March 27, 2012

Hello family! All is well here at the MTC but i am sure you know that, i would rather hear about you guys! This week was a great week as always, but we had a few out of the ordinary special events!

 

First of all, our speaker at deviotional last tuesday was Dallin H. Oaks! It is such a privledge for us missionarys to be able to here from such great speakers constantly! I sure am going to miss this when i get to Taiwan. Sister Oaks spoke first, and some of the points she hit that stuck out to me were This is your time, be bold! She told us how if she would have known as a missionary what she knows now, she would have been so much more bold. It just made me think live your mission with no regrets. Even though she is talking about a mission this message can apply to all of us! Live each day with no regrets! My branch president, President Baker, is big on one liners, so as he would say "live in a way that when you look back you will be able to say i am glad i did instead of i wish i had. I think one of the most important things we can do to live every day with no regrets is simple, just be happy! When you are happy it is so much easier to make sure you are always turning out and helping others, because you want them to have what is making you happy. That way you can always say i am glad i did. Dallin H. Oaks spoke mostly about the sacrament and the Holy Ghost. One thing he said was "The key to having the spirit with us always is in the sacrament prayers". As long as we are keeping our covenants that we made with God, we wil have his spirit to be with us. Sometimes we get so used to taking the sacrament all of the time that we don't often think about what we are doing as much as we should. He also mentioned how If we are commanded to take the sacrament every week (which we are) Then it must be very important! Which it is! So make sure we are taking it every single week!

 

Another exciting thing that happened this week was our zone got to host! Hosting means we are the missionarys that are standing by your car when you drop your missionary off at the MTC. We grab their luggage, bring them to their room, get their study materials, and take them straight to class! Some elders in our zone got the opportunity of hosting the international missionarys that came in! I hosted Elder Da Silva from Brazil! He is going to Japan and is such an awesome Elder. He is going to be an amazing missionary I already know. We also get to host tomorrow so that will be fun!

 

So last out of the ordinary thing....we got our travel plans this week!!! Yes!! We are flying from SLC to Portland, from Portland to Tokyo, and then from Tokyo to Taiwan! I am so excited to be out in the field! (And stopping in japan is going to be awespme :D) We have a 1 hour lay over in portland, so that is probably when i will end up calling. I think when we get to japan it is going to be really late for you guys, i am not sure though so if i don't call while in portland be ready for anything :D I am going to get a calling card here at the MTC.

 

Thanks for sending me the soap, kleenex, and some treats! You are the best Mom in the world! (Sorry if i offend anyone with that comment, but hey you gotta admit, she's the best) Also thanks for sending me kaitlin's letters! I love to hear how she is doing! General conference is coming up, so don't forget to watch every session! Something that really put the importance of general conference into perspective for me was a story told by my old seminary teacher, Brother Franzen. He said one day he was walking out of his house and his neighbor, who is a non-member, was outside and started chatting with him. His neighbor brought up general conference and how it was going to be on the next day and asked some simple questions about it. The next day Brother Franzen was busy in the morning with something and didn't end up watching the morning session of saturday conference. When he got home he walked up to his house and his neighbor was outside again. His neighbor stopped him and said hey how was conference, and Brother Franzen proceeded to tell him how he was busy this morning and didn't have time to watch it. Astonished, his neighbor said what let me get this straight, you believe you have a prophet on the earth who tells you the words of God and what God wants for you, and you didn't listen to him? (You can finish the rest of the story yourself) Wow! How true that is! Conference is so important, we need to watch it, so don't miss it! I love and miss you family! Thanks for all the love and support you give me! I feel it everyday! Have a wonderful week and an amazing conference weekend! I can't wait to talk to you on tuesday! (Our flight arrives in portland in the afternoon sometime, our flight leaves at 11 i think) Love you all! -Elder Ripley