Como esta? Thank you for the email! I always look forward to Thursday to hear how things are going out there, since I don't hear anything during the rest of the week! We pretty much live in our own little world, and it doesn't even feel like Provo except for when we leave to go to the temple. I'm glad everything is going well at home!
Everything here in the MTC is the sameold. Class, eat, sit in class, eat, sit in class, eat, class, then go to bed. Sleep for what feels like 4 hours and wake up again. Life of a missionary! It is SO worth it though! You learn so much! I have really progressed with my testimony with being a missionary. Your eyes are opened to a whole new perspective of the Church, this work, and just how much for granted we take the Church in our lives. You really feel a love for the people that you serve and teach, and especially for the people you serve with. Our district is the coolest group of guys. We all have different backgrounds, personalities, and strengths and weaknesses, yet we have grown to be some of the best of friends. A couple are older, like 23 or 25, and a lot of us are 19. Some are fresh out of high school and a lot of us have had a year or two of school. It's really cool how with each of our strengths we lift and strengthen each other, and are able teach each other. I have learned a lot from the example of others here. Way more than I can stuff in an email in 10 min!
On Sunday after the devotional we watched a film of a talk given here 2-3 years ago by Elder Holland about mission work and it blew us out of our chairs with the classic Elder Holland style: Bold and Powerful!! He talked about the noble and great calling of a missionary, how if his calling was Apostle with a capital A, ours was apostle with lowercase a. He pleaded with us not to waste a day of our missions, the impact and blessings it would forever have, and how much we will be changed and forever greatful for the great blessing it was for us for the Lord to allow us to participate in His work, make it OUR work, purpose, and glory, and be instruments in His hands. He bore the most powerful testimony I have ever heard from him, which is pretty darn powerful, and I know that the call of a missionary is greater than I or any of us could ever be, but the Lord will qualify us and bless us with His help and blessing.
Also, guess who was our Tuesday devotional speaker?! Elder Neil L. Andersen! It was great! We were all hoping and excited to hopefully hear from an Apostle, since the last to speak was at the Mission President Training Seminar. And we got our wish! Since it was President Monson's birthday that day, he talked about President Monson, some things he has learned from working with him every day, and what he would say to us if he were here. It was so powerful! You could almost hear president Monson's voice as Elder Andersen would quote his favorite scriptures and sayings. We were very blessed.
Love you all! Nos vemos!
Elder Coombs
Friday, August 24, 2012
"Week 3"
8/16/12
It's crazy to think we're in "week 3" of MTC training (the first week counts as one I guess). It has definitely not felt like that long. It's almost as if the MTC runs on some sort of celestial time. The days are SO long and packed with stuff and then the weeks fly by like a day.
The MTC is just simply the greatest! I love all of the speakers and devotionals on Sunday and Tuesdays. The speakers are always so awesome. On sunday we get to choose between a couple films of past talks from a few years ago, and this last sunday we watched "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. I guess they're only available for MTC use, but it was one of the best talks I've heard! The General Authorities can all speak differently, more causal/interactive and its really awesome. Elder Bednar related the 'natural man' to the cookie monster. "I want cookie now! I want baptism now! I want to speak language now!" and then gobble it all up. He talked about how when times were hard, the Savior turned outward to serve others when we would turn inward and pity over ourselves. It was super awesome.
Thanks for the pictures and all of the emails! It took me like 10 minutes to read them all so now I only have 20 min to relpy! They really need to give us an hour, but there's too much in the life of a missionary to do. It is so great though! We're always tired, and always happy. There is absolutely nothing I would rather be doing and preparing for! You feel the Spirit all the time, and in ways different than I've otherwise felt, being a missionary and having the special calling.
I get the emails the day you send them, but we are only allowed to check them on P days. That's the only day I can write too. I love getting packages/letters/any word from the outside world though! My district all loved the treats ;) Haha we get cinammon rolls, cookies, donuts, and stuff all the time from each others families. Make us feel even more gross (our schedule is basically sit in class, walk to cafeteria, sit/eat, walk to class, sit in class, repeat, then go to bed. The only exercise is an hour of basketball or volleyball in the gym each day, which is a tough adjustment! I get antsy in class and have to get up and read standing in the corner or something for a little while.
I hope all continues to be well at home! I love you all and although I miss the people from home, I'm glad to be here! Yo se que la Iglesia es verdadero! El Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios. Jose Smith fue un profeta y Thomas S. Monsen es el profeta actual. Yo se que El Evangelio de Jesucristo puede brindar esperanza y felicidad. Jesucristo es el Salvador y Redentor del mundo y vive. Dios es muy amaroso. Nos vemos!
Elder Coombs
It's crazy to think we're in "week 3" of MTC training (the first week counts as one I guess). It has definitely not felt like that long. It's almost as if the MTC runs on some sort of celestial time. The days are SO long and packed with stuff and then the weeks fly by like a day.
The MTC is just simply the greatest! I love all of the speakers and devotionals on Sunday and Tuesdays. The speakers are always so awesome. On sunday we get to choose between a couple films of past talks from a few years ago, and this last sunday we watched "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. I guess they're only available for MTC use, but it was one of the best talks I've heard! The General Authorities can all speak differently, more causal/interactive and its really awesome. Elder Bednar related the 'natural man' to the cookie monster. "I want cookie now! I want baptism now! I want to speak language now!" and then gobble it all up. He talked about how when times were hard, the Savior turned outward to serve others when we would turn inward and pity over ourselves. It was super awesome.
