Most spiritually fed week in the MTC...

WEEK 4!

Most spiritually fed week in the MTC! We had like 5 devotionals and 2 of them we listened to apostles! I already talked about Christofferson but then we had the opportunity to have David A. Bednar come to the CCM(Mexico MTC)! I've never been more excited in my life for general conference! I CAN'T WAIT! Lol but His spirit that he holds is so powerful! When he came into the CCM it was like a celebrity came in! Haha all the missionaries surrounded the minivans he and his wife came in! Then our MTC president got mad at everyone and so we all went to dinner and then he came to the cafeteria and everyone freaked out again! He still looks so young it's crazy! So the devotional was at 6:15 and the MTC presidency came around and told everyone they need to study and go to dinner before lining up. And told everyone don't line up before 5! So me and my district went to dinner at 4:45 so we can go line up and make sure we are in the auditorium so we can actually see him speak and not be in the overflow watching him on a tv. We get to dinner at 4:45 and look at the auditorium and there's already like 400 missionaries in line...haha so me and Elder Hammer skipped dinner and ran to the line because the auditorium only holds 600 and we didn't want to be in the overflow! Haha when they opened the doors it was like there wasn't even a line anymore everyone just started running to the doors and there was people like "hey no butting" but I NEEDED TO SEE BEDNAR SPEAK so I grabbed hammer like a football and we ran to the doors with everyone else! Haha he was kind of scared lol but it was alright we got a seat and the devotional was amazing!!!!

Sister Bednar spoke first and she is literally the sweetest lady ever! She spoke to us about the language and to be patient with it, it will come! She also touched on us missionaries being in the field and missing our families, she shared a scripture in D&C 84:87-88, she said " the lord will be with you all the time on your left and on your right, and when you are sad and down he will send angels to lift you up". It was so nice to hear that! She also made it clear and evident that we are in the gathering of Israel, we are born at this time for that specific reason and we are out here on a mission for that specific reason! Her talk was short but it was so spiritually strong and so sweet!

Elder Bednar.... man oh man right when he walked in you could tell that he is one of God's strongest servants! He did an open talk with all the missionaries in the building! He would talk and then have people ask questions and then talk again. It was 2 hrs long but it was so nice! He started with some jokes! Funniest speaker, I never would've of thought! Haha but he started out his talk with " I don't get why everyone writes down everything I say when I speak... You guys do know it's going to be on LDS.org 5 min after I sit down... it's just dumb" haha i couldn't believe he said dumb lol. But then he said I don't want any of you to write down anything I'm saying because I'm not the teacher or the speaker to you all right now, the Holy Ghost is. Write down what the holy ghost teaches you that is not said out loud but it is said through personal revelation. He said during talks we should not be writing big plates of scriptures(copying down everything the speaker is saying). We should be writing down the small plates of scriptures(what the holy ghost is revealing to us. What we are feeling that is not being said out loud but quietly inside). He talked about looking for the holy ghost and acting in faith. He said WE ARE NOT OBJECTS WAITING TO BE ACTED UPON. We are agents, agents with free agency. We determine how we react and act to different situations! We must go and act and find out for ourselves what the holy ghost is and if this gospel is true. He talked about our testimonies and how they need to be strong when we are missionaries because how are we going to teach someone about this gospel if we really don't even believe in it! He said " if all you know about the gospel is from someone else, we will not have enough for the latter days" My favorite thing he said from his talk was "BE WORTHY, BE DESIROUS, AND BE SEEKING FOR THE HOLY GHOST...... Don't be mad when you don't get your answer right away, God will send revelation/answers when the time is right, we must be ready and prepared to receive it though!" He shared a story about Gordon B. Hinckley and his dad when he was on his mission. He wasn't having success on his mission and things were going bad and he was telling his dad these things and the only thing his dad replied back to him was "Get over yourself and get to work" Over these last 4 weeks I've learned that the only way to have success in the mission field is to lose yourself in the work. It's never about you! Bednar said " When you get lost, that's when you find where you're going" He continued and said "just like how we are not OBJECTS the investigators aren't OBJECTS. He said we are not the teachers the Holy Ghost is. We need to teach them to fish instead of giving them the fish to eat. Our investigators have to find out for themselves if this gospel is true. We cannot give them all the answers!" Ahhhh I wish everyone could've been here because it truly was one of the best things I've experienced in my life! My email would be too long if I talked about everything he said so I just put my favorite parts! Haha but a couple last things that stuck out to me:

-These 24 months is a boot camp for the rest of our lives!

