Week 5 MTC - Travel Plans!

I now have my travel information and will be leaving for Portugal next Tuesday at 8:30.  So we are all super excited for that.  Everyone in the zone that is supposed to go to Portugal that day got their  visas except for one Sister that screwed up on her FBI clearance.  So thank you Mom for getting me all set up right so I can get to where I need to be. Even though the MTC is awesome and I like it here I am super excited to get out and start working with the people in Portugal.  But I am also super nervous because I really wish that I knew more then I do both com o Evangelho and the language but it is fine I have learned a lot here.

This week we did get to hear from Elder Scott and he did a great job. I am pretty sure Amanda heard about the same talk from him a couple days before.  Also we got to participate in the Temple re-dedication for the Ogden Temple. We watched the first session with Elder Bednar, President Eyring, and President Monson.  It was way cool.  The whole time from the moment we walked into the Auditorium there was a much different feel then there usually is for the Devotionals.  It was much more peaceful and even with thousands of new missionaries it was pretty quiet.  Very different then the typical chaos that is leads up to devotionals.  They had a video  playing showing temples around the world and there were several pictures from the Twin Falls temple including the Terrestrial room.  It was good to see because I miss that temple.  I like it a lot more then the one here becuase it is just a lot nicer looking inside and you get to move.  Plus it is more special because that is where I went though.  Today will be my last time going through the temple until I am home unless the Lisboa temple gets finished on time.  So that is sad but at least we have gotten to do a lot with temples here before we left.

The best part by far was at the end after the Hosanna Shout where the crowd joins in on singing The Spirit of God. When we all joined in singing together it was a really amazing feeling.  My whole body got the chills and I felt my heart and chest swell up with the Spirit.  I received a witness of the importance of temple work as we were standing there singing.  The spirit filled the room so strongly that is was almost overwhelming.  A lot of people were saying that it felt like there were angels filling the room singing with us.  I don't doubt it either.  It was really awesome and a unique experience to get to have at the MTC.  I know that the lyrics of that song are true " the veil over the earth is beginning to burst" and you could feel the heavens rejoicing as the work is pushed forward.

Even after we left the auditorium the spirit lingered with us for quite some time so it made it a pretty awesome day, especially because I got a much needed nap in the afternoon.

We had our first opportunity to do TRC Skype this week which is where you are supposed to get to skype someone that lives in the country that you are serving in and they are supposed to be a member.  We got to talk to a guy named Gustovo  who lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  He served a mission but we found out in our discussion that he has fallen away from the church since then.  So all of the sudden it got really real really fast and we needed to make sure that we gave him the message he needed not just some rambling broken Portuguese.  We were doing amazingly and we were really feeling it and understanding what he was saying even though he was speaking Brazilian Portuguese.  But then we lost our connection and we had to wait for like 10 minutes before we got him back.  At that point we were out of time but we finished anyways because it was important.  Anyways I think we helped him to remember what he had felt on his mission and we kind of had him teaching us at the end which I think is what he needed to have at that time.  So I think that we were really able to help him.  Our teachers and the supervisors were all very impressed with our discussion.  We will keep our fingers crossed that we get to talk to him again this week so we can follow up.

We had another District depart Monday morning.  Since they were all supposed to go to Brazil and not all of them had their Visas we being zone leaders had to drop missionaries off going different places at 2:30, 3:30, and 6:00.  It was a long night.  and it made for an even more difficult Monday.  I am glad I got to see them all off though because they are all really awesome missionaries.

Last night in class with Irmao Staples we were talking and reading about Christ's atonement and we read how right before he went into the garden he asked the apostles to pray that they would enter not into temptation.  I though that was really amazing that right before he was about to suffer for the sins of all the world having never felt the pains of sin before he did not ask them to pray for him, instead he asked them to pray to help themselves.  That just goes to show the character that Christ had always and even when times were tough he turned outwards and was concerned for those around him instead of himself.  How amazing would the world be if everyone had just a fraction of the selflessness that he did.  I know we will be happier if we try to be more like him everyday.

So this week is the week to pack up my stuff and become completely fluent in Portuguese.  Unfortunately that probably won't happen but I will give it my best shot as always.  Thank you for all the love and prayers that you all have been sending my way.  I recognize the help and influence that they have been having on my life.  I hope you all have an amazing week. Até logo.

Love, 

Elder Hobson