Elder,
How are you doing in the somewhat middle of your week? How's the MTC been treating you these past couple of days? I hope all is well.
So, not much to report.
However, like 4 hours before FHE started in my ward, one of the FHE committee members asked me if I could do and impromptu lesson on a talk given by President Uchtdorf in April 2010 conference called "You Are My Hands." Of course I said yes. I prepared a whole maybe 20-30 minute lesson only to be told to take only 5 minutes. So I had to do what you missionaries do all the time, condense a whole complex lesson in a short amount of time, and still make it cohesive, asking good questions, taking participation from the crowd, inviting the spirit into the meeting.
In the talk, President Uchtdorf talks about a German city that was bombed during WWII. In the city, it had a statue of a Christ, a Christus. In the bombing, the statue was shattered. After the War, the pieces were brought together but they could not find the hands. Some people wanted to reconstruct the hands. Some wanted it to be left without hands. In the end, they chose not to add hands, and at the base of this statue, it said "You are My Hands." So I talked about how and in what ways we can be Christs figurative hands. Uchtdorf mentioned three points, We are his hands when we embrace, when we serve, and when we comfort. You are Christ's ambassador of peace and love, truth and righteousness.
For the "Our hands can embrace," I shared how I was socially awkward in High School, never really handing out hugs like I do now. Cody was always the cassanova. He hugged everyone, and everyone loved him. Now when I embrace someone, it's because I love them and I think that they also should feel the love of the Savior through me.
I also read 3 Nephi 23 today. It's all about keeping records, mostly spiritual records. I was just wondering how you were doing in that aspect. If you're keeping good records of the time you were on your mission. I mean, you'll look back at your records in proper nostalgia, and you will be glad you detailed the happenings on your mission at the MTC and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
If it's not written, it's like it was never done. Noodle on that.
Continue being great! Learn from this time, as much as you can. YOLO, of course.
I love you, man!
John
