It is coming down to the last few days here at the MTC. I leave Monday from the MTC at 3 in the morning and my flight I believe is at 7 am. This week has been crazy spiritual, I've had a lot of really cool experiences, that I will share. It feels like I've only been here for a few days but when i think about it, it feels like iv'e been here for an eternity. I am so excited to leave this place, but also sad to leave a lot friends that I've made. Last Tuesday was awesome! My district does MTC choir and we got to sing for the Tuesday devotional, with Lexi Walker who is a mormon prodigy. Elder Zwick, member of the seventy, was the speaker and he talked about missionary work and being the Lord's kingdom builders. Also, this week my companion and I are the new Zone Leaders till we leave. We had the responsibility to welcome the new missionaries that are in our branch on Wednesday. One of the missionaries we welcomed was Elder Wheeler, who's from Hawaii, and will be serving in India. He went to school with my cousins in Hawaii and is good friends with them apparently. I got to bore my testimony to them and became good friends with all of them. We got new investigators to teach this week and one of them is from North Carolina! She was super nice, and probably my favorite investigator I've had, and also probably the hardest to teach because she was Baptist raised and Bible grown which meant a lot of our beliefs went against what she was taught all her life. But she was super willing to give us and our church a chance and wanted to try to believe that it was true. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. I learned a lot from her, and know that the Lord is preparing me to teach the people of North Carolina. She told me that I will be getting Bible slammed on my mission, so that's something I really look forward to. Sister Barrick, one of my teachers, has really helped me to recognize the spirit. My companion and I taught her as she role played as an investigator named Beth, her mother passed and so we taught her about Heavenly Fathers plan but focused mainly on the Atonement and how we can find peace and comfort through it. At the end of our lesson I bore my testimony to her but was really struggling to know what to say and came at a loss of words, till I looked down and saw that I was holding a picture of Jesus Christ in my hands that I didn't even know I was holding and immediately my mouth was filled and I was able to finish my testimony with confidence and power I've never felt before. We were both at tears because of how strong we felt the spirit and I even invited her to be baptized and she said yes. My entire body was shaking after that experience and my chest was burning but I felt so much at peace. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to give my first priesthood blessing to an Elder who was struggling with serious depression. He asked that I give the blessing because he kinda knew who I was because My Aunt was his favorite English teacher. His name is Elder Tenney. I gave him a blessing and I spoke without hesitation. It was truly an amazing experience. I absolutely love my district and I'm going to miss all the Elders. Anyways, that's all the time I have. I love you all!
Elder Wihongi
