Hey Family!!
I hope you are all doing well! I hope that the first few days of school have gone well. Matthew, it is so nuts you’re a senior?! Class of 2010, woot-woot! OK, totally dorky, but it really is exciting.
A few things before I forget –
1-- I’m going to plan to finish my letters to you in the evenings & send them off on Fridays. That way, if you have a response to my email and get it through DearElder (which is typical of us), then I can respond to you in the hand-written letter and you can get it on Tuesday or so, rather than wait a whole week. So if you have any specific questions, or something I forgot to answer in the email, let me know on Thursday and I can respond to you more promptly.
2—The wedding plans sound like they’re coming along great! I’m excited to see how things all come together.
3—Bro. Cannon got back from his trip, like I mentioned. I asked him what we could do if you came out to pick me up. He asked what month, and when I said January, he laughed. He said January is the coldest month, and even still, there is nothing to do if we wanted to go out into the country, etc. So even though that TOTALLY burst my bubble, I don’t want you to waste your money on coming out to get me if it’s not even worth it. He suggested going back in the summer. I doubt that’s really even feasible…anyway, just wanted to let you know. Kinda lame!
4—Jami said I could leave box(es) with her before I go to Mongolia so I don’t have to mail them home.
I wanted to share with you some things from our devotional on Tuesday – Elder Snow of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy. He was very conversational in that he didn’t talk at us, but he was talking “with” us, even though he still had the formality and boldness of speech you would expect in a General Authority. Anyway, he talked about a kind of “to do” list. I was all over that. : ) Here it is:
1 — I will choose Him.
Ultimately, we choose to follow Christ or not to follow Him every day of our lives. Each day when I wake up, when I’m serving or doing whatever, I must make a choice: Am I going to love Christ more than myself? Am I going to love my (eternal) companion, my peers, my neighbor, my brothers & sisters more than myself?
Ask myself frequently: Am I choosing the Lord or myself? If we have been baptized, we’ve promised to choose Him! Decide how you will remember to choose Him. (I’m still working on deciding HOW, exactly.)
2 – I will take His spirit for my guide.
As a missionary (and in life), I must have the spirit of prophecy and revelation. I can’t rely on someone else to have it for me in my daily life. 2 Ne 30 – if we do not take the spirit as our guide, we are not cleansed from sin.
3 – I will become His true disciple.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because I’ve been baptized, gone to church, graduated from seminary, that I’ve truly come to Christ. I’ve associated myself with the church, but true conversion is much more. True conversion requires desire in addition to action.
4 – I will seek to have His image in my countenance.
This goal/principle hit me so strongly. I realized that it is not until I’ve given up seeking my own will, but chose His; not until I’m truly heeding the promptings of the spirit, not until I’ve chosen to give up everything I have, even my own will, and place it upon God’s altar, that I can truly be as clay in the potter’s hands. I want so dearly to be what He wants me to become. More than anything, I want to love others with a pure love, and, in doing so, help them come unto Christ and feel of God’s love for them.
I’m having a hard time expressing exactly what it is I’m trying to say. I guess to me, there could be nothing greater than receiving His image in my countenance. I know that I have flaws – these I display all too noticeably – but I hope to become like Christ in the way I see others; the way I feel about others; the way I serve and love others. What greater joy could there be?
I hope that regardless of my flaws, someday those can be overlooked because people will see in me Christ’s countenance. I am saddened when I think of the times I’ve treated those I love most with the least kindness or patience. That is not at all Christlike. That is not at all how we act when we have charity. It’s like that quote from Bonnie D. Parkin I used in my talk – charity is expecting the BEST in others. I’m striving every day to be more and more charitable from the inside out. It’s going to be a life process, but I’m trying.
Alma 5 is great for this goal – Have we truly received His image in our countenance?
Well, I’m going to try and tackle the other letters I wanted to write, but I’ll wrap it up tonight before I got to bed and after I get your DearElders.
I love you!
Sister Staib
P.S. Ok, so no letters from you today. But we just learned 2 funny things in class tonight:
1 – The translation for kindergarten is their literal word for garden.
