Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Tuesday, August 6, 2013


This Sunday we had a two-hour mission conference where we were addressed by a district president, the first counselor in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) presidency, the MTC president and their wives. Later that day we heard from Jenny Oaks Baker, who is Elder Oaks' daughter. She is an incredible violinist who attended Juilliard. She spoke to us about spiritual gifts, and we were blessed to hear her play quite a bit for us.

The more I study the gospel and the more I feel the love that Heavenly Father and Christ have for us all, the clearer it becomes what is most important in life. We are here to love and help one another. As Christ said, by this shall we be known as his disciples: if we have love one to another. I am filled with love as I ponder Christ's ministry and his atoning sacrifice. Through Him all that is wrong in the world has been made right. With knowledge of the veracity of the gospel message come unspeakable comfort and happiness. I certainly do not know all things, but I do know that I am where I am supposed to be at this time in my life. To be able to say this is incredible, and I am so thankful that I honestly and truly can. I know the church is true. It brings such a light to our lives. As we abide by its principles we have inexpressible joy.

I watched a video about using family history as a missionary tool and one of the things they said was that we foolishly draw lines to separate missionary work, family history work and temple work when they are all the same work. They are all part of the work of salvation. I am excited to be heading to Norway in less than two weeks. I know that it is where I am meant to be.

I do not get my travel plans until Friday, but I am sure I will be in a group since that is how the other districts have done it and there are seventeen of us going to Norway at the same time. I think the day will be the nineteenth, but I am not sure. I do not think I will know where I will be in Norway until I get there. From hearing our teachers talk about it, it sounds like people move around quite a lot while they are there, which should be fun.

I just got Jesus the Christ and True to the Faith on my ipad from the gospel library app. I am excited to learn from them. The more I am at the MTC, the more I learn the need to be as in tune with the spirit as much as possible. I know that Heavenly Father helps us tremendously in our lives through the gift of the Holy Ghost as we live righteously and seek to do good. I really like a quote we heard from Elder Bednar yesterday in a video, and I paraphrase, "Concerning whether a prompting is from yourself or from the spirit I offer this advice: stop worrying about it!" We can rarely see the greater picture to truly know what the purposes and origins of most of our impressions are, but I know that we have the gift of the Holy Ghost as we live worthily. So if you receive a prompting and it does not hurt, it is almost certainly from Heavenly Father. The Norwegian word of the week is en anledning, which means an opportunity.

Love,

Elder Ankenman

While Elder Ankenman is in the MTC in Provo he can receive daily messages from Dear Elder.com. If anyone would like to contact him this way here is a link: http://www.dearelder.com/. He will still have access to email every Tuesday.



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