-Don't go looking for trouble because you will ALWAYS find it!

- We are blessed with spiritual gifts not for us but so they can be used through us for someone else!

-Answers come when we ACT(Simply praying don't do anything)

-Don't falsely charge god, everything comes in God's timing not yours, don't be selfish, be patient and humble!

Another big thing that happened this week was I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting in Spanish! Haha it was alright.... lol but i can't wait till I can actually speak the language so I can write a better talk! But it was awesome and for some reason I wasn't nervous at all. I feel like I would've been more nervous speaking in English... it's weird!

But yeah the days in the MTC are coming to an end and I'm way excited actually because I want to be out in the field already! The days in the MTC get repetitive, but I guess that's good so we have a set schedule in our minds! But yeah it's gonna be weird when I get back in the states and I don't hear gun shots, car crashes, dogs barking all day and all night haha! Maybe I'll finally be able to get a good night's rest! Haha

We also did promix this week twice! Which is we do splits with the latino companions for the whole day! My companions name was Elder Perito from Colombia! Haha his Spanish was so fast but it was so good for me. I felt like I learned more in those 2 days of just trying to speak Spanish and hearing his Spanish all day then the other weeks I've been here. I low-key wish we did promix more but everyone hates it because the districts get split up but I like it haha! We do it again this Saturday and hopefully more our final Week!

I love part of this quote my grandma sent me: "May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith." It literally fit in perfect with what I was feeling this Week!

I love you all and challenge you all to continue to read your scriptures each day and say your daily prayers! I know that if you do those 2 things your lives will be blessed immensely! Follow the small prompting of the holy ghost and act in FAITH. I LOVE YOU ALL! Adios!


Amor,

Elder Ka'ili



Me and my comp in front of the CCM sign



My new El Libro De Mormon scripture case


My comps perfect shooting form


Me and my boy Elder Athay with package from mi momma


-Elder Hansmann from Lehi(recognized me from always being on Pines story haha)

Week 3 in the MTC

Week 3 was full of work and a lot of studying! But my time is the MTC is literally flying by! The language is coming. My favorite scripture and my motivational scripture for the MTC is Ether 12:27! I love that scripture so much!  "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Spanish is definitely my weakness and has definitely has humbled me but I know that the lord will bless me if I have faith in him and continue to do the work i need to do! My Aunty Pesi sent me this quote by Ezra Taft Benson talking about missionary work and that there is no secret to success in the mission field, the way to get success is to work, work, work, and work again! I know losing myself in the work will bless the people around me, so I try to forget about this guy Amoni and think about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and it helps me out so much. The time flies! I want to get out in the field so bad though, Mexico City is awesome and all but I cant wait to go knock on some doors!

Thursday: just another day of work! We watched an amazing video in class. It was Holland's talk about missionary work and the atonement! He gave it at a mission presidents training back in 2001. I recommend all going on a mission to watch it or read it! It seriously will bring you to tears! It has changed my whole attitude about my mission and my duty out here. It makes me want to work harder and to be more diligent in my studies and my whole mission overall! Holland gives the best talks for missionaries! He's so straight forward! I love it! Other than that me and the elders were able to go workout.. it made me so tired for the 2nd half of the day we decided we just need to go in the morning before personal study haha. So 5:30 workouts will be happening I guess. Well see how long it lasts tho haha