2 – If they have to go #2, the euphemism directly translates to: “I have to go kill a bear.” Weird, no? Haha. I can’t wait!
(8/14) We started learning to teach English today. So fun!
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9 August 2009
Dear Family,
I really just felt like I should write you. I’ll probably be sending this letter out with the pictures I’m supposed to be getting back tomorrow.
The MTC really is wonderful. I’ve fallen into a rhythm of each week, and the routine is quite nice. I’m so grateful that I get to spend 12 weeks here. What a blessing it is to be so pumped up before going out into the field! I feel at home here for now, and count myself as lucky to have so much time to prepare.
I’m actually kind of jealous of the elders, most of whom have been planning and preparing to serve missions for years! I’m not saying the Lord hasn’t prepared me -- in so many ways, I can already see how the experiences I’ve had and people I’ve been surrounded by have prepared me for a mission. But I find myself wishing I were more well-read and that rather than my life being mostly about ME for the past 21 years, that it would’ve been more about CHRIST. It is still a process, and I’m sure it’ll be a lifelong process, but I’m learning more and more (and I KNOW I will learn it more in Mongolia) that this ultimately has very little to do with me. I shouldn’t have waited for a mission to get my priorities in line, though.
I’m reminded of the parable of the ten virgins – 5 of them had been storing up, putting oil in their lamps in preparation for the bridegroom’s (the Savior’s) coming. The other 5 just weren’t prepared. Well, in this day we don’t have to worry about receiving mission calls randomly from the prophet. But I think that in life I’m far too complacent (generally) with my spirituality. NOW is the time to treasure up wisdom. NOW is the time to re-dedicate to serve Him with all our heart, might, mind & strength. This is the time for us to prepare to meet God. What are we waiting for?
Sister Marta was telling us the other day about some of her mission stories. The first thing was her MTC experience – she came out to the Provo MTC from Mongolia and didn’t know any English. She was the only sister in her district and they came from all over – Pakistan, China, etc.
Well, none of them spoke Mongolian and they were all learning English. In a lesson at the TRC with an elder, she sat there, frozen, looking at her investigator and her “companion”. She couldn’t understand a single word they had said, and she couldn’t think of any of the English words she’d worked so hard to memorize.
She just sat there.
When it was over, she bolted from the TRC and ran to a random bush and hid and cried her eyes out. Eventually, a Mongolian RM found her and calmed her down.
She told of numerous times on her mission when no one could understand her, or how she crashed time and time again as she tried to master riding a bike. We all laughed, and she laughed, and she said that even those were very difficult, discouraging times for her, she loves to laugh about it now. Those are the times we remember, aren’t they? She’s so cute, she said, “At least I constantly have a comedy going on in my head.” True!
You young guys–school can be so hard. Kids at school can be rude and there might be days it feels too much to bear, or class is tough and you just want to crawl into a hole. But look for the GOOD things. That’s what we have to do here! The food is nasty with a capital ‘N’. We even find remnants of old meals plastered to the bottom of “clean” plates and trays that somehow got through the dishwasher and dryer. And Mongolian is so hard it’s ridiculous! But you can find good in everything, even the hard times. Look for that good. You’ll find it. Remember what Thomas S. Monson says – take joy in the journey (a great talk to re-read).
We may think we’ll be happy when we graduate finally, when the mean kids start talking to us again, when we have a better teacher or when school isn’t as hard. I’ve fallen prey to that over and over again. But happiness is a CHOICE. CHOOSE to be happy! Choose to see the GOOD in everyone and everything. And you will. I promise you will. Life is too short for unhappiness.
I testify that there is no reason why we should not be happy! We cannot be perfect in many things, but we can have a perfect brightness of FAITH and of HOPE. Christ lives! He atoned for our sins, and we are clean through Him. He knows our pains and sorrows, too. We are to cast our burdens on the Lord (Matt 11:28-30 is one of my faves) and turn to Him. Make Him the center of your life and I know we will find joy. That’s why we’re here, anyway (2 Ne 2:25)! Have we not reason to rejoice?!
I love you. I know this gospel is true. And I can’t think of many times I’ve been this JOYFUL!
Love,
Kristen
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