January 16, 2013

Jared's 5th letter; received January 16th 2013

Dear Friends and family,
This week has been same old, but I'm growing in every way but it’s really hard to explain. I'm being taught by the spirit and only my spirit can really understand the change, there’s really no way i can put it into words other than just that my love for this gospel and this work and grown so much since i have been in the MTC. Yesterday was a big day for me tho. As i was sitting in devotional waiting for it to start, all of a sudden the whole place got quiet and everyone stood up and as i looked down at the stand, Elder Holland was walking in, prepared to speak to us. Right as he walked into the room, the spirit illuminated the room. He gave a WONDERFUL talk that really helped me understand my role as a missionary. My heart was pounding out of my chest the whole time. That talk was one of the most important talks to me. My spirit and soul was feasting on every word he said. My feelings after the talk were amazing. i wrote in my journal that i felt full and complete. Now that talk may have not had such an impact on others that were there but i was astonished. The room was still but as he spoke with the words and with the power of the spirit i felt as if Provo hit a massive earthquake. Yesterday changed my life and who i plan to be as a missionary. Often times we feel like we need to "get through" our missions so we can then begin our life. Something Holland said was that "This is Real Life with a capital R and a capital L" Missionary work is Real Life. It is our purpose here. It is the only work we do here that we can take with us after this life! Holland also said to us " I command you to get at least one convert on your mission and it better be YOU!" He talked about how it hurts him as well as all the other general authorities to see inactive return missionaries. Preach my Gospel was created for the purpose to converting the missionaries first, so they could go teach with the power of God. All this stuff just Hit me hard and I'm more motivated than EVER!

The MTC has been great. i love it here. My Spanish is going good, we have finished all the grammar and now going into review. i can teach a good lesson in Spanish, i have the first vision down in Spanish and now i guess i really need to focus on the day to day stuff in the language. I also need to focus on the Argentina accent so i don’t sound too gringo when i get there ha, but all is well and I’m so overjoyed to be here, i love you all.

Elder Nelson