Week 5

Hey Guys!!! 

      I'm back. Another wonderful week at the mtc. So many things happen and they all blur together that it is hard to rack my brain over what happened. Especially with my district. I swear, never has there been a group of guys with more character than these wonderful elders. Every single one of them has such a strong spirit, and so much personality that sometimes things can get out of hand. Especially with the no pranks rule, which people don't always follow. 
     
     Before my mission I had never actually used up a whole pen, but now I'm using like a pen a week.The MTC store has almost everything I need though. I got Christopher and Ellie's package which was awesome. Just in time for halloween. There was a lot of good stuff and i love the bookmarks, I actually really needed them, I just didnt think to ask for any because they are so insignificant.  I like the hidden hairclip inside. The energy drinks help a ton because whenever I start reading the libro de Mormon( Book of Mormon), I fall asleep because I can't understand everything I'm reading. But like always the language is coming nicely. Although I'm sure when I get to mexico, it will be my bane. 

    This last sunday I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting on repentance...IN SPANISH. I had never done this before and I was way nervous, but it went really well.  Its hard to believe that I can feel the spirit when listening to someone in another language, You know its kind of weird being able to understand people in spanish. Everything that is said sounds like its being said in english. It all makes sense in my brain. I don't know how to explain it, but i love it. Halloween here was pretty cool, everyone has their halloween ties or dresses on, and all the food was named differently (which isn't that cool) but it felt like every other day. I was sad that I couldn't be there with Jeff and the boys doing the old haunted house, but I heard it happened this year nontheless. I hope it went great. 

   It is pretty cold here, but I've gotten used to it now. It hasn't snowed since and soccer was actually a bit too warm. Although I still hate Utah and would never move here. I have a new found understanding of the scriptures. Never in all my life have I understood the scripture and the gospel as I do now,  like spanish, everything is connecting like a math problem. My testimony is exponentially increasing here. It's like I am a whole new person. Every time I teach investigators. The spirit is prompting me and I come up with theses ideas of what to say or words in spanish that I didn't remember untill now. Having the spirit as a guide is awesome, it feels great. There is no better feeling than walking out of an investigators house having taught an amazing lesson and having the spirit there. I freakin' love the Book of Mormon now, and I have never been so interested in the Old Testament until now. That goes double for the life of Joseph Smith. Preach my gospel; is the best tool an elder could have. 

    Every lesson and everything you need to know is in there. When I taught my sunday school class, I would just not even look at the manual,I had the Book of Mormon as mine, but now with the scriptures and preach my gospel, I have a huge Armada (army) of information and useful tools to use. Like I was saying about character, there is an elder in our district names Elder Lauese, he is way good at beat boxing and making beats with his hands. So our whole district will start beat boxing to praise to the man or count your many blessings. It sounds so cool and is awesome. 

  We had a substitute from spain who had no mercy when it came to the language, and in fact we had to teach her the first lesson. She pronounced everything with a lisp,  and super fast. That was a taste I guess of how mexico is going to be. US, the missionaries are now the investigators too. We have to choose a friend from home that isn't mormon and you have the elders teach you in spanish the lessons. I'm not saying who I chose. I love the two devotionals a week we get here were we all meet together and here from one of the 70 usually. Once we had Bednar who was amazing, but it kind of sucks, because every song we sing in there has the words "marching" "army" or " soldiers" in it which was awesome for the first 3 weeks, but there is only like 5 songs we cycle through..... There was a guy behind me that said vanquish, as van - kish and sword as s-word. 

   So there has been a lot happening in our dorms at night. There is another district about to leave and so the pranks have gone up, such as squirt gunning people while they are in the bathroom,  and even so much as dumping water at people in the middle of the night. There is also the classes, hide an alarm clock somewhere in their room that goes off at 2 in the morning. Holman is doing better altghough he sings way to much. He has no tone of voice but thinks that he is good. I don't say anything, but no me gusta(I don't like it) if you ask me. In lunch the other day we witnessed 5 elders down an in humnanly possible amounnt of cereal, they emptied the whole conatiner which holds like 10 bags of cereal or more probably more. I of course though it was captain crunch. The best. Also people think its pretty funny to steal your towels while in the shower....The maintance people also left a fire hose type thing in the bathroom, hooked up to the water outside that is like 20 degrees. So if your not careful you will get blasted while in the shower by ice water.

