Choose the Wright

Hey everyone!


Now, this E-mail is a bit early; I believe I had failed to mention that transfer conference would be this week, and also forgot to remind you that my P-Day E-mail could come at any time this week. Anyway, for those of you wondering what the leadership changes are this transfer, they are as follows: as Elder Young has returned home, Elder Buers has replaced him as an assistant to the president; Elder Hartner has taken Elder Buers' place as a Young Elder Training Leader; we have two young elders serving in the mission office with the senior missionaries already serving there, Elders M. Snow and Coleman; our four new district leaders are Elders Luebke, Melling, Hale, and Buttars. It should also be noted that we now have two young elders, Elder Taylor and his trainee Elder Rangus, who both are fluent in American Sign Language, are now serving in the Deaf Services zone of the Family History Library, helping deaf patrons who visit the library. The new trainers, and their trainees, aside from those already mentioned, are given below: (and yes, I did copy/paste from an Excel spreadsheet to make this chart)
Elder McDonald is training Elder Pastor
Elder Blanton is training Elder Showgren
Elder Shults is training Elder Arndt
Elder D Morgan is training Elder Willis
Elder Schetrompf is training Elder Brunson
Elder Harris is training Elder Buckley
Elder Walker is training Elder Lane
Elder Clark is training Elder Devine
Elder Irvine is training Elder Vaka
Elder Buttars is training Elder Spears
Elder Gale is training Elder Ferguson
Elder Jensen is training Elder Bellos
As for myself, I am now companions with Elder Wright, and our P-Day is now on Wednesday; I did also move apartments; however, I am still serving in Data Services, as always. My district has completely changed up, which makes sense, as two of my three other district members (including my former companion) have now become district leaders themselves; both are still in the Data Services zone, which now has sixteen elders serving there.

Now, amidst all the changes, this week (or weekend, I should say) was quite notable, for reasons aside from the obvious. Right after leaving E-mails, I had gone on down to the Manti pageant with the rest of the young elders. We had loaded up two buses, and the ride was much longer than anything I have yet endured on the mission. Granted, I have been on much longer car and bus rides before the mission, so this was nothing new; also, the countryside passing by was not half-bad, a nice change of pace from the same-old which I have lived with for over a year now. When we had arrived, we first attended the temple down in Manti, which was a unique experience. In the celestial room of the temple, me and Elder Melling actually came across the same man who had donated the two huge sacks of bread to the library last Thursday! He had just happened to be there for the pageant, and thought to attend a temple session while he was down there - the same one which we were in! It truly is a small world within the church!

So, after the temple, it was time for dinner. Luckily for us, a local turkey farm (I believe it was) was providing a huge turkey dinner for attendees to the pageant. The young elders were well fed there! After this, me and Elder Melling went off to explore the town. There was not a whole ton to see; most of the non-restaurant shops down there were closed down for the event. But, we did pick up some lemonade and popcorn being sold at a food court set up for the event. The people had up a donation jar to help fund a mission which one of the children of the people running the stand was going to serve; I think that it he would be entering the MTC today. So, after all this, we went back to the pageant, and took our seats for the event. The pageant itself proved to be a great performance! It essentially covered everything Mormon, from the Restoration, the Book of Mormon itself, and the trek westward. (Unsurprisingly, they included some bits about the settlement of the Manti area.) When it was all done, we all filed back on to the buses home. The buses finally rolled on back in to the apartment parking lot at 2:00 in the morning. Because we knew this was coming, President Fenn had already announced that we were permitted to sleep in the next day, which I did gladly. (Now, I know it has been said that for a missionary, the Holy Ghost goes to bed at 10:00, but as staying up past this time was an implication of this approved activity, I think I am alright)
I learned that day that, if I do not set an alarm, I will awaken around 8:30. That is a decent time to wake up for having slept in. However, I was not able to get up and do a whole ton - I was sick with a cold, which I had been for a while; it was worse this day though, so I was not able to do much of anything. Elder Ferguson, who we were hosting, also was feeling sick, so I had Elder Lane, his companion, take my companion, Elder Melling, to church with him so we could stay and rest. Being sick, I must say, is very boring. Rest too is boring. (I tried making garlic knots, but they did not turn out as well as I had hoped)
The next day, I was not able to join the choir for the Monday morning devotional due to the same cold. I was able to make the meeting itself, and go in to zone; one does not simply sing with a cold though... This was the day I got the notice I was going to be moving apartments. Elder Melling also got an interview notice with President Fenn; I thought that he was going to be a trainer for his last transfer, but it seems that the Lord had other plans for him. Later that Monday, President Fenn had planned a special event for the mission, a conference about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. I remember attending a conference of this type twice before; it began with the mission having a special dinner in the lobby of the conference center, after which we moved to the Assembly Hall on Temple Square to hear a message from President Fenn. The choir actually had two numbers at this meeting, "Give Me Back My Prophet Dear" and another one about Joseph Smith, the name of which escapes me; the lyrics for both were written by John Taylor, who was with the prophet at the time of the martyrdom. Unfortunately, as previously described, I was not able to sing with them, sadly... But I did attend the conference, and learned more about the event than I had ever dreamed of knowing! (not that this is something I often dream about.) I had walked away with the same great feeling I get after getting out of any extraordinary church meeting/conference! (in case you don't already know, that's the feeling of the Holy Spirit)

