Elder Anthony Vaunn Litchfield

Ukraine Donetsk Mission

Prospekt Bogdana Khmelnitskogo 67a

Donetsk, 83087

Ukraine

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Week 8 MTC  June 20, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

I can’t believe another week is down. I swear that just the other day it was June 10th. I was thinking to myself,  hey we only have 30 more days left, but now it’s 10 days later and we only have 20 more days left until we are supposed to leave the MTC.  It’s so crazy how fast time is going by each and every single week. Sometimes the time seems so slow in that moment but then it’s over and then I think to myself where did my day go. It’s crazy, but I am loving it so much here. I am getting a little nervous to head out, because I hope I have learned the language well enough to teach the people of the Ukraine. I feel pretty good about it right now and good enough that I could teach pretty much all the lessons if I had notes, meaning words for each lesson to help me.  It will be so different once I get out there…….. I can’t wait it is coming up so fast…….
July 10th is the date I’m suppose to leave to go the Ukraine.

So this week, like I said, went by really fast. This week was pretty much routine here at the MTC. There were only a few things that really stuck out to me this week.  As you all know my companion has not been feeling the best and he has been a little stressed out about everything that has been going on so I was able to give my very first blessing. It was a blessing of comfort and it was one of the coolest experiences ever. I honestly don’t remember what I was saying but I remember feeling scared but then calmed as I began to speak. The words just started to come to me and it was so awesome to get that first opportunity to give a blessing here in the MTC rather that in the mission field. We also were able to use our priesthood on one of our sisters in our district.  She was feeling down about that language and everything else going on. So we were able to participate in giving her a blessing as well. I am so glad that I am a worthy priesthood holder who is able to perform these ordinances, as well as the rest of the missionaries in our district who are also worthy. It is so important that we have this priesthood because without it, we could not do any of the things we are able to do. It is such a privilege that we have the priesthood and we are able to use.

Okay so this week we were giving a lesson to one of our investigators and he asked us a question. I can’t remember the question or what I even said, but that is what was so cool about it because it really wasn’t me speaking words, I felt like the words just started to come out of my mouth. They may not have been the most sophisticated words but I opened my mouth and words started to come out. I was able to look the investigator in the eye and saw what I needed to say; it was such a spiritual experience. I can say that the gift of tongues is real and that is what will help me and all the missionaries everywhere if they are willing to open their mouth. A more recent experience I had was yesterday, we were teaching our investigator about the law of chastity and he was asking us some really good questions that we didn’t really know how to answer. But I once again just opened my mouth and used the words I knew and was able to look him in the eye and have an actual conversation with him rather than reading something. I can’t remember the questions exactly but I remember that it was the spirit helping me say and testify about what we were teaching.

One last thing that happened this week……….. On just a little less spiritual note.  In sacrament Elder Wilding, Sister O'Neal, Sister Young, and I all sang in sacrament. You all know that I am not a huge fan of singing in front of a lot of people but it actually went really well.  We practiced a lot and that really helped out. I felt like I was ready, but I still felt nervous when I was up there. It all came together once I opened my mouth and started to sing.
So if there was anything that I could say………….. well this can apply to anyone really, if you prepare yourself and learn what you need to learn in school or in your language or in the gospel, the spirit will help you, but you have to open your mouth first before he will help you and give you what you need to say.

This has been a great week and very spiritual and I am ready to go out and serve the people of Ukraine and I hope that they are ready for me to get out there and teach. I love you all and am so happy that I have all of this support from you all.  It is such a blessing and I just want to say THANK YOU! You really don’t know how much it helps and means to have people supporting you.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I love you all and hope all is going well

Love Elder Anthony Litchfield

No comments:

Post a Comment