Last week of the MTC

  What is up everyone. This is Elder Hillstead reporting to you LIVE from Provo, Utah, thank you for tuning in for yet another week of this adventure of mine it's great to have you all here once again. This week has had so many highlights and a lot of fantastic things I'm excited to share with you all! First and most notably, this week had so so many good talks and lessons. Since my email last week my wisdom has gone up tenfold, like in the Grinch how his heart grows 3 sizes but it's with my brain. This Tuesday we had a lesson from Elder Boom, one of the members of the Quarum of the 70, about how there are so many people in the world whose lives could be blessed from the Gospel, and how we've gotta work hard on the mission to acomplish the work the Lord has set out for us, and making the most of his time.  He also shared about how comparison is the thief of joy which will never not be a good message to recieve. 

    We also had the super cool experience of getting to watch General Conference at the MTC, which was an amazing experience. After both days' sessions, we got together as a District and everyone shared what we liked from the talks each day, and getting to hear everyones testimonies was so awesome. I think it's so cool how different talks speak to different people. One of my favorites this year was Elder Budge's message about being busy, and the need to make room for the Lord. I loved his story from japan, and his invitation to not necessarily have to set aside more time in your day or week for Spiritual related things, but making the most value from the Spiritual things you've already set time aside for, like praying, the temple, reading scripture, etc. This session had so many good invitations and reminders of the importance of so many great topics, and I'll definitely refer back to a lot of the talks throughout Fall and Winter until April. 

    

 This week I've realized especially how grateful I am to be here at the MTC. I've found so much gratitude in the lessons I've learned, memories made, and people I've met. I never thought I would be able to grow to love everyone I've met here as fast as I have, but they're basically like family honestly. It'll be tough to say goodbye to everyone next week but I know they're gonna all be great missionaries and it'll be sweet to see how they all develop. Although next week is the last email I'll have from here, I'm so grateful for how much I've learned here, and I'm mad excited to keep the learning grind going on in Brazil and develop more as a missionary.

    This week the Portuguese grind has gone good. One of the days this week me and another Elder tried to have an English fast, which meant that we could only speak Portuguese the entire day, unless it was an emergency or we really had to speak English or something like that. The exercise was super fun cause I got to see right where I was in Portguguese, and i gotta admit I think it was a good exercise. By the end of the day, I felt more confident in my sentence making abilities and didn't have to think quite as much to craft sentences in my head before saying them, but I still have a long long way to go. This next week though that exercise is gonna become my life. Tonight we're all starting what's called Fala sua lingua (Speak your language/tongue) which means we can only speak Portuguese the entire week. It's a pretty intimidating exercise but it's also what Im gonna be doing the next 2 years anyways, so I know that as long as I'm giving it my full effort all the time, the Lord will magnify my efforts and although it'll be a struggle to get the language good, I have lots of faith things will work out. 

    Between Portuguese and Spiritual time, us in the District have been spending our time with Volleyball, Ping Pong, and Chess (Elder Schudde is super good and keeps whooping me), but it's all been a ton of fun. Although it's a lot of work a lot of the time, the days here are still filled with crazy things like late night conversations debating whether KFC or Canes is better (crazy this is even a competition), shower opera sessions with me and the roommates, and having some straight up wacked conversations with the other Elders in the microwave room waiting to make their Cup Ramen. This place has indeed made some unforgettable memories and I've had so many good times.

    Well to wrap up this week's email, I want to share a super cool thought from this week I heard from one of the workshops. One of the return missionary workers here taught about his experience on the mission, and when he left for his mission his Dad gave him an empty tithing slip and told him to not come back until he had it filled out completely. After thinking on what that meant, he realized that tithing is all about giving 10% of what you have to the Lord, and when he got back from his mission he'd be 20 years old. Now I'm no mathmetician, but 2 years for the mission out of 20 years of life is in face 10% ladies and gentlemen. I thought that was a super cool thought, and loved the idea that serving a mission is giving back to the Lord what he's already granted to you. And the thing about tithing is that the Lord promises that if you have the faith to donate 10% of what you have, the blessings he pours out upon you will be too much to recieve. 3 Nephi 24:10

I love the Lord and savior Jesus Christ so much. I'm so grateful for the example he has set for me and for his undying message of love and redemtion through life. I'm going to follow President Nelson's invitation of rededicating my life to Jesus Christ, and I know that as I go through the process of doing that I'll see blessings in my life like never before. Love you all. Thank you all so much again for the email responses, they are always so nice to recieve. Stay safe and I'll talk to you all next week!

"The past is like a foreign country, they do things differently there"

1. The Volleyball Crew

2. Saying goodbye to the Elders

3. Another District photo

4. Red Tie day (feat. Elder Longhurst)

5. Funny story. So one dinner this week I was debating whether or not to get dinner, and I told 2 Elders (the ones in the photo) to be my shoulder devil snd shoulder angel. So the picture depics one of them convincing me why I shouldn't eat the cake, and the other convincing me why I should. Long story short, the cake was delicious.

6. THE EGG.