Thanks for the pictures and all of the emails! It took me like 10 minutes to read them all so now I only have 20 min to relpy! They really need to give us an hour, but there's too much in the life of a missionary to do. It is so great though! We're always tired, and always happy. There is absolutely nothing I would rather be doing and preparing for! You feel the Spirit all the time, and in ways different than I've otherwise felt, being a missionary and having the special calling.
I get the emails the day you send them, but we are only allowed to check them on P days. That's the only day I can write too. I love getting packages/letters/any word from the outside world though! My district all loved the treats ;) Haha we get cinammon rolls, cookies, donuts, and stuff all the time from each others families. Make us feel even more gross (our schedule is basically sit in class, walk to cafeteria, sit/eat, walk to class, sit in class, repeat, then go to bed. The only exercise is an hour of basketball or volleyball in the gym each day, which is a tough adjustment! I get antsy in class and have to get up and read standing in the corner or something for a little while.
I hope all continues to be well at home! I love you all and although I miss the people from home, I'm glad to be here! Yo se que la Iglesia es verdadero! El Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios. Jose Smith fue un profeta y Thomas S. Monsen es el profeta actual. Yo se que El Evangelio de Jesucristo puede brindar esperanza y felicidad. Jesucristo es el Salvador y Redentor del mundo y vive. Dios es muy amaroso. Nos vemos!
Elder Coombs
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Carta Primera
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| Elder Ryan Coombs going into the MTC in Provo 8/1/2012 |
¡Como le va?! It was great to receive news from the outside world! I was starting to wonder if I was still remembered. Your letter has been the only news I´ve heard as of yet.
The MTC is great! It has been really cool to see the gift of tongues in action. The first few days we learned how to pray, testify, and hold basic introduction conversations. Throughout all of our lessons you realize that words, phrases, and random grammar rules come into your head that came from Spanish class in school, which I know I couldn't remember before. It's way cool. The language training in the computer lab is really helpful for me too, because its the whole deal; visual, audio, and practice. I learn better reading and seeing the words as they are spoken, rather than in regular class where they just speak it to us and then look at us weird when none of us understand.
My companion is Elder Bozarth. He's from St. George and has been a year at BYU. He played basketball at high school, so he schools a lot of us in gym time. He reminds me a lot of Kyle T, not only in basketball but personality and stuff. Kinda funny how that works. Needless to say we get along great =) Elder Wiscombe is from Morgan, Utah and destroys everyone in volleyball. He doesn't seem like it at first glance, but he's way good. His companion is Elder Miskin, and he's from San Bernadino California. The four of us are going to Barcelona, and the rest in our district are going to Texas McCallen. They are awesome too. Elder Argyle is from Arizona, his companion Elder Mulitalo is from Utah somewhere. He actually played on the BYU football team. He's a big samoan guy and probably one of the funniest guys I've ever met! Elder Talley is probably the best spanish speaker here, but I don't remember where he's from. His companero es Elder Williams. Elder Hobbs and Elder Stock are the other companionship and they're great too. I don't have time to tell you about them all, but just know that they're great and we're all amigos here =)
Sundays are awesome here. Very powerful and spiritual. Tuesdays we have devotionals from General Authorities or Emeritus, so those are always great.
Love you all!! The gospel is true, God lives! The Book of Mormon is the word of God and blesses lives beyond measure. Prayer is a powerful principle and brings forth many blessings.
Elder Coombs
The MTC is great! It has been really cool to see the gift of tongues in action. The first few days we learned how to pray, testify, and hold basic introduction conversations. Throughout all of our lessons you realize that words, phrases, and random grammar rules come into your head that came from Spanish class in school, which I know I couldn't remember before. It's way cool. The language training in the computer lab is really helpful for me too, because its the whole deal; visual, audio, and practice. I learn better reading and seeing the words as they are spoken, rather than in regular class where they just speak it to us and then look at us weird when none of us understand.
My companion is Elder Bozarth. He's from St. George and has been a year at BYU. He played basketball at high school, so he schools a lot of us in gym time. He reminds me a lot of Kyle T, not only in basketball but personality and stuff. Kinda funny how that works. Needless to say we get along great =) Elder Wiscombe is from Morgan, Utah and destroys everyone in volleyball. He doesn't seem like it at first glance, but he's way good. His companion is Elder Miskin, and he's from San Bernadino California. The four of us are going to Barcelona, and the rest in our district are going to Texas McCallen. They are awesome too. Elder Argyle is from Arizona, his companion Elder Mulitalo is from Utah somewhere. He actually played on the BYU football team. He's a big samoan guy and probably one of the funniest guys I've ever met! Elder Talley is probably the best spanish speaker here, but I don't remember where he's from. His companero es Elder Williams. Elder Hobbs and Elder Stock are the other companionship and they're great too. I don't have time to tell you about them all, but just know that they're great and we're all amigos here =)
Sundays are awesome here. Very powerful and spiritual. Tuesdays we have devotionals from General Authorities or Emeritus, so those are always great.
Love you all!! The gospel is true, God lives! The Book of Mormon is the word of God and blesses lives beyond measure. Prayer is a powerful principle and brings forth many blessings.
Elder Coombs
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