     At the book store I bought this map of the Book of Mormon. It contains all the battles, cities, travel spots, hills (including the hill cumorha) and everything else. Now when I read the scriptures it's like im watching Lord of the Rings in my head, which makes me want to tell Chris Strub if he's reading to get a copy of the Book of Mormon and read it for me. You would love it. Its litereally my favortie book now. The temple this morning was way good. We beat the rush of people top the cafeteria, which was luckily, because those omelets take a while to cook. Elder Barcus is always getting in trouble, he's the most rebellious missionary in our group, but he has the most baptisms. I don't get it. Im in 3 nephi in the Book of Mormon, right before Christ is about to come I can't wait. I have a salted apple every day here along with grapefruit, people think that is really weird, but they have gotten used to it. I did run out of socks, just by one pair. I don't know but maybe if your going to send me some more stuff, get my like 4-6 more pairs of socks. It will probably be different in Mexico, I won't go through so many.

     If i was to give anyone any advice, I would say to read the Book of Mormon like you've never read it before. you know your doing it right when you can't  reading with your nose an inch away from it. I'll leave with my testimony guess.

 Yo se que esta iglesia is la unica iglesia de jesucristo en la tiera, Se que temenos una profeta hoy y el guia esta iglesia en nuestro dia. Yo se que thomas S. Monson recibi revolacion mediante jesucristo. tengo un gran tesimonio del libro de mormon y como puede ayuda todos los person en sus vidas. testefico que mediante este libro, peudo saber la verdad de todas cosas. Este mision ha cambiado me vida por el mejor. he apprendidio la importancia de oracion y como necesitamos mostrar nuetro amor por dios y su hijo por medio de oracion. Yo se que el espritu santo puede guiar cada palabra decimos con nuestros investigadores. amo my salvador y ahora entiendo la proposito de me vida. amo mi familia y el evangelio habia caundo era nino. y entiendo la importancia de la expaicion y como puedo vivir con my padre otra vez. digo estas cosas en el nombre de jesucristo amen. 
( I know that the church is the only church of Christ on earth. I know that we have a Prophet that guide us at this time. I know that Thomas S. Monson receives  inspiration thru Jesus Christ I have a huge testimony of the Book of Mormon, and how it can help every person in your life. I testify that thru this book, I can know the truth of all things. This mission has change my life for the better. I had learn the importance of prayer and how we need to show our love for God and his son thru prayer. I know that the Holy Spirit can guide each word we said to our investigators. I  love my Savior, and now I understand the purpose of my life. I love my family and the gospel. I understand the importance of how I can live to be with my father again. I say this things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.) 

I love you guys. and hope to hear from you again. Ill get these pictures to you soon I promise. Love Elder Ordway!!!!!

Week 4

Hey guys!! 
  Another P-day this thursday. Time hasn't moved as usual but it is weird that its thursday again. Every day feels like sunday which is good and bad. It means i can't look forwards to sunday as much, but that's alright. 

   I am a bit sick. I have been for about a week now, but i dont let it get to me. Both my teachers are sick after all. One of them told me they have been sick ever since they got off their mission. WOW. Spanish is slowly down believe it or not. I learned so much so fast that its like my brain is now halting on learning. OF course though im still learning wicked fast.

Oh and I plan on putting "Elder Ordway" inscribed on my scriptures and libro de Himnos.

Week 3!

Hey guys:

   My hands are really cold, so it is hard to type fast and accurate, especially because the more I learn spanish, the more I forget how to spell in English. It is funny because there is no caffeine here.
    Elder maeser in our district has weekly imports from his family of mountain dew, and it is like gold here at the MTC. Not once have I seen any rolled up sleaves, that's just not what you do here, and your not cool if you do do it. Lol. 
   A lot of missionaries here are very talented. They come from doing all sorts all college sports, and playing the piano their whole lives.. some are extremly good at violin. It's also funny because fashion doesn't exist here, besides how cool someones watch and tie are. Everyone looks exactly the same. Someone who was really cool or hipster before, you couldn't tell now. Also, the longer you are at the MTC, the cooler your are, and in a lot of ways, the older you are even though I'm older than half the people here. the fact that they have like 1 week on me makes them older and more wiser. 

