was the last time I asked God a question. I know that I can and I tell people that they can and they will receive an answer. As I pondered this I could feel this feeling that i know was the Holy Ghost. That night I asked Heavenly Father what I need to teach Debi (Debi is this lady me and Elder Gregg are teaching this week. Usually I just ask Him to help me as I prepare for whoever I am teaching. But asking God was a really powerful experience for me. He knows what Debi needs, and He is in charge not me, so instead of asking for help I should be asking what he wants me to do. I prepared the lesson, and although me and Elder Gregg did not feel a huge power guiding us, we know that we were guided by the Spirit as we did the best we could, and in our lesson Debi got emotional and I know we were able to say something directed by the Spirit that she needed. An interesting thought: we dont always realize when we are being guided by the Holy Ghost. But if we are doing the best we can, choosing the right, we can trust that we are being guided.

Sunday was great. Me and Elder Gregg taught in priesthood on the Creation, Agency, and the Fall. But we ended up having a really cool discussion on the Atonement, trials, and Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is in everything!! No wonder I wear His name on my tag. We also went and pondered a mural of Joseph Smith in Liberty jail...I wasnt able to get a picture of it. But it was him sitting near a candle looking towards the light coming from a small window, and on the corner were two more men laying in the dark. The scripture that went with it was D&C 122:7 "All these things shall give thee experience, and it shall be for they good". Joseph Smith actually received that revelation while he was in liberty jail, when he was cold, alone, did not know if his family were okay, did not know if the saints were okay, IT WAS HARD in that time for him. But he continued to turn to Christ and "look towards the light". We will go through hard times, but just remember that Christ is there. You can receive feelings of peace in times when life is hard. But you have to put in the work to turn to Him. Also that night in the devotional the phrase "faith is an action word" stuck out to me...hmm. We watched a cool talk by Elder Holland that night as well. It was called "Missions are Forever". He said that we are the closest to being apostles most likely than we will ever be again. We are apostles with a lower case, ones sent forth. So we need to take advantage of this time, we need to give 100% for 24 months. We do not leave real life to come back to real life in two years. This is the closest to REAL LIFE we will ever be! He also talked about how sometimes it is hard. And he said "If it was not easy for Christ, why would it be easy for us...the road to salvation goes through Gethsemene and carries you to the cross". It will be hard sometimes, but it is okay. Hold on and ENDURE. In the end WE WIN. Christ already won the battle!! Just turn to him and Endure to the end!

Tuesday night we went to a devotional and Emeritus Seventy Kent F Richards spoke. He talked about a lot of stuff but something really cool was when he related truth and spirit to water. We are not farmers that can guide our water to someone else. We have to help them receive rain themselves. Nobody can force someone to feel the spirit, they have to experience it themselves. Then he showed a video from the Gilbert Arizona Celebration where it poured! He had people who were there stand up and share how that experience was for them...there is a lot of people here that are from Gilbert. He also talked about how the Spirit speaks to our soul, not our physical senses. We can forget things we see, or hear...but when something speaks to our soul we never forget it. I can look back on my life and remember times when i have prayed and felt the spirit, or read a scripture and felt the spirit so strongly. I do not remember what i said in those prayers exactly, or what I read. But I remember how I felt, and i Can not deny that it was from The Holy Ghost.

On Wednesday we did a cool thing in class (This is the awesome Book of Mormon story I was talking about at the beginning of this email). We all though of a question we had, then shared it with another person in class. Mine was like "what can I do to be a better missionary". And sister Clark gave me her question. It was "Where did God come from"....seriously Sister Clark. Anyway we split up into 3 groups and read from the Book of Mormon looking for an answer to the persons question we had. I knew that I wasnt gonna get an answer for her. But crazy thing happened...I GOT AN ANSWER! How did i find an answer to that question from a random chapter we read? Because the Book of Mormon is powerful and is the word of God. We read Mosiah 4 and i shared verse 9 with her. I know that some boy with minimal education did not fabricate that book...It is truly the word of God. Yesterday we also got a chance to host. It was super fun, and super awful hahaha. I had to watch moms and dads and siblings crying as they said goodbye to their Elders. It was like sadder than when I said goodbye to my parents (sorry mom and dad). The first Elder that I hosted had his dog with him it was sweet. I saw Elder Pomeroy and another Elder I know from high school which was cool.It was super cool to see all the missionaries come in.This happens every single week! Hundreds of missionaries give up everything to testify of truth. This church is powerful.

Fun stuff

-I was playing with my pen when I was supposed to be evaluating a lesson and it flew out of my hand and marked my shirt...karma

-at the Tuesday night devotional the closing hymn got messed up. The music playing didn't match the words on the screen, so they gave up and said "let's just sing I am a child of God"

-my host sticker got so sweaty on my shirt that I had to stick it on my tie

-the food is good...for the first couple days but after 3 weeks it gets nasty pls get me out of here (I leave next Tuesday BTW)

-you lost the game (you know if you know)

Pic 1-mural of Nephi going back to Jerusalem to get the plates

Pic 2-The MTC is tiring okay, I think naps in the cafeteria is okay...everyone made fun of me

Pic 3-mural of Moses

Pic 4-picture I drew-Heavenly Father loves us SO much that he allowed Christ...His perfect son...to suffer, to be treated so cruely, and to die. But he allowed it to happen for us...for me and for you. He loves us so much, and Christ loves us SO much.

Pic 5-me, Elder Olsen, and Elder Broadbent

Pic 6-my stash

Pic 7-me and Elder Gregg as hosts

Pic 8-bettwr picture of Moses parting the red sea

P. S. Watch this video, we sent it to Debi and it really touched her:

http://mediasrv.lds.org/media-services/GA/size/1267076779001/1280/720/1471010