Anyway, I'd cover the events of the next day as well, but have they not already been shared in the first part of this E-mail? I am happy to see that Elder Melling is able to spend his lat month as a district leader, and that I can introduce a new elder to the zone. Perhaps I will be able to train him on mission support! I will let you know how all of this goes. Have a good one, everybody!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: Recently, I was asked by my zone leader to give a talk for sacrament meeting on Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "Behold the Man", given at this recent General Conference. This message was given in regards to the part of the Savior's life where, after he was scourged in an attempt to free him from capital punishment, Pilate had presented our Savior to the mob thirsty for His holy blood with the phrase "Behold the man!" However, it is noted in the talk that these, his enemies, only saw Him as One who had offended them, and had committed no crime save it were wounding their pride; they did not behold Him for what He truly was - the Son of the living God, come to Earth to atone for their sins, and free them from an otherwise certain spiritual doom. Many have a similar problem - though few people alive today see the Savior of their souls as one deserving of what those of ancient times punished Him with, to many He is simply a historical figure. To them, He simply taught good principles, did good deeds, and changed the world from the better in simple ways. Is all of this true of Jesus Christ? Of course! However, stopping there is an understatement of all that He has accomplished in His short ministry in the flesh. Again, He is the true Son of God, who had suffered immensely with an utterly massive, incomprehensible burden beyond the power of words to come close to describing and man to begin to comprehend; He had given His precious life freely when the suffering was finished, and afterward had broken the otherwise hopelessly indestructible chains of death for Himself and for all mankind. Most importantly of all, however, is that all of these tasks impossible to all others were wrought about by Him for you. There is nothing which you have done which He has not already paid the price for; all sin, though grievous to us and to Him, has been paid for; it is up to us to "behold the Man" and to accept all that he has done for us, that our sins may be made white like wool (see Isaiah 1:18). Reach out to him, and accept all that He has done for you and for me; study His words, especially those in the Book of Mormon shared by Himself and His prophets. Such will be the way that we will all be able to prepare to again behold the Man in the flesh.

Two enormous bags of free bread?!

Hey everyone!

Well, the week has been alright, though I currently have a bit of a cold. I am still able to leave the house and do things like send E-mails, though I have stocked up on Vitamin C and cough drops, which have helped. This morning, the cold had really affected my voice - the strange thing is, certain people have commented that it actually sounded better than without the cold! But, I do hope that it (the cold, not the voice necessarily) goes away sometime soon.

The week has been pretty good. It kicked off with a visit from Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy, who had previously visited the young elders pf the mission, coming for our Monday morning devotional. It was quite a special visit, and it was good to hear from him. The same Monday that he visited, the mission got it's thirteen new young elders! It is truly quite the group! Therefore, because of this, I was able to meet the two elders whom I would be hosting for the coming week, Elders Lane and Ferguson. I was quite excited to have them on board - I had even planned out a special dinner for them - fettuccine alfredo, with homemade sauce! However, I soon found that one of them could not have dairy products. Luckily, they already had plans for dinner that day, so I did no have to change my plans too much.