    I have 4 investigators, one dropped :(, but one is going great, one is alright and one doesn't have much time. These are fake investigators though; but they feel real. Everytime you go into their room,  there is a lot of pressure to speak spanish perfectly. We are learning indirect object pronouns and direct objects right now in spanish ( for those who want to know). Its also funny because all the songs in the spanish hymn book are unknown to us, so we only know like 3 songs, and you sing two every day. There is a guy in our disrtict though who only reads his spanish hymn book. He's bad in Spanish, but he knows his hymns. 

   Every day when we go to our activities at 6 in the morning, its like in the 30's or something here, because my head after my shower is like an ice cube, which then cools my whole body. It is getting very cold here, but it hasn't snowed yet. The dear elders you guys send are great, but don't feel any pressure to write every day. The longer I'm here at the MTC, the less letters everyone gets. Someone got 8 though last night which is a record for us. Companion inventories are very awkward. especially with my companion. We are doing alright. but he expects way to much of himself. He always has his nose in his notebook, but in reality he is listening to us talk and make conversation in spanish. There is a lot of tension right now in our zone on who is going to be the next zone leaders. There are two per zone and they have to be companions. Everyone says it is going to be me and Holman, but I wish it wasn't yet. 

    The older district is leaving sunday and the other older district doesn't have much time left. which leaves us. Im so glad that Im reading the book of mormon again. I understand and learn so much from it now. I wish i could go back in time and re-teach my sunday school class all the stuff I have learned. I never realized how important it is to be reading the BOM. I go to the story about twice a week and get 160 flash cards. Every word that I don't know, I write it down and then put it on a flash card. So I'm shooting up in the class in regards to spanish. I feel bad though because some people are really struggling. Every other day we do this thing called story time. Its where our district tells stories and we laugh. it is very interesting. It's a good time to let our any anger or stress that you have too. Two people said that without story time, they would have left. I dont think I have stressed.

 How fun and awesome and IMPORTANT winning soccer is to our zone. Since we are doing district vs district, we take 15 minutes before the game to plan our strategy. We are all trying our hardest, and it gets real our there fast. During our sunday and tuesday devotionals, when the time is like 7:00 there are watches beeping everywhere, since the whole MTC is in one room. it is like a bomb of beeps going off. I think it is hilarious. For dinner the other day we had Navajo tacos. I think it is ironic that when we would have the missionaries over for dinner,. we would make navajo tacos and now I'm the missionary having them, but they are very good here. 

   The MTC doesn't serve anything spicy ever. even when it says hot wings. It's just so lame not even sweet and sour just fake sauce, but it's all good. I'm curious how people are doing from our ward. 

 Is it raining all the time there? It rains every other day here but then becomes sunny again. I do not like cold and everyone in my district insist on having the windows open. I hate it,  I dont know how these guys are going to stand Mexico. haha. Our personal time after each day is spent running around the dorms playing soccer, basketball, pelt ball, watergun fights, and telling storys. This all happens in the halls and dorms, so it is wild. No one ever obeys the 10:15 quit time and definitly not the 10:30 lights out. People go to bed at like 11:30 here every night. I dont know how they do it. I occasionaly will stay up talking but I always pay for it during every class and devotional. I can't remember the last time I didn't sleep through the tuesday wokshops. The temple was great today. we got to help fold the temple clothes. I saw Eric hosting. I think he leaves this sunday for 40 hours of travel time to africa. I guess thats all about i have to this time. Just make sure that you send me people address's have ellie collect them all on facebook and send them to me. I would love more people to write.I love you bYE!!  - Elder Ordway

We got a picture!

