Week 7 - Arachnaphobia

Greetings from the land of Many Tough Challenges! (See what I did there :P)

Another week has come and gone and I haven't died yet, so things are going great! For everyone who wrote me, sorry if my letters take a while. I just couldn't find much time to write this week, sorry! I'm not really sure what to write about this week since every day is very similar, but I'll try to write some stuff that may interest you.

Where to begin... Last P-day was flippin' awesome! Had a great session at the temple and the devotional was fantastic! David F. Evans of the Seventy and his wife, Sister Mary Evans, spoke to us. Elder Evans spoke on the need for missionaries to find always. This means that no matter where we are or what we're supposed to be doing, we should always be trying to find others that need the Gospel. I think this doesn't just apply to missionaries, but members of the church as well. We are so blessed with the knowledge of the Gospel. It's a bit selfish if we don't try and share that happiness with others. That's why I'm so glad to be on my mission! I can't wait to see how the Gospel will affect the lives of those in Veracruz!

An interesting thing that also happened last P-day was that Elder Perrenound had to get a biopsy on a limph node in his neck. He was really nervous about it so President Bradley suggested we give him a blessing. After saying a prayer, Elder Perrenound asked Elder Dean to anoint him and Elder Healy to seal the anointing. It was so cool! I'm a bit jealous :P. It's experiences like that that make me proud to be a servant of the Lord.

Ok time for something kinda nasty. Our teacher, Hermano Piperato, just came back from his vacation on Wednesday. He went to San Diego and ended up sleeping on the beach one day. Well, he woke up with a HUGE spider bite on his hip! It was soooo sick! We kept telling him that it was going to pop and a bunch of baby spiders were going to crawl out. Elder Davis was like "Ugh, it's like that movie Arachnaphobia!". Hilarious! Well, eventually it did pop and no spiders came out, but he ended up with this weird looking, gaping hole where it was. That was pretty gross looking too. Overall, it was pretty funny and we kept making fun of him for it. :P

When it comes to teaching, we've been doing a ton of it. We teach either one to three lessons depending on the day. The weird thing is that in the mission field, three lessons a day is nothing! All our lessons have been improving I think though which is awesome. One of our investigators (Luis) was taught La Palabra de Sabiduria y La Ley de Castidad (The Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity). That was interesting! He smoked forty eight cigarettes a day and wasn't married to his wife! Luckily, he was willing to follow both commandments after a little encouragement. I feel like teaching these investigators here at the MTC has been the best thing that could've been done to help us learn. Generally, every other day has been pretty normal. Not much to report other than one of our teachers is being moved. I guess at every BYU semester they rotate the teachers here and so this is Hermana Arroyo's last week with us. We're sad to see her go, but she'll be just down the hall so hopefully we can still say hi now and then. We'll be getting another sister to teach us for our last week. That'll be interesting. Luckily, Hermano Piperato isn't changing districts which is awesome because he's the best!

That's pretty much all for the week, but I've still got time to type so I'm gonna use it. On Wednesday, we listened to a talk entitled "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be". I can't remember who spoke it, but it was really good! I would recommend finding it on LDS.org and listening to it. The speaker spoke on the difference between "doing" and "being". As members of the Church we sometimes just go through the motions because it's what we're supposed to "do". At times like this we need to change our attitude and "be" the members we need to be. "Being" a member of the Church means changing our very natures. We need to try our hardest to live Christ-like lives. For me, the easiest way to think about it is by having charity. If we have the pure love of Christ for all of those around us, I think that most other virtues will follow suit.

I know my e-mails can be rambly and that I'm not the best at explaining things, but I hope those who read my e-mails get a little something out of them every Tuesday. If you get nothing else from this e-mail, just know that I have a testimony of this Gospel. I know that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that following His Gospel is the only way to true happiness. I know that every commandment we keep leads to blessings. I've seen the blessings of obedience in my stay here at the MTC. I've also come to know and love the redeeming power of the Atonement. Through the Atonement, any problem or sin that we are struggling with can be solved and conquered. Christ knows each and every one of us and our weaknesses. And remember, through Christ, "our weak things can be made strong." I leave this testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love you all and hope you'll take the opportunity to be the person the Lord wants you to be. I also hope you'll take the time to do good for someone every day of your life. Thanks for all the support!

-Elder Sean Horrocks