You are probably wondering how this week's trip to the MTC went. I hate to disappoint you, but we actually did not go to the MTC this week. I am still not completely sure why, but I believe it may be because the mission department is still wondering whether or not they want to have those of us in the mission doing this work. They don't like the fact that there is a chance each transfer for missionaries to transfer out of the zone, and be replaced with new missionaries who need to be trained all over again. Therefore, they are still coming to a decision about this. The way things currently stand is that they will have until Tuesday to make a decision - that is when we lose Elder Hunsaker, as he will be returning home. When that happens, the only two left for mission support will be me and Elder Harris - to put it simply, though we are good at doing the work, we cannot do it all by ourselves. Unfortunately, there is not much that I can do about this decision, whatever it will be - even President Fenn said that his is out of his hands now. But we will have a decision this week. I will let you know how this goes.

The mission choir has been doing pretty well. I still do enjoy singing with it, and I hope to be able to do so for the remainder of my mission. However, the choir is not the only music-related thing which I am now involved with - I had been asked by one of the senior missionaries if I would like to participate as the bass singer in an all-men's quartet. We have been practicing a rendition of "Because I Have Been Given Much", which rendition I believe we will sing at an upcoming sacrament meeting, which performance I am really excited for. This has taken quite a bit of time out of my schedule - I have had to make schedule compromises so that I can practice for this and the choir, as well as eat before coming to zone. However, I feel that, in the end, it will be worth the sacrifice.

Now, I feel I should share that today, the young elders of the mission will be going to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti today, as well as attending the temple there. I do look forward to attending this, and I will share more details on how exactly everything went next week; however, this meant that I had to rethink P-Day for the rest of the week. My and my companion's decision was to do our shopping and our laundry on Thursday evening in place of night zone. After we had went shopping, me and my companion went to return our van key; when we were returning to our apartments after doing this, a man standing outside Temple Square near the FHL asked us if we were serving in the square or in the library, to which we responded we were in the library. As it turned out, he had with him some bread from a local Kneader's restaurant that he wanted to donate to the missionaries serving in the library, and he asked us to help him haul it inside. I say "haul" because the load was two enormous bags - think at least twice the size of a normal kitchen garbage sack - completely full of loaves of bread! So, we hauled the bread into the staff break room and spread the word that there was free bread! People are truly generous with the missionaries, for which I am very thankful! (There have been a few times where others have paid for groceries or restaurant tabs for me - I need to begin doing that for missionaries when I am off the mission.)

Anyway, such are the happenings of my week. I am soon to go down to Manti, which I will write more about in my next E-mail. Anyway, have a good one!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: The Book of Mormon shares an account of King Benjamin delivering a message to his people, one of his last. During his message, he says to his people: "...I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin ... But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves ... ye must perish" (Mosiah 4:29-30). I do agree with this concept - God's children should not need to be told in such detail all that is wrong to do; living so strictly by what exactly was written down as being right and wrong was one of the major problems of the Pharisees of Christ's day. Of course, the letter of the law given in the scriptures is important as well - otherwise, the only scripture we would have needed would be Jacob 6:12. The teachings of the scriptures and prophets teach us the character of God our Father and his son, Jesus Christ; give us examples of what is right and wrong; show to us what happens when we disregard the commandments of God; illustrate the blessings of righteous, obedient, and faithful living; and demonstrate how we can get the most out of living the gospel of Christ. But, as I said before, we don't need spelled out for us every possible way for us to distance ourselves from God - if the scriptures and prophetic teachings did this, it would unnecessarily dilute all of the other valuable information which the scriptures have to offer. However, the Spirit will make known unto you when something you are doing is wrong, whether or not it is recorded in the scriptures. So, be wise - don't look for loopholes in the scriptures, the prophets, or even the laws of the land. Listen to the Spirit - it will tell you when what you are doing is wrong, whether or not the specific situation is forbidden in holy writ. Such living will demonstrate honesty, and will open the windows of heaven, and you will be more open to revelation.

