TALK ABOUT TRUE FAITH RIGHT THERE!

Elder Willes with Elder Hintze (one of the funniest people Elder Willes has ever met)

5 weeks done here!  It's just crazy! Time is flying now.  It feels like just yesterday I was emailing. Awesome that BYU beat Gonzaga! I bet that place was rockin'! Wichita State is #3? That is crazy! Grandma, happy birthday! I love and miss you. Also, thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the package! We ate all the candy and loved it! Thanks so much!  Mitch's parents sent me a package and that was awesome. Thank you Smith family! Thanks for raising a great son. 

Not much is new here at the MTC. On Sunday I taught the lesson in our district meeting on recognizing and understanding the spirit. It was awesome. The spirit was strong and Preach My Gospel has some great insight on how we can have the spirit in our lessons and teach through the spirit. As for our zone we have only two districts right now. Our district (7 of us) and the all guy district (8 Elders) so our sacrament meetings are quite small right now. Our Branch President heard that we get 16 new missionaries next week so that should be exciting. 

Elder Willes with his zone.  Should be growing soon!

One of our favorite P-day activities is welcoming new elders and sisters to the MTC.  Elder Dexter, Elder Warner, and I get a sack lunch and sit on a bench and welcome EVERY new missionary to the MTC and be friendly to them. The first day I was in the MTC I was told "welcome to the MTC" about 50 times from other missionaries and it is pretty awesome so we try and do the same. P-day's we go to the temple, do laundry, study, write letters, and then we have class at night. I love p-days. 

The devotional on Sunday was really cool. The speaker had all of the missionaries stand up who were converts. Probably 1/5 of the missionaries stood up! It was crazy! Then he had all of the missionaries who had been inactive for a period of time stand up. Probably about 1/2 of the missionaries stood up! He asked a few of them questions about why they came back into reactivity. Answers varied from members welcoming, fellowshipping, testimony building experiences, etc. I was shocked to see how many missionaries had been inactive for a period of time. This should be motivation for all of you back home to be great examples to those who are struggling. Love them, fellowship them, and serve them. 

Also, the devotional last night was cool. Elder Snow from the Seventy spoke. He had all the senior couples stand up. He asked if any of them had served multiple missions. Almost all of them had. There was 3 senior couples who had served over 5 missions each, and one couple was serving their 11th mission!  Talk about true faith right there!  Awesome stuff.  Also, Elder Snow talked about the missionaries in the early days of the church. There was one who was called as a missionary to some remote island. He left his wife and 4 daughters only 12 days later to leave on his mission. He traveled by sea and it took 6 months to reach his destination. His companion also passed away on the voyage. When he got there he had to learn Tahitian and ended up baptizing hundreds of people! He was reunited with his family 5 1/2 years later! True faith right there! It makes my sacrifice of being in the MTC 9 weeks seem extremely small. Plus I'm over halfway now! Awesome! 

Chinese is coming along good. We've been working on teaching the Zhi Hui Yu (Word of Wisdom) this week. It truly is extremely important and the blessings we receive from obeying this law are awesome.

Sorry not much to write this week. I'm loving it here at the MTC and am working very hard. Elder Hunsaker heads out this week to Africa. Best of luck to him. 

Elder Willes with Elder Hunsaker one last time before Elder Hunsaker heads out for Africa.
These two missionaries entered the MTC the same day. 

Have a great week everyone. 

It truly is an honor to be one of the Lord's servants!

Love,

Elder Willes