Week 5

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Dear Family,

Can you believe that it has been 5 weeks? Ot het! Hungarian does not look nearly as cool when you can not put the accents and other funky things on the letters! I will probably be saying that the next several times til I leave the MTC, which by the way is in 3 1/2 weeks!

First off I keep forgetting to mention this and the district leader made me promise not to forget this time. Mom and Dad they are obsessed with the return stamp that you putt on the letters. the District leader gets the mail and so he sees the envelopes and everytime he and his companion go on and on about how cool it is.

This week has been good. The weekend has been lots and lots of sitting, like really.When you watch conference at home you can get up and get food or go to the bathroom or just stretch your legs. Not as much possible when you watch conference at the MTC in the gym bleachers. On Saturday, we went running around the MTC inbetween sessions and it was the best idea ever. Focusing for Saturday afternoon was much easier. We saw Presdient Nally and his wife and they told us we were brilliant. Also, right before that we had a question about if we could watch that MTC special and I was like lets go ask so I marched up there and then I realized wait can I just go up to the podium and ask the MTC presidency something? They were so nice though Sister Nally and I have a special connection. She might not know it exists, but I totally do. Have I told you about our other run ins? Conference was amazing though!

What was all of your favorite parts of conference?!

Dad, I totally agree with Granddad that it was the best ever :) I feel like I have always had questions answered during conference, but this time was different and not really in a way that I can put into words. I think my favorite session was Saturday morning. I loved Elder Bednar's talk about chastity, which is a funny coincidence because Elder Grigg said in his email home that that was his favorite. At first I was like I'm in the MTC that doesn't really apply to me and I was sitting next to an elder in my district and thought this might get weird. But no! It was a testament to me that you can always learn as long as you are humble and have an open heart. I learned a lot about how Satan works. He said that Satan wants a body so bad and is so resentful that we have them that he tempts us to use ours in inappropriate ways. I also loved Elder Cardon of the seventy's talk about addictions. And then I loved Elder Ballard's talk about the tomato plant and our unlimited potential and the priesthood. And of course Sunday morning when the prophet gave a shout out about Hungary??!?!? That's right Hungary matters, even though it is just my companion and I in the whole MTC learning Hungarian right now, it matters. And then of course how could you not like President Monson's story from his childhood and his talk on Obedience?! He totally rolled his eyes when giving it. Just saying. Remember all those times that you told me my eyes would get stuck like that? Our investigators "came" and really enjoyed Elder Holland's talk about believing and not necessarily knowing right at first. That one was so applicable to missionary work and investigators. PS did anyone watch the in between conference special on sunday about the MTC? I totally saw myself in the choir. Although it definitely was not worth it to stay and watch. My whole district regretted it.

There was another bat in the residence. People don't stay long at the MTC now (there aren't a lot of 9 weekers like myself or at least not on our floor of the residence) so the newbs hadn't been there for the last bat. No worries sister Grigg stayed calm cool and collected once again and called the front desk. Nbd.

Mom, thank you for the pictures. They were so you and so random.

Dad yes, my assignment is now that new one. the Sister Training Leader. At the MTC they have always had coordinating sisters but with the new assignment across the board for missions they are changing the title here. Also here you don't get callings you get assignments because we have all been already called and set apart as missionaries. Interesting right? I'm assuming it is like that in the field to. Also Dad, thank you so much for sending my your testimony. That was my favorite part of your letter :) Also I had thought that that was the first time we had a women pray in conference (I agree that I would think speaking would be a bigger deal) and I told that to my district and no one believed me expect for one elder then I got your letter and was like booya! I remember that Ally had told me that and I was surprised.

Vocal point came for the Sunday devotional! It was way fun! Such amazing singers. It is so true that music brings a special spirit. You know that verse in D&C about the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. I know that we will be blessed for singing because when it is just Maxfield Nover, me, and our teacher singing at the beginning of the day in Hungarian (which is hard let me tell you) I feel that spirit. I actually really enjoy singing in Hungarian now! And I am beginning to love the language. We had a language assessment for portal study this week and it was super discouraging and we talked about it later with a teacher and I realized that in lessons with Zsolt and Andras, I feel like I do well in speaking the language because we have the spirit with us. We are teaching the gospel of Christ so of course my Hungarian would be better than! Speaking of Zsolt and Andras we got Zsolt to commit to a baptismal date and he is now working towards it. They both smoke and tonight we are teaching Zsolt about the Word of Wisdom and will start to help him overcome his addiction to cigarettes. Much harder to do in Hungarian, I must say. We figured out why andras has been hesitating and he poured his soul out to us about his childhood. It made me realize how important it is to get to know the people you teach so that you ensure that you are teaching people rather than lessons.

Tuesday's devotional was about revelation from Gerald N Lund. The thing that stood out to me the most was the fact that one of the reasons spiritual impressions come as impressions, thoughts, and feeling rather than a loud voice or vision is to protect our agency. Same with why an explanation doesn't come with it or detailed instructions. What I took aways was the fact that I need to be grateful for the small thoughts and feels the Spirit does give me rather than coveting bigger revelatory experiences. I need to seek more inspiration and revelation on that level rather than hoping and praying for it to be grander.

Ok well peace and blessings! I hope that you all had a great week and that this coming week will be wonderful as well!

Love you all and miss you,

Grigg Nover