"The Field is White Already to Harvest!"

One more day of studying before I leave the Provo MTC and head to Santiago Chile!

Hey Fam!!

My P-Day was changed to Saturday this week due to in-field Orientation all day Friday! This past week has been great!! It seemed to go kinda slow because of the fact that I had my travel plans and I was thinking about the field a lot and what it's going to be like. I didn't let up and definately finished strong. I'll tell you about my week and some of my experiences.

This past Saturday just followed the normal schedule. During TRC, I wasn't able to talk to Jonathan for some reason, but I did step in to say Hi. Jonathan said he would have a few things for me tonight and that we'd be able to meet for a little while which was good. On Saturday night after TRC, there was a video shown to our District by Elder Holland. Some of the highlights from the video are: Elder Holland said,"Don't miss a day, a month, an hour of your mission." That was really inspirational and motivated me to really focus hard on my purpose as a missionary which is to bring others Unto Christ. Elder Holland said that everything that will happen in my life will be because I served my mission. Elder Holland said that about himself as well. Elder Holland said that missions are God's greatest gift to 19 yr olds. He also said that "you can't guarantee success, but you can guarantee hard work." Salvation is not cheap! It's hard work in the mission field and that's how it's supposed to be. The last thing that I put down in my notes was that my goal should be to get up on my Homecoming Sunday and say that I suffered the will of the Father. Wow, what a really powerful talk. I'm so grateful for it.

On Sunday the Devitional was given by Steven B. Allen:Director of the MTC. He talked about the pioneers at first (Pioneer Day is July 24th). We sang "Come Come Ye Saints" and paid attention to the lyrics while we sang. It was pretty powerful.

Tuesday nights Devotional was given by Gary J. Coleman:Emeritus Seventy. Elder Coleman talked a little bit about how we can be pioneers. Then he got into his talk and why he really came to address us.  Elder Coleman said that the 4 pillars to use on our mission are: 1. Temple recommend 2. Authority:nametag and ministerial certificate 3. Scriptures (and prayer) 4. Preach My Gospel and white handbook. These are things we as missionaries should definately use and know a lot about being representatives of Jesus Christ. Elder Coleman then shared a quote by Steven Webb that says,"Mormonism is obsessed with Christ." I like that a lot because it is so true. We love Christ and are here to testify of Him on our missions. Elder Coleman then gave a long list of scriptures that talk about Coming Unto Christ. We need to come Unto Him and be converted. Elder Coleman also shared his conversion story with us from when he was 21 years old. He said that he read 87 verses in the Book of Mormon (including Moroni 10:3-5), took the challenge it states in there to read and pray, and when he was praying, he felt the Spirit of the Lord and joined the Church 2 weeks later.  As I was listening to this incredible conversion story, I thought to myself about how powerful the Book of Mormon is and the influence it can have on other people's lives. If I can just get my Investigators to take the challenge in Moroni 10, then I will have a lot of success.  It was a great talk that I was grateful I could hear.

On Wednesday I was actually able to Host new missionaries again! I hosted for about 3 hours helping and showing new missionaries around the MTC. It was really fun to spend my afternoon doing that.We had our substitute teacher Hermana Casares come and teach us Wednesday night. We actually had the chance to teach her right from the beginning just like how we will begin teaching with our Investigators. Definately a really helpful thing.

The last highlight I want to share is about in-field Orientation yesterday, Friday! It was so fun. The schedule went like this: We showed up at 815am and the Orientation was the entire day. We had 2 breaks throughout the day for our lunch and dinner. In in-field we had different points that we talked about during the day. They were...

1. The Doctrine of Christ-the Missionary Purpose: In this section I learned that we are really trying to focus on baptizing. One of the quotes was "your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to find, teach, baptize and confirm people and to help them become faithful members of the Church who enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost. Pretty informative topic. We also talked about how our expectations need to be set high and that if they are set high, your success will increase. If you listen to all of the other people around you and you lower your expectations, your success rate will drop. Stay focused!

2. Finding people. The Lord is already preparing specific people to receive you in every area you will serve in throughout your mission. The field is white already to harvest! Finding the people is hard work. People are rarely going to be given to you and be the "golden" Investigator. We talked about how to contact people and this is found in Preach My Gospel pg. 157.

3. Goals and Planning. Planning is really important for us. We need to set goals before we do any planning!

I don't have any more time. I need to go to the temple right now for the last time. I will finish this letter and send it home.

I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!!!

Love,

Tan