Elder LamoreauX4: JT - Start of week 7

Oct. 2, 2014

Everyday this week, we have practiced our songs for the Priesthood Session of General Conference. It is super exciting and the songs are all so good. It's going to make history and will be very inspiring to everyone, especially those close to missionary age. If you are questioning about whether or not to go on a mission, no matter how old you are, Watch this session. Every song is about mission work and I promise it will inspire you. These songs and these speakers will make you excited to be missionaries, every one of you. I won't tell you the songs because I want you to watch it and experience it for yourself. Our director, his helpers, and the MTC presidency who are present at every rehearsal, they all say how blessed the church will be when they hear us sing these songs in front of the whole world. I am so excited and am so blessed to be given this opportunity to sing and to bear my testimony through music. It will be an unforgettable experience.

The district who came 3 weeks before us left for Japan on Monday. That makes me so much more excited to go to Japan. It's so close but feels like we still have an eternity. Now my district is the one that has been here the most and that feels weird. on Wednesday, we also added two new districts to our zone. Now there are about 50 of us in my zone and we are the examples. We have a lot more responsibility now to be the best missionaries we can be. No time for slaking off now. We are now working much harder to learn as much Japanese as we can before we leave. I really want to leave now, but I'm not ready yet.

Throughout this whole experience, I've learned the importance of relying on the Lord to help you. There are many times when you can get stressed in the MTC, but if you are in tune with the Spirit, all the stress disappears. I've prayed here more than i ever have before and Heavenly Father has blessed me because of it. He blesses us everyday, we just need to be aware of all the many little blessings we get everyday. If you pay attention to what God gives you and "Count your many blessings" you will realize that you are not alone and that God loves you. If you do your best, God will do the rest. I know that is true.

I want to share something that I learned about in a little discussion I had with a couple elders in my district. We were talking about how Jesus Christ's gospel is clearly laid out in the scriptures multiple times. The gospel is simple really. Have faith in Chirst, Repent, Be Baptized, Receive the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the end. It's still hard, but it's not complicated. Many people fall away from the church because they get caught up in a single commandment. We came to the conclusion that if you have Faith in Christ, as it is stated in Alma 32, You will want to follow all of God's commandments. We then looked up Matthew 22:37-39. It says (I'm doing this without scriptures so if I'm not completely right, don't make fun of me :)) "Thou shalt love the Lord thy god with all thy heart and might. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." That's probably completely wrong, but you can look it up to make sure :) anyway, you hear that scripture all the time, but you never hear the next verse, verse 40 "And upon these hold all the laws and the prophets." That was a mind blower to me. Every single commandment hang on to the fact that you love God and love others. As long as you truly Love God, you will want to follow every one of his commandments. If you love God, this gospel is easy. Everything hangs on us loving him who created us. I thought that was awesome and that is something I am going to work hard on. Hopefully that makes sense and that it helps you as well.

Well, It's been just another week at the MTC. I am feeling a lot more confident in my Japanese. I still don't know a lot, but i'm getting there. I'm confident that when i'm immersed in the language in Japan, I will be able to speak it well. Oh I forgot to say, on Wednesday, we were able to Skype a member in Japan for TRC. We taught him a lesson about prayer and Joseph Smith and got to know him a little bit. He lives in Sendai Japan and he was super nice. He laughed at us a lot because of our mistakes, but it was a friendly laugh. At the end of our lesson, he got up, got his camera and took a picture of us through the screen. It was a pretty cool experience and made me really excited to meet the people of Japan. They are incredible people.

That's it for this week. I hope to hear from you and all of your crazy anventures. Til next week

-Elder Lamoreaux