Arrival to (and departure from) the MTC

Hello everyone!


So, I am sure that most of you are wondering how the trip to the MTC had gone for me. Well, first of all, it is good to now be able to say that I have actually gone to the MTC on my mission without first being called to another mission! The trip was great! Those who went were those of us involved with Mission Support (myself and Elders Hunsaker, Harris, Yeoman, and Rasmussen) and Elder Melling, as well as Todd our manager. Todd had borrowed a church van Wednesday, which we used to take the trip down to Provo. When we had gotten there, we were soon joined by Wayne, Todd's manager. We were all shown around the MTC a bit, including one of the classroom buildings which had the most impressive scriptural murals, a picture of one of which I have attached to this E-mail. After this brief look around, it was time to begin helping. The way this happened was that missionaries who had not set up their phones prior to coming in to the MTC came in to a room with us missionaries, as well as some MTC staff. If the phone was not working correctly, they would receive technical support from the staff; if they simply needed more help setting things up, they went to us. So, we helped them out with this for about an hour, which hour was definitely a great experience to have been able to take part in. After this, the original plan was to eat lunch at the MTC cafeteria; however, we found that lunchtime at the MTC happened at the same time as our service; therefore, by the time we were finished, the cafeteria was closed down. So, we instead went to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch. After this, we returned back to church headquarters. I am happy to have been able to do this - working with other missionaries to help them prepare for their missions is truly a unique experience! The best part, however, is that we have plans in place to do it all again next week!

This is only one major event that happened this week though! The very next day after this, those of us who are normally scheduled to do a service project for Thursday were instead invited to President Fenn's place for pizza! (Yes, I know, this makes it pizza two days in a row.) As you may know, he has his own outdoor pizza oven, which I hear he had imported from Italy. We were each tasked with making our own pizza - we shaped our own dough, added our own toppings, and slid the pizza into the oven, where it cooked up in just a couple of minutes! The end product of this process was absolutely delicious! I was also assigned to help set things up, and later assigned to help take people back and forth between President Fenn's house and the missionary apartments, so there was much driving done here as well. The party, however, did go on a bit longer than we had originally thought, and as me and Elder Melling were the ones ferrying in the last group of elders, we returned to the apartment complex at about 10:00, which time is normally bedtime for us. But, nonetheless, it was a wonderful gathering!

Anyway, I should also mention that at the beginning of the week, me and my companion have visited the Avalon care facility again. The group which came up there was quite small indeed - aside from the Neimans, the senior missionaries assigned to serve there (who have recently completed their missions), there were only me, Elder Melling, and another companionship. But, there were a few people serving from wards in the surrounding area as well - that's probably why they needed so few elders. I will say though - the opportunities for serving in such a facility are endless. It is truly a humbling experience, to see these people who had previously lived such full lives, now having to receive care at a place such as this. I am glad, however, to be able to bless their lives through service. Though I don't get to go here every week, I cherish those opportunities which I do.

I had also recently been asked to sing with a group of singers from the men's section of the Elijah choir for an upcoming performance. I think the performance will be for a Sacrament meeting soon, though I am not sure. I had not been able to attend the first practice for this, as this took place on the same Wednesday as the mid-transfer changes discussed in the previous General E-mail. I was able to attend for a moment on Wednesday after choir practice, though I had to leave pretty soon as the companion with whom I had done an exchange to go to choir had places to go. But, I think I will be able to get some more practice in on Monday. I am glad to be able to participate like this - it seems that, for a while, I had not been able to do so. Musical opportunities are one of my favorite things.