Week 1

  Hey Everyone. Im doing great!! The MTC is really cool. The food here is awesome, and literally everyone here has a great personality and is very kind to everyone. I feel like belong here. 
    
   When I left I thought that I would miss home alot, but I is as if this is my new home. Thats not to say though that I dont miss home alot. Every night when I get your Dear elders, I think of what Im missing and it is really hard to imagin, but I am blesses here unlike I have evr been before. 
   
    The food here is decent, the first week it was alright, but now it is starting to make me gain weight already. plus it is not very good for you. Every morning though at 6, I wake up and work out so it makes up for it. The spirit here is crazy. Everywhere you go there is the spirit in the room. I can focus in every class or workshiop. Although You get about 6 hours sleep here each night. Which makes my days so tried. 
   
     I cant wait for general conference. Although missionaries wont be able to sing in the choir. The language is coming nicely. Im the best one in my class at spanish, so evryone calls me Maestro Ordway. Ive gotten used to being called Elder now, and it is as if ive forgotten my first name already. During Class we have a teacher who comes every other day and teaches us for about 2 hours. Her name is Hermana Bradley and she is way cool. There is also like 4 other adults who are return missionaries walking around and given spiritual advice to people. Ive learned that it is not how good you are at speaking your language, its about how good you are at speaking with the spirit that teaches people, its so true!! 
   
     Every day here except sundays and P day, you have Gym whether at 6:15 in the morning or in the afternoon. Either way my two favorite sports are being playing Soccer, and Volleyball. everyone here is really good at both, so I enjoy it so much. During afternoon gym, we can play beach volleyball or field soccor. We do district vs district, which is about 10 v 10. Its so much fun. 

     My companion's name Is Elder Holman, and he is from mesa Arizona. He is a cool guy, but it is like being companions with a 40 year old. He is always so serious. Which kind of sucks, but Ive gotten used to it. Eric tells me his companion is the same way. i have only seen Eric 3 times now. luckily once at the temple. it was such a great time talking with him. Waking up at 6 is killer. iT is always dark out, like midnight dark, adn you can barely think striaght, It makes you tired for the whole week. Luckily today I can take a nap. We are going to have a squirt gun fight here soon after im done typing here. and I guess you have to sign up for a hairciut 2 weeks in advance, and my hari is getting long. by the way.

    I dont wont to miss a moment here at the MTC, so many funny things happen. And everyone here has jokes that are church related which make them evern more funny. On our second day here, we got a fake investager, who we haveto speak spanish to. after a couple lesson we commited her to baptism. The lesson were verry hard, since my companinon doesnt speak a lic of spanish. The guys in my district are all very funny and there is one guy:Elder Barcus, who is kind of a "rebel" he doesnt obey the rules and he gets a package every single daye, he is at 6 already. food and candy evry time for him lol. The Provo temple is cool adn it was a great experience to go today. i did an endowment session here and got lost in the temple, haha. 

   The food in the temple was great. Keep sending me Dearelders and tell all my friends to write me, I miss them and reaaaally want to hear from them. But I love all the dear elders, they help every night. We have a MTC Store here that is like a mini walmart. It seem like they have evrything here. Ow by the way, if you find my watch please send it. I cant give you my address yet, but i will send you a letter as soon as i get off this computer.We all beared our testimony this sunday in spanish. and after 1 day, we are to all pray in spanish every night. it is crazy heree.I am very interested in your vacation, let me know how it went. Also once a week we do service here, and clean some part of the MTC, The rules here are very strict and it is hard to follow them all. but we have a little white handbook. In the showers every morning, people are singing and it brings so much joy to me. Everyone is singing in spanish or english church songs. Every morning and night i brush my teeth and put on my church clothes. We wear our suits here like every day its crazy. My mind goes 1000 miles an hour here at night;  going over what ive learned and writing in my diary,  and talking. 

The days feel like weeks and it feels as if I've been here for a month. We have 4 district in our zone, and our zone is really tight, everyone here is wrestling after classes and stuff. The bed kinda sucks, but I got used to it. It thought I lost my wallet but i then found it again. I cant wait to take a 4 hour nap today. A guy in my disctrict plays sc2 alot and i guess is pretty good. Everyone her talks about Harry Potter and Lord of the rings and smash bros, its really awesome. 

