August 27 2009

Mi familia!

I'm just waiting for my laundry, so I thought I'd add a few things I forgot to say in my email.  I'm in the intermediate spanish class, but it looks like I'll still be here a total of 9 weeks - I'm actually excited about that, it just means I'll be extra prepared when I hit Mexico!

The Sunday Devotional was amazing. Stephen B Allen spoke - he's the Missionary Dept. Director, and he's worked in the Church's Media Dept. for a long time. He was the executive producer for most of the Home-Front commercials, so he showed us a lot of them, and talked about them.  (family, isn't it about ... time?) Gabbie and Miranda - do you remember when we sat and watched all those in the visitors center in DC?  One of my favorites was "It's not who you aren't, it's who you are". Being yourself is great."

     Gabbie, I have a scripture for you. It's Isaiah 2:9.  Look it up and read it and then read it to everyone else.  I think you'll like it :)
     Dad, my comp says his parents didn't move to Michigan until he was 1 - so likely you wouldn't know them.
     Mom, thanks for all the updates from home and, of course, packages. I love all of them. Seriously, thank you for everything - including all the preparation you did for my mission :)

     Well, that's all for now, I'll write more after the devotional tonight.  (I did get to see the Oquirrh Mountain temple dedication. I was pretty amazing. I also went today to the Provo temple and like it a lot too. Very neat.

     I just had my first MTC Tuesday night devotional.  The speaker? Elder Richard G. Scott!  To say that it was amazing is an incredible understatement.  He bore such a strong witness of Jesus Christ and taught some amazing things about recognizing the spirit and listening to its promptings.
     Afterward, we had a district testimony meeting where we shared things we learned. one of our branch counselors, Brother Gubler, was there, and he said something that really impacted me:  It's astonishing and a singular blessing to hear one of 15 men in the world called of God to testify of Jesus Christ.  It is even more incredible that a member of the Godhead - one of 3 in the universe - testifies to us personally of Jesus Christ.
     That statement (and the entire devotional) really impacted me. I hope we can all learn something from it.  Later I'll try to share some more that I learned from the devotional, but it's about bedtime.

I received your package and letters today.  I really enjoyed Mikey's letter - thanks for sending it on.  Yes, mom, it's totally cool if Gabbie takes over my room. It think that would be great.

Tell everyone hi for me.  And Gabbie - thanks so much for your letter!  I loved reading it. (sounds like you've had a lot of fun with Reagan - ha.)

I love you all,
Elder Greer