Week 1

This is our first letter from Brayden at the MTC. It sounds like he's having a great time. We miss him already, but are so proud of his decision to serve. We sure enjoy hearing from him!

It has been one crazy week! I met my companion Elder Bond- he's such an amazing Elder. Luckily, we have gotten along quite well! Both of us are going to Boston Massachusetts, along with 3 others in our zone! In total that I know of there are 15 of us going to Boston! I have only met 6 others. Although I love the spirit here, I cannot wait to finally be out in the mission field.

One of the first nights we had an Elder who wasn’t doing okay and I had the prompting to see if he needed a blessing and he told me that he was about to ask for one. I thought to myself, "the Lord works in mysterious ways." I wasn’t the one that gave the blessing; it was his companion. One thing his companion said after really touched me. He said, "I am sorry that it took so long- it's what the Lord wanted to let him know." I found that to be really amazing! It is true that blessings are so helpful in times of need. When we do have that amazing opportunity to give one, don’t tell them what you want to say, tell them what the Lord needs them to hear! Unfortunately, he did go home because his health should always come first.

Later that week we as a companionship got our first investigator, Preston. The first time we (my companion and I) met him, he really wanted to know if there is a God or not. We talked about how through thoughtfully reading the BoM (Book of Mormon) he can find out for himself if he is there, but he has to have faith and pray to truly know. Our first official visit didn’t go as we hoped Steve isn’t very open, and/or willing to act on his faith. We talked about the Godhead and how through the Holy Ghost we can feel and know of his love. We got our reviews back and it didn’t go well what so ever (from Preston’s point of view). He felt we weren’t aware of his needs. We learned from our mistakes and we did so much better on visit two! With the help of Sister Evens (our District teacher) she helped us to make it more about him by asking more open-ended questions and making him realize how God has helped him in his life. He really did open up about a time in his life where he asked for God's help. It was awesome for him to say the closing prayer for us! It was amazing to see how he acted on HIS faith and not ours! I cannot wait for our final lesson with Preston tomorrow.

We have another investigator as a referral. His name is Lawson. We have only met one time, he comes from a Baptist background, one time his aunt talked about a scripture how after death nothing happens until Jesus come again, but we have no more memory after that. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, we felt that it was the best thing to teach about for the answers he wants. From what we taught and what he got out of it, we feel it went well, but we could of done better. I cannot wait to meet Lawson this week to help him the best we can.

Devotionals here are awesome! Sunday we watched Elder Bednar's talk "Character of Christ" and He offered all a challenge to:

1) Buy a paperback BoM

2) Have a question you wanted answered

3) Highlight all scriptures that help answer your question

4) Repeat

And the Tuesday devotional the whole district joined the choir; we had the AMAZING opportunity to listen to Elder and Sister Soares (one of the 12 Apostles and his wife). The devotional was even broadcast to all the other MTC's across the world! Sister Soares was first and one thing that stuck out to me was "We are not Human beings having a Spiritual experience, we are spirits having a Human being experience." Elder Soares talked about his family’s conversion story and about his experience with the missionaries. I cannot wait to have those connections with others that I will meet along the way and who knows maybe I'll be finding the future apostles in my mission!

Last night I had the amazing opportunity to help give a sister a blessing of the healing of the sick and afflicted. It was amazing to see the faith she had for she was in pain and wanted to get better, she had tears in her eyes for the love she felt after the blessing. I have never felt so much of an understanding of the priesthood I hold. As I act upon it, I know God is looking out for all of us.

I read my patriarchal blessing the other day and it told me to pray to my loving Heavenly Father and ask him the things I want answers to and to learn to call him Father. I tried doing these things the past few nights each time bringing me to tears of joy. I know I felt the spirit so strong in my prayers, so much that I felt the Savior's love for all those I personally brought up in them. I know God is all of OUR Heavenly Father and He loves all of us and He knows our needs and cares for all of us. I know these things to be true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Knowlden