  The shoe orthodics are really nice and are really coming in handy. It seems like everyone here is from Utah, Arizona, or California. I'm reading in matthew right now about christs works here on earth. I guess there are these things here called narnia holes, where items and presents are hidden in your dorms and class rooms. 

You spend all your day in your class room teaching yourself. You rarely get a teacher, so your spending the whole day in class studying by yourself and with your companion. Thats why im all over the place. but keep me updated on the Ducks and tell Jeff thanks for writing to me. 

 Im just glad to be able to rest now on my P day. It blows my7 midnd how busy you are here. there is never ny time to do anyhthing. Well I love you alol, i have 30 seconds left. Tell everyone to write me adn that i love them. until next week bye.

Open house

Thank You for everyone that came to say goodbye to Michael on Sunday.

Here are some pictures of the Open House

Farewell's Talk ( Unrevised)

Hello everybody, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Michael David Ordway, I’m 19 years old, and I’m going on my mission to the Mexico Mexico south mission. I am here of course giving my mission farewell talk, though ironically, I will be here for another week and a half. Next Wednesday, I will enter the MTC, and attempt to learn the Spanish language. If im lucky, you might see my in MTC Priesthood choir during general conference.

            I was asked by brother Hall to give this farewell talk, and when I asked him what I was to have as my topic, He said a great thing to me: He said “well I would mostly like you to teach with the spirit, but you can always fall back on the topics of motivation and example. Luckily I had the opportunity to go to the temple yesterday. And frankly I don’t see a better way to get inspiration for a talk then to go visit the temple with your family. I jut hope I left enough room on my paper here for inspiration.

            I’m going to start of my talk with a story that really touched my heart, almost got me to the verge of tears. I can tell you know, that I won’t be able to share it with the same emotion that was there when told to me. It goes like this: There was a girl and a boy that were neighbors and both of the age of 10, Caitlin Morris and Jared brown, being this girl and boy, were good friends ever since Jared moved in. Both families instantly became great friends. Caitlin and her family were Mormon, which did not affect these two family’s relations. Jared of course couldn’t play with her on Sundays. He quickly got used to this, but had no interest himself in joining the church. Through growing up in high school together, Caitlin and Jared soon become a boyfriend and girlfriend. There relationship was to the churches standards, and when they had graduated and came of age, Jared asked to marry Caitlin. Of course there was one thing stopping this: Jared was not baptized and therefore was not temple worthy. As Jared now understood his fate, he started taking the missionary discussions and within a year of his baptism, Jared and Caitlin were to enter the temple together. Jared’s parents were somewhat supportive of him joining the church, but when word came that they were not going to be able to see there only son get married, The were furious. The great connection between both families had instantly broken and the spirit of contention had entered the hearts of brown family. Jared did not know what to do. He thought the church was about family’s being together forever. How could this be if he was losing them here and now? Soon Jared did not have the courage to enter the temple. He turned back on his newfound religion. And Caitlin was left as the brown family moved away to spread further rumors about how the church ruins people’s lives.

           Now the reason I share this heartbreaking story with you today, is because I want to show you just how fast Satan can ruin our lives and disguise himself within our church and other good things in life. Satan has powers of temptation and influence that we cannot fully understand. We can be easily tricked and it is to my understanding that this church, and this gospel is here to help us see through Satan’s trickery. For example: during my time working at Wendy’s, I became good friends with my co-workers. I talked a lot with them, and they seemed very interested in our church. I answered all of their questions to the best of my ability, and yet, they still hammered me with the question that I myself got stumped at. But every week I would return to church and then back to work and have an answer for them. On my last day of work, I asked my favorite Co-worker if I had set a good example for my church. Because I still wasn’t sure if I had impressed him or made us out to be a joke. He said to me though: “You have shown me that not everyone in this is world is corrupt. Everyone I see and talk to, I have a problem with, but you showed me that what you believe in fits and makes sense. I’m just not ready to believe and follow such rules yet.”

