Love Our Missionaries: Elder Remund's 2nd Week in the MTC

Written by Elder Dallin Remond

Hello everybody!

I have been here at the MTC for two weeks! It's gone by so fast. I'm loving it out here. I'm becoming very humbled and realizing that I need the Lord and His prophet's words to help me get through the day! It gets tiring out here. You wake up at 6:30 a.m. and keep going till 10:30 at night. 8 o'clock feels like midnight in the mission life! Haha! It's so strange! The planned out schedule is really nice, though. There's really no time to waste. I've made it a priority this week to use every ounce of my study time! I only have a month until I have to teach real people in Spanish! The thought is scary sometimes, but I am continually comforted and the fears only turn to a determination to work harder.

So, every Thursday our District does a service project. You get assigned one place and you keep going there your whole stay in the MTC. Elder Smith and I ended up having to scrub the TOILETS in one of the residence halls. Everyone was joking around before about how we would have to scrub toilets, and it really happened. It was terrible, but we laughed it off! I'm running for the Windex next week... Wish me luck!

So, this week has been a good week for teaching! We taught our 3rd and 4th lesson with Claudio, our mock investigator this week. He likes the idea of the Sospel, but he doesn't quite understand the scope of the Atonement and how he can truly be forgiven for all of his sins. He's coming closer and closer to Heavenly Father and has started praying a little more, which is fantastic. We taught another mock investigator, Josue, who is our teacher, Hermano Miller. When we were teaching him, he was just staring off into space like he was extremely bored or spaced out. It was so weird, and made me feel like we weren't connecting with him on a personal level. We are always talking about teaching people, NOT lessons in our classes and devotionals. It is truly so important. When you can converse with them and truly make them feel important and loved, the Spirit is there when you bear testimony and tell them you know the Gospel is true.

Seeing every person out there like God sees them is so amazing. In conference, they talked about how one of the missionaries would look at people as if they were dressed in white, entering the waters of baptism, or entering the temple! I love that! When I can imagine that, I truly see my investigators as my brother or sister. We all share a spiritual connection with our brothers and sisters here on this earth! I know that we promised some of our very dear friends in the pre-mortal existence that we would bring them the Gospel. It's a solemn and wonderful responsibility!

We had TRC (Training Resource Center) for the first time. We all went to go speak with Spanish speaking members and share our testimonies with them, and teach them a little bit of the things we know about the Gospel. Elder Smith and I talked to two awesome hermanas. They were really impressed with our Spanish, and they were surprised we had only been here for two weeks. That was really nice to hear! Both of them shared their testimonies and they were powerful! The Gospel is true in every language!!! I love TRC.

The Sunday night devotional was awesome. Brother Heaton, who has some sort of high ranking MTC leadership, spoke on getting on the same plane as your investigators. About how to get to know your investigator personally and connect. It's been a theme in my lessons this week and is something I continue to work on! It's not easy. We want to be there to invite them to Christ and help them in any way we can. We're not there to shove a lesson down their throat or read off a list of things they have to do to be saved. These are our friends, our brothers and sisters! The Gospel needs to be taught with the Spirit! I love it.

The Tuesday night devotional was the best! It was a historic event because it was the first time in the history of the MTC that the Tuesday Night devotional was held in the Marriott Center. From now until August, they're holding all the Tuesday devotionals in the Marriott Center because of all the missionaries coming in this summer. So cool.

Elder Mervyn B. Arnold from the Seventy came to speak. He's the guy who gave that talk with the 'stupid cow' that ate the wheat and bloated and died back in 2009. I think it was Priesthood session. Anyways, his wife recounted the story and talked about how the rules are there to protect us! Elder Arnold spoke on 5 principles that can help us on our mission, like understanding your purpose and remembering the sacredness of your calling. He also emphasized seeing people not as they are, but as they can become. Again, that's been a theme this whole past week. I love how those themes show up everywhere. He also talked about how President Monson loves the missionaries and is continually emphasizing praying for all of them and their sacred calling.

I got to sing in the MTC choir. There were so many people! There were about 2,000 of us. The biggest choir I've ever sung in! Holy cow. We all sang 'Called to Serve.' Classic. It's been so nice to be singing again. I've been practicing in the dorms with my District the past couple days. It feels good to be practicing music again! Much needed.

Okay, now for the exciting part: They told the choir on Sunday night that the June 23rd Sunday devotional is going to be a church worldwide mission training broadcast. We'll be singing in it and President Monson and a bunch of other apostles are going to be there in the Marriott Center!!! I GET TO SING FOR THE PROPHET. Best news of the week by far. Anyone can watch the broadcast, so if you're free on Sunday night on June 23rd, try to figure out where they're broadcasting it and you might see me on the camera! So exciting. I'm so stoked. They also asked some experienced singers (college level) that want to sing for a certain event in the next couple weeks. I volunteered and I'm waiting to hear back, but I can't wait to get singing again. I miss it!

I love it here! Thanks for all the letters/packages this week! I have been so happy! I want to hear from more of you still! If you've got a couple seconds, just go onto Dear Elder and write me something! I would really love to hear how you're doing!

I love all of you guys! Thanks for your amazing example and support!

Con todo mi corazon,

Elder Remund