Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Day


Merry Christmas/Craciun Fericit,


Well hello Family, I know that you are probably not going to read this when you are around everyone else but I will write you as if you were.

We have just had one of the best Christmas day's ever. We started off the day with Elder Russell M. Nelson come and talk to us about the gifts that we need to receive as missionaries and throughout all our life.  We also had our MTC President, President Brown, talk to us and allowed us to email home since there are only 3 phones in the MTC that missionaries can use. He asked us to write our feelings about this Christmas day. So here it is.

Learning here at the MTC as been a fantastic experience for me. While reading in the scriptures I have developed a greater love for my Savior, Redeemer, Jesus Christ. As we came closer to Christmas Day, I thought about all the things that I missed about being home during the holidays.  Family, great food (not found here in the MTC), the movies from stockings and just being with all the people that I love. But then I remember that the greatest gift of all was given by our Heavenly Father. He sent his son to us, and this is the day that we should be celebrating that pure love.


Reading talks, we can see that some of the General Authorities are worried that Christmas has become too commercialized. I have to say that I agree. I had always thought about baby Jesus and the Nativity scene and all the other good things, but before the MTC I never recognized the  perfect gift that we were given from our Heavenly Father. Now, I'm not saying that giving presents is a sin, what I'm trying to say is when we give
 a gift, or receive a gift, we need to remember that God also gave us a gift, one that will last our entire life and beyond that. God gave us Christ, who in turn gave us the Atonement. When we are celebrating Christmas, we should really be celebrating the Son of God and the beginning of his life here on earth. Some of you may already think this and some of you may not, but as you move on throughout the day, try and remember the
love that our Heavenly Father has for us and think about his son Jesus Christ.


I love you all and hope you are having a fantastic Christmas Day,

-Elder Ormsby


(PS from Mom:  click on the red link above to see the Deseret News article and pictures about the MTC Christmas Devotional.  Unfortunately, none of the pictures are of my missionary, but it still makes our family feel closer to him.)

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Week 5

Hello "Real World",

Life here at the MTC has gotten much better over the past few weeks. Although we are still working really hard, we (the district) have decided to not worry so much about the language and focus more on our investigators. We are going to have a great Christmas next week. Rumor is we are having a General Authority on our Sunday Devotional and someone high up on our Christmas Devotional...cross your fingers for President Monson!  We had a really great devotional from one Elder C. Scott Grow of the Seventy.  His wife told a great story of a great family with a father that chose to ignore the testimonies of his children. He kept wanting to see a miracle, to see a sign. He said " I can turn to any scripture and prove to you that it is wrong." He turned to Alma 30: 44... This just goes to show the Lord has a sense of humor. Elder Grow then gets up and talks about the 4 requisites to teaching by the Spirit. 
1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Diligently seek faith out, faith is dependent on our studies. He later goes on to share Ether 12: 5,16,18,19. He states that, when you set goals you need to set them with your eyes toward faith.

2.Obedience. D&C 58: 42-44. He talked about the 2060 stripling warriors and how they followed every command of Ammon and how not a single one of them perished in the battle in which they were grossly outnumbered. They were entirely obedient to their leader and to their God. He goes on to give D&C 82:10 followed by a story on an Elder that was in South America. His mission president told him to pray and fast when making his monthly goals. When he was done, he came up with a number of 23. His mission president thought it was high, but just amused the Elder. The Elder was then given to his first companion, what I didn't tell you before, was that he had only been in the field for 1 month and couldn't even speak the language. His trainer also told him that the number was unreachable in this mission. At the end of the month the mission president was receiving all of the numbers from the missionaries. This particular Elder called the President and informed him they had not yet reached their monthly goal. The mission president wasn't surprised, and then the missionary said " but we have 3 more baptisms after this call which will make our monthly total 23. This missionary followed  the promptings of the Lord and worked his hardest even after being told that the number was unreachable. He was blessed for being 100% Obedient.