Friday: I taught my El Libro De Mormon lesson today to my district! My main focus was on trusting in the lord and having faith in him knowing that he will bless us! I shared scriptures from Mosiah 9&10 with king zeniff and the lamanites and talked about how the nephites always asking for strength in the lord and the trust they had in the lord knowing he would protect them. And the lord always delivered them in victory. I also applied it to missionaries trusting the lord. Trusting the lord that our families will be safe as we leave, Trusting the lord that he will bless us with the spirit to teach with the spirit, Trusting the lord that this is what we should be doing(serving the lord) at this very moment and time! Having faith that he will bless us throughout it all as long as we keep his commandments and be exactly obedient to the mission rules! I lucked out and got reassigned to talk next sunday! It took so much stress off me. The lord knew I needed another week to prepare my spanish! We watched another amazing video about our purpose and why we were called to where we were called! It was an answer to my prayers. Heavenly father and the prophet has called me to Yakima, Washington for a reason, no matter how much I wanted to go to Tonga... lol I now know he needs me in Yakima speaking spanish for a certain reason. The lord does not make mistakes with mission calling and if we think he did, we should be ashamed of ourselves. It didn't come out of a computer generated machine, it came from an apostle of the lord and he received revelation from our heavenly father where to send us! Have trust in the lord and everything will work out!

Saturday: Another day of work work work lol. Me and Elder hammer were able to get about an hour of basketball in which was much needed. We shot around and then played 1v1. I think y'all know how that ended lol W for Elder Kaili Lol! No but working out or playing basketball always focuses me more, so when we can play and aren't too tired is always a good day! Also Hermano Ruiz, my afternoon teacher brought his uke and it was so nice to play! I showed my district How Can I Be and we all sang while I played it on the Uke it was so nice! We had an amazing zone class later that night about what we sacrifice for our mission and the things we need to sacrifice! the things we need to sacrifice are Disobedience, Pride, Romantic Passions, Negativism, and Settling! The class has truly changed my whole attitude for my mission! It was just what I needed to hear! Exact Obedience brings miracles! Exact obedience applies to both mission lives and our lives back home. The lord has things in store for all of us and if we are exact obedience he will bless us so much more than if we are just a little obedient or just doing the minimum of obedience! Be exaclty obedient in everything you do and the lord will bless you!

Sunday: We got to go to church and partake of the sacrment, so that makes Sundays better than all the other days lol. We had an awesome devotional too. The devotional was about El Libro De Mormon! It was awesome we went around the whole room with about 200 of us and everyone shared experience of the book of mormon answering their prayers or answering questions they have been so confused about! It was so awesome and much needed. Its crazy that the lord knows what we need or the answers we need and he answers them always if we have faith in him. It might not come when you want it to come but the answer will come if you have faith! Sometimes the lord waits to answer us because he wants to see how we act, don't be mad if you don't get your answer quick, after you ask your answer to the lord you must act and do the things necessary for you to be able to receive that answer. Going to the temple, reading the scriptures, calling your siblings, going to church! Faith without works is dead! We must act and do the work, we cant be selfish!

Monday: This week we started to do Espanol! No speaking english inside the classrooms or you have to memorize another scripture haha! But it really has helped me with the language just hearing it all the time! Understanding the language is becoming easier but speaking it is still mas o menos! Also we had the biggest hail storm today! We couldn't even hear during class because the hail was coming down so hard! The weather here is so weird, it will be perfect in the morning and then around 4 everyday it gets cloudy and then it gets sunny at 5 and then rains at 6! I kidd you not everyday is like this! EVERYDAY hahah. But yeah today was a good day, same schedule ALOT of studying and ALOT of language! 

Tuesday: THE DEVOTIONAL TODAY WAS AWESOME. We watched Elder D Todd Christofferson and his wife talk on a live broadcast from the Provo MTC! I loved sister Christoffersons talk about loving the people and loving your mission. She said once we forget about ourselves and love the people thats when we will love our mission. A lot of missionaries complain about their mission language because its hard but she said we just need to love the language and everything will work out. She compared a love story to our mission and we need to create our own love story for our mission! Elder Christofferson talked about the name of the church and how we use it! We can no longer use nicknames of the church! When we talk about our church we must use the full name! I thought it was crazy because everyone knows us by mormons! But there are so many changes coming to our church! Hearing the apostles talk make me so EXCITED for general conference haha! Its so weird because i use to be excited for general conference so I could sleep during it and now I'm so excited to hear all the talks and take notes about it! There is going to be so many changes in these next general conferences and I seriously cant wait! Its like Christmas for missionaries hahah!!

I love you all and I challenge all of you to keep reading the book of mormon, Tell your family you love them, and be EXACTLY OBEDIENT this week and see what it does for you!

