Week 5!

Familia!

This week has been AMAZING! So many things are happening, have happened, and will happen. So, this past weekend, all of the Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency were here. It was incredible! They came for New Mission Presidents Seminar, which has been taking place since wednesday. Holy cow. It has been awesome. We had a devotional on friday night, and Elder Holland spoke. Holy incredible. Elders Bednar, Cook, Andersen, Perry, Oaks, Scott, and Christofferson were all on the stand as well! 8 Apostles of Jesus Christ! I cannot describe the feeling and the Spirit that existed in that room. It was awesome because I'm in the MTC Choir and I was sitting in the 2nd Row. I've never been so close to that many Apostles. El sentimiento no admite descripcion. It was sweet because we got to just walk past everyone that had been waiting 2 hours to get into the Devotional, so I felt like a VIP. It was sweet.

So, Elder Holland's talk was amazing. We constantly hear that we need to teach with the Spirit, and if we don't have the Spirit, we're commanded to not teach. But, Elder Holland shared some incredible insights on the subject. After we sang, he actually said "Well...I may as well give the benediction and go home. If there has ever been a Devotional moment, that was it." My favorite principle that he taught (out of many...I have 4 pages of notes) is that the Holy Ghost is our connection to God's Heavenly realm. We teach by the Spirit so that OUR lessons become HIS lessons. Only the Spirit of the Lord can lift people out of the Temporal World, take them towards the Godhead, and eventually to their own Godhood. Through the Holy Ghost, we bring God's presence into the homes of our investigators. Elder Holland said that it is because of the Holy Ghost that our investigators realize, IN SPITE of us Missionaries, that our message and mission is Divine. That really hit me hard because I really think so highly of so many missionaries here in the MTC, but we're all so full of imperfections. We need the Holy Ghost to have people look past our imperfections and our broken Spanish to know that this message comes from Heaven. It comes from the love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. What a blessing.

The Spanish is coming along really really well, I taught the new District grammar last week, and I'm teaching them tonight as well. It's sweet because I learn a lot as I teach the new District. I'm teaching again tonight, so I'm pumped. Conjugating verbs in the Past Subjunctive Tense is oodles of fun.

I'm so grateful for the opportunities that God has given us. We have such a great responsibility. It is up to us to fulfil the promises that Father has given all of His spirit children--he has trusted us to provide bodies for His children. We would not be able to progress without the things that Father has given us--we would just exist as we always had before. God is so great in his mercy and love. He gave His son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins so we can become perfected like Him. I want to be like God and Jesus Christ. I can't wait to share this message with His children.

I love all of you. I love hearing from you.

Les Amo Muchisimo.

Elder Budge