So, all other things have been pretty good this previous week. I am getting along with my new companion; the choir is still singing strong; and the zone work has been a satisfying challenge to me! Next week will be interesting for two different reasons. The first is the fact that I will be going down to the MTC again for more assisting with device setup, though i  don't think we will be doing it again for a while after this time; the second is the fact on Monday, we will be getting thirteen - yes, I said thirteen - new young elders in the mission! I will write you and let you know how that goes next week. Have a good one!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: In my current zone assignment (which I have had for almost a year now), it is absolutely essential to develop good listening skills. It is these skills which help us accurately determine what a patron's problem is, and ultimately provide him/her with the correct answer.  However, the skill of listening is not only valuable in call centers. This skill is valuable in every aspect of life, including the spiritual side of things. We are asked to listen for the still, small voice which can guide us through the correct path in life. The only difference in this case is that listening to this voice will help us discern how to resolve our problems, rather than those (nonexistent in this case) of the speaker. Learning to listen to the Spirit of revelation is one of the most valuable skills which one can develop, as the Spirit speaks to everyone; however, some may not hear it, or at least they may not realize that they can hear it. Remember, the Spirit rarely speaks with a voice of thunder, but rather with a still small voice (see 1 Kings 19:11-12). In other words, if we expect a great and glorious vision every time we go to the Lord in prayer, we will walk away quite disappointed; though it is not impossible for omnipotent God to speak to His children with the voice of a hurricane whenever we pray, the Lord will not send an angel to declare a message which can be properly conveyed by the whisperings of His holy Spirit. Instead, we must reach out so that we hear and recognize this Spirit, so that it's message can be delivered to us. So, I challenge you all to take some time before, during, and after your personal prayers to not just talk, but to listen. When you listen, you will be able to hear what the Lord wants revealed to you, and it will be just as wonderful as if the message were delivered with the fanfare of trumpets and heralded by an angel. Then, as you apply what is heard, your life will end up where the Lord would have it go.

Random changes!!!

Hey everyone!


You know, I feel that it is important for everyone to keep learning new things, at least on a daily basis. Do I keep learning on a regular basis? I do my best. Sometimes, this learning is intentionally sought out; other times, it comes when it is least expected. This latter context describes an important lesson which I had learned this week: Just because nothing out of the ordinary is scheduled to happen at the beginning of the week does not necessarily mean the week till be boring.

And boring it wasn't! I guess that I cannot say that there were no special events happening - some of you may be familiar with President Nelson's youth devotional which took place last Sunday. The young elders of the mission were invited to attend a broadcast of this event. I truly know that the message was inspired for the youth of this day and age. Though I don't quite fall into the age group of the majority of the devotional's attendees anymore, I feel I could apply a lot of the messages shared here to my mission as well! (I wonder how many of you are not reading this the day I sent it due to the 7-day social media fast)
Well, there was a major change which happened this week. As me and Elder Black were of to our night classes, President Buffington of the mission presidency pulled me and him aside into his office. Now, this sort of stuff does not happen very often - usually, we meet with President Fenn, and that is either for monthly interview or for calls to leadership assignments. This meeting, however, was about neither. There were some certain happenings which went on in the mission which me and my companion were not informed about. All that we knew was to happen was that there were some mid-transfer companionship and assignment changes which involved the two of us. Now, I am no longer companions with Elder Black; he has moved to the Church History Special Projects zone and is currently companions with Elder Simper. I was to stay in the Data Services zone, and my new companion is now Elder Melling, who is currently nearing the end of his mission. He will likely stay in the zone for the remainder of his mission. The change was made on Wednesday, which meant I was not able to attend choir practice.

Due to the changes, Elder Black will no longer be able to attend a meeting for those involved in Mission Support, including the staffers for GSC. Therefore, I will have to assign someone else to attend the meetings. Of course, I would attend these myself - however, I have a leadership meeting most weeks at the exact same time as this one. However, the one for this week was cancelled, so I was therefore able to attend this one in person. Now, aside from certain issues with the things which we support, there was also a certain announcement discussed - next Wednesday, me and the other elders working Mission Support are going down to the Provo MTC to help incoming missionaries set up their smartphones. The group coming in this day will be huge, and those in charge of helping people with their phones will need more help with people who have not yet set theirs up, or have set them up incorrectly. This will be a half-day affair we believe, but we will return home in time for me to pick up main, have dinner, and return to the FHL for night zone. But this type of opportunity is tremendous for this zone, and for the mission as a whole! Though they plan on one day assigning missionaries at the MTC to do this sort of work, it is still significant that missionaries in this mission are beginning to have opportunities to go out and do service such as this. This will probably open up other doors for us as a zone, and as a mission!

