Another Week, So Much Has Changed!

Good Afternoon everyone!

Another week in the Online MTC, studying the gospel and how to teach others how to Come to Christ in my parent's closet in the basement.

It's great though! Saturday will be the first day that all of my MTC classes will be in Spanish, and even though I am nervous for the transition I feel like any extra time I have for the transition will not prepare me any more than where I am at in my studies right now. 

Because I have been studying so many things of the gospel right now a lot of the things I once believed in have changed for me! One of those things being how God's grace really works. I always thought that by following God's commandments and striving to be a good person was to partly repay the debt Christ paid with his sacrifice. However, after watching this BYU talk called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox, I realized that what I believed wasn't exactly true. Jesus Christ paid all of the difference, and all that he asks in return is to change and to grow from where we used to be. Instead of asking "Have you been saved by grace?" I now ask "Have you been CHANGED by grace?" and it has been changing my life so much. 

I have been practicing teaching to different people and I realized that some people have different needs and as a missionary representing Jesus Christ, I have to change what I say and how I teach in order to meet those needs. I also have realized that I need to change my invitations too. Everyone has a different way that they can come closer to Jesus Christ, so I have been making sure that If I have the time I give them tools other than saying sincere prayers. I need to invite them to turn to the Scriptures for answers, I invite them to come to church and see for themselves why members find happiness here. I also show them the church website to find answers to other questions they have. Sometimes you can put 2 of these tools together! It has been so fun making these invitations. 

We surprised one of our zoom teachers this week by putting a sign on our background photos saying that we love him. The smile and the joy he got from the surprise made my week so much better. Unfortunately I couldn't take a photo of his reaction but I got a photo of the sign :)

Until the Next Email, Adiós Amigos!

Hermana Vestel

P.S. Once I get into the field I may be changing my weekly emails to every other week so that I don't get burnt out from sending emails every week :)