         This touched me, and it made me realize how important our example is to people. Once it is out that someone is Mormon, they have a standard and expectation to withhold. Another friend of mine said that he was Mormon until he was seventeen and that the reason he stopped going to church for the last 5 years was due to his mother and sister being killed. He said he went to go live with his Mormon grandfather who physically abused him. He said to me that if that is the kind of people that the church produces, and if this is an example of gods grace, then that is not the church he wanted to be apart of.” This to me was like hearing that my house had burned down. It was terrible and I wished I hadn’t heard it. I came to him though, and explained everything I could. I gave every reason and explanation that would help him out. He said that he was proud of me for living the life of a Mormon. He told me that it is a hard life that he didn’t have the strength or courage to uphold. I look up to this guy and it is people like this that give me strength enough to serve a mission.

         Id like to shift gears now back into the present day, to a hopefully more uplifting portion of my talk. First I wanted to say that I love the Sunday school class that I teach to death. Being able to teach lessons to the most wonderful class is one of the best ways I can prepare myself for my mission. I love each one of them. And they show me more respect then the respect I gave my teachers all through growing up And Brother Hueward is the best co teacher I could ask for.

         My parents often tell me how much time I spend with my friends and not with my family. I can’t deny that I do spend a lot of time with my friends. This is because they mean more to me than almost everything in this world. I have know most of them since I was in elementary School and am amazed that I have been honored by their company for so long. Please bear with me as I publicly notice a couple of my best friends. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t mention them. First: Harrison Jones. He has been with me since second grade and I have spent countless hours in his company. He is my best friend and never has anyone had a mental connection with me like this guy.  Eric Robinson: I have never known life without Eric in it. Ever since I can remember, I was wrestling with Eric and always losing. Although we have gone separate ways a hundred times throughout life, we always returned to each other, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Christian Nilsen: Most definitely the most physically and spiritually steadfast guy I know. I have been blessed that he even recognized me after his success in Mr. Irish. He is like no other man on earth, and I have cherished my time with him. Kevan Bendt is someone that knows me inside and out. Through our early morning carpool trips to LCC, I have been able to get to know one of the best men on earth. Kevan is someone that sees eye to eye with me and is someone that I have trust in. Tyler Eggleston: Someone who I didn’t know for a long time. He was someone that took getting used to, but when I did. It was glorious. His success was blinding, and that was whom I wanted to shape my life after. Chris Strub: for a long time I thought that I had lost my best friend Chris. After all that we did together I was miserable without him. But like the savior, he returned to me in my junior year. And never has there been someone I wanted to call my brother more. Geoff Yoon: A man that impacts my life daily. Although I don’t see him as often as I would like. He has no idea how much he has affected me going on this mission. And Clay Whipp: my youngest friend, always looking up to me, but in reality, it was I looking up to him. I’m going to miss staying up till 8 in the morning with these guys and then still getting 10 hours sleep.

         While I’m at it, I want to thank Tyler Eggleston, Eric Davis, Soren Nilsen, Ryan Pickens, and Eric Robinson for being the example that I needed to go on a mission; that along with my Dad and my brother. Its kind of funny, because my Dad went to Italy, and My brother went to the French speaking Caribbean islands mission. Whether they knew it or not, that put a lot of pressure on me to go to a really cool mission. Never have a been more sure of the gospel, then when I opened up my Mexico city call in front of my Amazing Family, A family that I look forward to spending eternity with. They surpass my friends as being the single most important thing to me. And I would trade anything to spend Christmas with them.

         Another thing I should mention is how important this ward is to me. I have never known anything different than coming to church on Sunday to the president street building, singing songs in primary, falling asleep in sacrament meeting, looking at girls in Sunday school, and feeling the spirit in Priesthood. Each and everyone of you has been there for me, whether giving me work, or feeding me dinner, letting me stay the night, and just shaking my hand at church, making me feel like an equal.

