Written by Elder Dallin Remund
Hello everybody!
My time here at the Provo MTC is coming to a close. I leave next Wednesday!!! We're getting into the 'lasts' of everything. Last Wednesday was my last trip to the temple for two years. Today is my last P-Day in the MTC. We said goodbye to one of our MTC teachers yesterday because she's going on a church history trip. Yesterday was our last devotional review with our district. We're all going to miss each other like crazy. The only 'last' I can't wait for is the last meal at the cafeteria... Haha!
I got my travel plans last Friday! I meet up in the travel office at 3:30 in the morning next Wednesday. My plane leaves Salt Lake at 7:30, then I have a two hour layover in Detroit. I go from Detroit to Norfolk, VA! I'm traveling with 25 other Chesapeake-bound missionaries, so that should be fun! We'll be the first group to ever fly in for the Virginia Chesapeake Mission. I am getting so excited! A lot of my district is getting nervous, but with a trainer and the Lord on my side, how can I go wrong?
I'm taking everything I can out of these next couple days at the MTC. On Sunday, I watched Elder Bednar's MTC devotional from a couple years back called: "Character of Christ." They show it every Sunday here and it's always an option for the Sunday night movie. It is seriously one of the greatest talks I have listened to. Elder Bednar spoke about how if we want to become like Christ, we should take a serious study of His character. He shared a couple stories about Christ that show the type of person He is. Our tendency is to look inward and wonder why people aren't helping us or tending to our needs, but Christ's character is to go outward and help people, even in times of intense pain or sorrow. His whole life, not once, did He ask for attention or complain about his afflictions. That really struck me. I've studied the New Testament and read the teachings of Jesus Christ earlier, but I never really took much attention to how wonderful He truly was. He is the ultimate example. I'm so grateful to have such an example in my life! It's what keeps me going in the mission field. He loves us so much! As we stray from the natural man, we learn to identify other people's needs and we stop worrying why life is so hard for us! Such an amazing concept. If anyone is heading to the Provo MTC, make sure you see this talk! Sunday nights, they have four or five different movies or old MTC devotional talks (one of them is Character of Christ) playing in different rooms. It's usually packed, so plan accordingly! (Click here to see Elder Bednar's "Special Witness of Christ" video. This is not the same video Elder Remund mentions above.)
I've seen Sister Kylie Adams a ton this week! It's been so fun catching up with her! She, Sister Crane, and I talked for a good 10 minutes in the cafeteria. I love catching up with high school friends here. I can't remember if anyone is coming in today, but I'll keep my eye out. I got to see Elder Nate Jensen in the cafeteria on Sunday. I forgot we would be in the MTC at the same time. We had a great time catching up together. He's right above my mission in Washington DC South! So sweet. And he's going English speaking, so he's leaving a couple days before me. Kind of ridiculous!
Yesterday we had our Tuesday Night Devotional, which was awesome. For almost everyone in our district, it was their last devotional. Elder Kiene and I have one more for our last night next Tuesday. We keep joking about how it's going to be President Uchtdorf or someone amazing like that and everyone will have missed it! Haha. After the devotional, we had a testiomony meeting. The Spirit there was so strong. A lot of us brought up things like the blessings that come in doing the Lord's will, family history, and help from the other side of the veil. Our thoughts were all kind of on the same plane. We went 15 minutes past our time, but we didn't care. We are all going to miss each other so much. It kind of stinks being in a district of mixed missions. We're going everywhere from New York, Missouri, Illinois, Virginia, Arizona, Alabama, Honduras, and Utah. We've grown so much spiritually together. It will be a hard goodbye for sure! I'm just glad we can all add each other on Facebook now during our missions! ;)
Life is so good! Tomorrow's July 4th. It will be weird without family for sure! I miss you guys so much. They say they do an awesome devotional tomorrow and then they let us go outside and stay up late to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire, which sounds pretty sweet. I'm excited!
Well, my time is just about up! I'll be in Virginia next Wednesday! I will give you my mission home address and you can send letters or packages there. I'll get you my actual apartment address later once I find out.
Here's the mission home:
941 Country Club Blvd.
Chesapeake, VA 23322
Can't wait to hear how you all are doing!
-Elder Remund