We also, as always, had opportunities to do a service project the other day. This was conducted a bit differently than normal. Rather than having one or two big groups working together to tackle one or two projects, we had a few smaller groups go out and do work at a few houses. I headed one of these groups, driving down two groups to a house which needed help moving furniture, cleaning up the yard, and a couple other things. The place was a bit easier to find than the places from the last couple of projects - rather than being given directions, we simply were given an address to drive to. The work itself was hard and satisfying - nothing to bring in a sense of accomplishment like a bit of physical labor in the sun. At the end of the day, I knew I would sleep very well, and with a smile on my face too.

Anyway, so there is my week - nothing like a mid-transfer companionship change to make things all the more interesting! I hope you have a good one!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: We as missionaries are expected to spend our energy developing Christlike attributes. By doing so, we become closer to our great Exemplar for these attributes in word and in deed. One such attribute I wish to discuss now is patience. Now, what exactly does it mean to be patient? The way I see it, there are two different interpretations for what this word can mean in a spiritual perspective. The first, and more obvious, definition would be to demonstrate long-suffering towards our fellow men who may have offended us. We as humans are not perfect - far from it, in fact - and because of this, others will do things which we will not like. Now, are they justified in doing this? Whether or not they really are, it doesn't really matter to us, as we are commanded to forgive all men (D&C 64:10). Note that there is no exception stated in this verse. Only the Savior, in His perfect understanding and judgment, has the right to judge mankind - we, with our puny and limited understanding, must forgive all. The second definition of what it means to be patient is to be patient with God, and His timing. Again, our understanding is not as all-encompassing as we may sometimes convince ourselves it is. This means that we must be willing to wait on the Lord for the blessings which are promised to us. As I am sure you may have heard a couple of times before, the world in which we live is one where technology gives us what we need in an instant, and where the shipment times of goods ordered online can be expedited to a couple of days. However, the Lord does not work like this - his blessings have no "express delivery". This is because "now" is not necessarily always the right time. However, what we can guarantee is that the Lord not only knows what is best for us, he knows when the best time or us to receive it is - and when we live the Gospel faithfully, the Lord will always give us the right blessings at the right time. So, my challenge today is to begin practicing patience, both with God and with man. Trust in the Lord, and that his promised blessings will come eventually, whether it be tomorrow, next month, next year, or even in the next life in some cases. Trust that, though deferred, the blessings will come at the right time, and you will be glad to have waited.

Down once more to the dungeons

Hello everyone!


To put it simply, this week has not been boring! I have quite a bit to talk about! Now first, I did mention special activities for Memorial Day. And special they were! I don't quite know how much I have talked about in last week's General, so this all may seem a bit familiar. The day started with the young elders sharing a breakfast together. Soon after this, we all got together for a hike to the Salt Lake City cemetery. We were to go by districts, so I was a bit held up when some members of mine had to gather some things together from their apartment before going up. However, we caught up to the rest of the group by the time we had arrived at the cemetery. Now, our purpose in going up here was to visit the graves of some of the more notable figures in the Church who were buried up here. We were not able to visit them all, for they were many, but we visited a few, some of which I have shared pictures of in this E-mail, and President Fenn shared some facts about the names represented on the graves. There was much historical information shared on this tour, and I would recommend a visit to the place to anyone interested in Church history. Anyway, we returned to the apartments for lunch, then gathered together for a Memorial Day themed movie "Saints and Soldiers". After this, the evening was free to clean apartments and visit with others. I know that missions are definitely more about the work than about the fun; however, occasional activities such as this are nice opportunities to take a break from the daily grind of doing the work.

Speaking of the work, building management has finally finished furnishing a room for the young elders in the Data Services zone - finally, we have a work area actually designed to be a contact center. This meant that me, Elder Black, and the others involved in the pilot project have finally moved back downstairs with the rest of the zone. It is nice to be back together with all the others. As for the pilot itself, it is now officially ended - it was intended for the Missionary Department and the Global Service Center to observe us for the month of May, which has now ended. However, the final verdict was to have those of us who have already done the work to continue doing it, and to begin training others in the zone to do the work so that it can continue when we get transferred out. So now, it is no longer "the pilot project", but rather, it is simply "mission support". And now, we have begun training two others in the zone on doing this work, Elders Yeoman and Rasmussen. Finally, now that we are not under as much scrutiny as before, we will begin taking calls again, and helping out with FamilySearch support more.