Amor, 

Elder Ka'ili

Our dorm with the mountains in the background

Another package from Aunty Pesi...yes!!!

me and my comp at the gym

package from home with the Arizona drink from the twins

Stomach Flu Got Me

Week 2 was so fast ! This week has been awesome but CRAZY as well ! First off, we went to the Mexico City Temple! It is so beautiful! The session was in Spanish so it was way hard to understand but the spirit was so strong with us! The bus ride there was funny. Everyone was freaking out cause the driving here in Mexico isn't like anything you've seen before. You got people selling sodas in the middle of the road and people driving between the tiniest of gaps haha. But it was nice to get out of the CCM(MTC) and see the city of Mexico. 

Thursday started off crazy. We woke up to the sound of gun shots. Haha it was crazy. It was like bang bang and then a ton of police sirens. Everyone in the apartment jumped up. Our apartment is right by the wall so we hear everything in the city. Also EVERYONE started to get the stomach flu!! There were 85 missionaries in the doctors office and none of them can do anything now. Also my sister's P day is Thursday, so when I saw her email I was dying to reply!! Lol also we played b-ball and some of the elders were getting too competitive and almost fought haha I was like really bro. But we ended the day with a testimony meeting within our district. It's so nice to hear everyone's testimonies and their "why's" of serving missions. It invites the spirit so much and it just testifies to me that this church is true!!!! I shared one of my fav scriptures 1 Nephi 9:6. I love that one because it talks about how the Lord knew all things from the beginning and knew the things we were to encounter so he prepared a way for us to do it. We just have to trust in him, be humble and have tremendous faith and he will help us! I love that scripture !!!! Me and the other boys stayed up that night and just talked about everything! It was awesome! 

Friday - this day was the best day I've had in the MTC. I woke up and wasn't really having a good attitude and the breakfast sucked but then we went to class and the language started to click. I was understanding more and was able to put things together. During personal study I read Ether 12:27.... GO READ IT, it really was crazy that I read that scripture during personal study because I've been praying for help with the language and it was really an answer to my prayers. I need to be patient and trust in the Lord. But the thing that made my day the most was getting a package from my Aunty Pesi!!! Filled with Powerade, peanut M&M's, cookie and creme Hershey bars and chips!!!!!! Literally made my day 100x better! Me and my companion smacked those snacks! Oh but back to the sick missionaries. The count for Friday was 150 missionaries down and we had rules come out to the whole campus of no more hand shakes, hugs, and you have to wash your hands all the time! Lol but yeah my district almost got in a fight with another district because they wanted to pour water cups off the 2nd floor of the apartments onto one of our elders. So we went up there and told them off and their district leader came down to our dorm and apologized and begged not to tell the MTC president. Hahaha we were so mad because it already rains every night and we have to walk home in the rain from class. Lol but yeah Friday was a good day!

Saturday: this is the where the crazy starts to happen... the craziest thing happened during language class. We were all studying and a bird came and flew right into the window hahaha it was crazy but it was way funny. It fell to the ground and then just got up and flew away hahaha! But yeah half our district is now sick and Saturday night I was throwing up a ton! It came out of nowhere and that sucked a ton. Good thing my mom told me to get medicine..(I miss her so much) but before that craziness happened me and Elder Hammer were able to teach a lesson about how Families Can Be Together Forever in SPANISH! I didn't even know what I was saying when I was teaching the words were just flowing! D&C 11:21 ! It was so awesome! I love how with every tiny miracle in our lives we can find a scripture of how it came to us or how we can obtain them! My faith in the gifts of tongues is on a high right now. I know my Spanish isn't anywhere near fluent or good haha but I'm happy with my progress! The lesson though made me think about my family and thinking about leaving on my mission for 2 years. It's seriously nothing compared to the eternity I'm going to be able to spend with them!! I just think to my self, me and my family have eternity to make more memories and have each other. I should be out here teaching other families about how they can be together with their families forever so they can have that joyful knowledge!

Sunday: Well today I got assigned by President Suarez our Zone President to give a talk about the restoration in Spanish during sacrament meeting next week... So yay me.... Haha I'm actually way nervous to give it and Idk how I'm going to give a talk in Spanish in front of so many people lol. A lot of praying will be happening! 

