Okay, so this will probably be a super short letter. I've been up since 5:30 this morning just to get things done! So I still have so much to do :) I didn't realize how crazy busy this last week would be in the MTC. Haha I feel like I haven't spoken Japanese in forever, and in a few days I'll be immersed in it! I'm freaking out a little bit. I feel like I don't know anything! I know I always only talk about the devotionals here.. but this week I HAVE to talk about them. We had Sheri Dew... AND the newly appointed President Russell M. Nelson come speak to us! It was seriously the best last Tuesday night devotional ever! I'm going to write straight out of my journal some of the things that I felt. "When Russell M Nelson walked into the room, we were in the middle of singing prelude music. The song that we happened to be singing at that moment was 'Our Savior's Love' and as he walked into the room, we all stood up and sang this song to him. I immediately had this overwhelming feeling of how much God loves His apostles and how much His apostles sacrifice for Him." I later talked to a couple of the sisters and they said they felt the exact same thing. I felt so grateful to be in the same room with him! Even if there were 2,500 other missionaries in the same room haha. President Nelson's talk focused on missionary work obviously, but he compared us to the stripling warriors (also an obvious statement haha) but then he said something that I had never thought about the strippling warriors. He said something around this (according to my journal.. or maybe it's just what I got from what he had said...) "As we go through life we will be wounded in battle, just as the Strippling Warriors were. In Alma 57 vs 25 it says that "there was not one soul of them who did perish.." Which is amazing considering the numbers they were fighting but then it says ".. yea and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds...Because of their exceeding faith in what they had been taught to believe- that there was a just God and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power." We will all be wounded so many times." (ending my journal entry) We aren't here on earth to be stagnant, to have a perfect life with no scars. We are meant to have battle wounds and to show them proudly! God will and has preserved us! I just loved that so much! And then something really quickly from Sheri Dew. She talked about personal revelation. She touched on how we should always be asking questions. Never not ask questions. We grow the most spiritually when we "spiritually wrestle with the Lord" She said asking questions leads to knowledge, greater faith, peace and often.. they lead to answers. And then she talked about how we personally receive revelation from the Lord. She talked about a sister who had been talking about how she just didn't feel like she understood how the Lord talked to her. and Sheri Dew told her "Have you ever asked the Lord to teach you?" The Lord can teach us how He will give us revelation. We just have to ask. Most of the things that we worry about or stress about with the gospel, we just have to ask the Lord! He will tell you.
I'm so sorry if this is all over the place! I hope the stories made sense. The next time I will be e-mailing will be from somewhere in Japan!!
Love,
White Shimai
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