It is still good to be in the choir. I am loving every minute of it! I have neglected to mention, however, that a couple weeks ago, Sister Watkins had started a new music theory class for members of the choir. Elder Black had wanted to go to that, as there are some aspects of music theory he does not yet understand, so I have been accompanying him to this. Sister Watkins does very well teaching the basics of music theory, which I commend her for - I know first-hand that teaching music theory is, at it's best, a challenge. I do not mean to sound prideful, but I do find the theory class to be largely concepts which I am mostly already familiar with. Oh well - so long as my companion is learning new things, then I am perfectly alright with accompanying him.

Anyway, I dare say that yesterday was quite an eventful day for me. I believe I have mentioned that we were getting a visit from Elder Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy. Well, that happened that day. First was a leadership meeting; he had met with the Young Elders of the mission, myself included, and we discussed where we were doing well, and what we could improve upon. Soon after this meeting, he shared a message at a young elder conference, which all young elders were required to attend. At both meetings, he had challenged us to memorize the missionary purpose (we had as of yet not memorized this important message), with a bit of a modification; we are to "invite others on both sides of the veil to come unto Christ", which added phrase shared by President Nelson at the recent General Conference. Aside from that we had not memorized this, I feel that we had left quite a good impression on Elder Christensen.

Now, I believe that many of you are familiar with the "Be One" celebration which had happened yesterday. Well, to my surprise, the young elders of the mission were permitted to celebrate as well. The way this happened was that we were all permitted to watch a broadcast of the event. We were released from night zone early, and headed to the JSMB for this. On my way there, I had actually ran into my former music teacher, Mr. Woods, who was also there with his son to attend the event. While planned meetings with family and friends are not permitted within the mission, it is still nice to run into people by coincidence and catch up a bit there. Anyway, after this quick meeting, we arrived, and viewed the event together, and I must say - this was a spectacular celebration! The messages shared were quite inspirational, and the music was awesome! All in all, the event was definitely worth attending!

And so, that is my week! Very exciting, I dare say. I anticipate the next week being just as good, if not quite as eventful. Anyway, have a good one!



From,

Elder Bryce Petersen



Challenge: In General Conference last April, President Nelson had informed us that we will not survive spiritually if we do not have personal revelation in our lives. It makes sense - to make it through the mists of fog, we need the constant guidance of One who knows the way. However, receiving personal revelation is almost never easy. No matter what position one holds in the Church, revelation usually takes work to receive. Remember that many visions and revelations recorded in the scriptures were preceded by prayer and pondering, and essentially having the Spirit. So, how do we put in the effort to receive personal revelation as we say our prayers and study the scriptures? First, we must make sure that we have the Spirit with us. If we have not the Spirit, we will not be inspired to ask the questions which are prerequisite for the messages which the Lord wants to give us. We must ask before we shall receive, and knock before things are opened unto us (D&C 4:7), as we "receive no witness until after the trial of [our] faith" (Ether 12:6). It would also work to pray to have the Spirit as you study, and even before you begin your prayer. Second, we must study and pray - and I mean really pray - in other words, this shouldn't be the same prayer we have rattled off all the previous times we have given a morning prayer (Matthew 6:7-8). Rather, ask with true, heartfelt desire, both in your prayers and as you study, with faith that God will hear you, and will answer your prayer if you will but listen. That is the third thing which we must do - at least as much as we speak to our Heavenly Father, we must also take the time to listen to him. Personal prayer is intended to be a two-way conversation with God (D&C 50:11). In this setting, it will not do to simply ask for a few blessings and hang up. Listen, and if you have the previous couple of steps, God will reveal unto you that which you need. Personal revelation is required of all members of the Church. It truly is a blessing to be able to pour out our hearts to our Heavenly Father, the Creator of all, and to have him respond with what we will need to be able to return to live with Him again. Let us take more fully advantage of this marvelous privilege, and work harder to receive more personal revelation for our lives, and whatever situation we may be in.