Monday: just a normal day! We did a lot of studying the doctrine today in English in the beginning of the day and then we switched to language study and teaching the 2nd half of the day! We also were able to do a service project as a district! We pulled all the weeds out of the track here at the CCM. It was nice to see the workers here relax for a couple hours while we did the work. After we had a long personal study. Which was much needed! 

Tuesday: Me and the elders in my district tried to get up at 5:30 to go play bball but that didn't work out to well... Haha we all woke up talked for like 5 min and then decided to go back to bed haha. But Tuesday was a good day. I got the baptism questions down in Spanish. I have the mission objective down in Spanish and I'm working on a couple other scriptures. I'm also almost done with the basic core and can kind of understand the Latinos here. My Spanish rating is probably like a 3/10 but I'm happy with my progress haha it's not anywhere I want it to be tho! I just got to keep improving! 

I love you all and still challenge all of you to read the book of Mormon everyday and pray if it's true! Find out for yourself!! I love you all! 

Amor, 

ELDER KAILI

ME AND ELDER BACON!

    

MY DISTRICT!

                  

Hanging with the boys at night #PoloroidBebe 

Me and my comp going to book of Mormon study 

Visiting the temple! 

Aunty Pesi's package!

First Email!

I can't believe my first week is done in the CCM, aka The Mexico MTC. Mexico City is so beautiful! We are surrounded by the city! This week has been wild and so spiritual at the same time. I know this is where I need to be at this time and I'm loving every second of it.

My companion is Elder Hammer he went to Skyline with the cuzzo Saione and talks about him all the time... which makes me cry inside but he's tight and such a good example to me. My schedule here is jammed packed with doctrine classes, teaching classes and language classes! The language is going well, I'm learning more and more everyday! 

The first day, we got here and went straight to the dorms to unpack... it was hard because I was just thinking about my little bros, but it was nice to go to the cafeteria and grub on some pizza and eat the pain away lol. The first night was nice but waking up the first morning was a struggle. I shower like 3 times a day to stay alert and wake. The first day we had a devotional and they basically have that to scare everyone away lol... jk but the MTC is a smack in the face and if you aren't prepared you going home.... 

On Wednesday, we went to class for the first time and it was a lot of "get to know" your district stuff. By the way my district is literally the best. It makes it easier for me to not miss the familia. We had language class for what felt like 20 hrs though. But, my teachers are tight - Hermano Martinez and Hermano Ruiz. They are so fob, we teach them english while they teach us Spanish haha.

On Thursday, they made me and Elder hammer teach our first leccion in Spanish! It was so bad.... I sound so white speaking Spanish. But yeah we can't pray in english after the first day. Me and the elders from my district had a way spiritual talk just about why we were out and about our families... we all went to bed sobbing that night but it was definitely needed. 

On Friday, it was just a lot of studying and classes. Me and the elders in the district finally got to have gym time because we got done with all the intro classes. We played bball and the hoops are lower here so ya boy was slamming it down. Lol but there so many rules about gym time. ACTUALLY THERE SO MANY RULES ABOUT EVERYTHING HERE. But they will keep us in check and keep the spirit with us. Lol like we cant keep score in games because when we keep score we are too competitive and that takes the spirit away hahaha.

On Saturday, we had long classes and a lot of branch and district meetings. We also started our fast for fast Sunday at 11. It was way hard for some reason, maybe cause its hot over here and I was dying of thirst from walking everywhere lol. 

On Sunday, we had church and testimony meeting. I probably understood about 15 percent of what everything was being taught and said, but that's everyday here. We had a wonderful devotional as well about how Christ died for us and how he lives today. 

I'm loving it here everyday and it seriously has made me so happy. I can't wait to get out in the field and teach the gospel en Espanol. I can't wait for my boys Ami and Pine to leave to the MTC as well. I can't wait for Saione to get his call.

I love you all and encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday! I love you all and I love having this tag over my heart!

P.S.

thank you all who sent me letters and packages, I love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Kaili

Aunty Betty's wonderful spam musubi!

My apartment!

Aunty Pesi's Package!

 

Elder Hammer loved the package too lol

My favorite thing here

How we get our water!

Me and Elder Hammer

The CCM food aka Nacho Libre food

 

Study Time!!