         I thank Bishop Cooper, Bishop Davis, and Bishop Whitmer, for always being the Man, teaching me reverence, and responsibility. This goes double for all of the teachers who had to teach my fellow comrades and I about the importance of reverence. I feel terrible for what we did the free’s in seminary. I also should point out my priesthood leaders who have always been there for me. Dennis Dunne, Tom Hall, Audie Eggleston, Jake Callister, Gavin Gillas, and the mother of all leaders: Jeff Robinson…The guy who I can go to whenever. Who gave me a home and a meal. Who showed me the meaning of sacrifice and charity, as he gave up work and money to show a couple of immature boys how to bond. And it is because of this man, that there are 5 men from our ward out on missions. Soon to be 6. It is because of Jeff Robinson and his wonderful wife Diana, that I did not fall away from the church and give in to what was the easier path in life. Me and 5 other guys were asked who the best man I knew was. And without a doubt, we all said Jeff Robinson. Both Mormon and nonMormon alike, Jeff has changed the world.

         But I can’t give all the glory to Jeff. My Parents saw me through soccer in elementary school, Cross-country in middle school, Ultimate Frisbee in high school, and Beach volleyball through College. They have blessed my life with the consistency of our home and our City here in Eugene.  I am so blessed with the perfect body they gave me. I love the fact that I cant see two feet without me glasses, or that I will probably never be able to dunk a basketball, that My hair grows freely in every which way. They have blessed me with my easy life. Except for a few broken arms and a concussion. I have never had a huge trial like to overcome. It is because of missionary work, that brought my Dad to the church when he was not much younger than I am now. Without the choice that my Dad made and the example of his friends and missionary’s. I would not exist to speak before you today. A few times in High school, I had to make a really hard choice: Having to choose my team or church. I’m glad I made the right choice. I hope my team and friends don’t think I let them down.

         For those of you who haven’t had the chance to receive your patriarchal blessing. I can’t stress it enough. It will forever enhance your life and you will be more likely to achieving your goals. One of my goals is to enter the temple with my whole family. And there was no better way to launch me that way then to enter the Temple. As I begin to enter this new and exciting new stage in my life. I go with courage; courage that I have gained whilst growing in the gospel. I thank Bishop Cooper for giving me this quote: “Being cool and daring, isn’t about what you will do when the time comes, it’s what you won’t do.” People nowadays tend to forget that fact. Eric Robinson also left me with a quote: “Anything is lame if your attitude towards it is lame. Same goes for how awesome things can be, if your attitude is awesome.” This quotes leads in nicely in talking about this last Trek. From what I remembered about my first one 4 years ago. I was miserable, but coming into this trek, with a good attitude and being able to join a new family, and within 4 days, I felt as if these youth were my actual brothers of sisters. The Church is doing something right, when they take these wonderful kids on Treks. The Trek was exactly what I needed for my mission.

         My dad and I had a good talk one day, and I realized just how much scouting helps me out in life. From my Eagle project, where it seemed that half the ward came to help Jordan Marshal and I out. To being able to apply to schools and jobs and be able to say that I have my Eagle Scout award and that i'm proud of it.

         You know, throughout this whole talk, I have been mentioning how awesome people are, How amazing the gospel is in our lives, and how The power and influence of how being a good example can be in the world, But I haven’t mentioned someone that I talk to daily. Someone that is a father to me, someone who has been the best example to us all. That person is our heavenly father, and through his son Jesus Christ.  I was gifted with the ability to repent and forgive myself of my sins; I was blessed with a wonderful ward. My Parents, My friends, the gospel, Missionary Work. And it is through missionary work that all can come unto Christ. LDS.org graciously provided me with the scripture Mathew 28: 19-20 It says: Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” This scripture blows my mind in its clarity. Stating: that we are commanded to go out and baptize all nations. And that through the Godhead, we are forever blessed even unto the end of our lives. It also says that whatever he asks of us, whether it may seems unnatural, we are to obey.

         It said in my patriarchal blessing that I would serve a foreign mission and that I would need to learn a different language. I am honored to be able to serve a mission. I know that as I teach the people in Mexico I have endless courage that I will be watched over and protected. That as I go with the spirit, I will bring unto the people the truth that I have seen for myself.

         Testimony