3.Sacrifice. Knowledge is always obtained by sacrifice. D&C 97:8. Elder Grow said something that was really cool. He said that the only thing that we can truly give to the Lord, that is 100% ours is our agency. Once we decide that we will sacrifice ourselves to the Lord, he will undoubtedly bless us beyond our capacity to receive it. Everyone knows how hard it is to do something that we don't like to do. It goes against our nature to put others before ourselves. But even after Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, he took time to heal the soldier's ear. When we decide to sacrifice, we determine our entire life.

4.Revelation. D&C 8:1-3. Follow the Spirit so you can teach by the Spirit. Alma 17:3 and Alma 26:22. He told us simply that "the Lord has prepared souls, Find them."

All the above mentioned are the keys to a great missionary. D&C 65:2-6. For anyone else who wants some great material, read the last talk by Bruce R. McConkie. 

Love you all and thank you so much for taking the time to read just a few of the things that I find great here at the MTC. I'll try and report on the Devotionals next week.

-Elder Ormsby


Monday, December 17, 2012

Week 4

Handwritten letter home.  No email that week.


Dear Family,

Hurray!  Lucky, you, you're getting on main letter as a family.  Things here at the MTC are awesome.  We just received a new shipment of Boboci and they are turning out to be all right.

Thank you so much for the package.  It was heaven sent.  That's so cool that Secondborn and Thirdborn got ordained at the same time.  That is so cool that they will be able to administer the sacrament. 

Happy birthday, Secondborn!  I know its late, but life here is crazy and we can't write letters til P-day.  

Hey, Love Magnet, why do you think I forgot your name?  All my sisters think that you are so cute and they love how you are in hip hop class.  

Thirdborn, it is awesome that you had the chance to watch baptisms.  Now that you can go to the temple, you should go as much as you can.

Secondborn, don't worry so much about memorizing the prayers as much as thinking about what you are saying, the meaning, and how you feel when you say them.

Dad, I just want to thank you for being such a good example to us as a family and for all that you have sacrificed.  I love you so much and I always refer back to you in some way everyday.  Thank you for being my hero.

Mom, I love you.  I would refer to myself as a teenage punk.  I still refer to myself as a teenage punk, only with a little wisdom.  I am grateful for your love and support for me over my life.  I am grateful to both you and Dad for being examples to me.  . Secondborn, Thirdborn, and Love Magnet you are all so blessed to have such awesome parents.  Eat as much of the food as you can.  Hang out together as much as you can and just enjoy each other's company.

Love,

Elder Ormsby

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Week 3 - with pictures!

Another week has come and gone here at the MTC. Not a lot has happened in the last week. December 1 is National Romanian Day, I don't know if we ever were taught what exactly it was for, independence or just a day to party, but we taught our investigator the Plan of Salvation...we keep forgetting that just because it makes sense in our minds, doesn't mean it will make sense to them. For our other investigator Anca, we taught the first vision, which is memorized. Most definitely had help from on high remembering that one. My best friend sent me a letter that day, and if you know anything about him this will come as no surprise, he put princess stickers on the back.

We had our first fast Sunday here at the MTC and it was fantastic. Hearing the testimonies of all my boboci noi was a great experience. We watched the Christmas Devotional. It is always good to hear the words of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, although I really like Uchtdorf's talk as well. That evening we watched the movie the "Testament". The movie is about life in America before Christ came to them, the last days and such. For me, it is always hard to watch Jesus Christ as he has nails set in his hands, wrists and feet to the cross. 

Tuesdays are the best days, next to P-days, in my opinion. This is the day that you give service to another building by cleaning it. You don't have to get dressed until lunch time and gym is right after the service. We have an elder here,  Elder Jack, who is from Micronesia. He is a boss at volleyball. He stands at a whopping 5ft 3 and can still lay down the law. we had Elder Evans of the Seventy come and talk to us during the Tuesday Night Devotional. He basically gave us a pep talk on missions. My favorite part was a quote by Elder Holland (always a good thing). He says " Salvation is not a cheap experience". It is so true, before the devotional we were reading up on prayer and my favorite part was the definition in the Bible dictionary. You should all look it up, cause I won't do it justice, but it basically says that when we pray we are accepting blessings that God is willing to give us and that prayer is some of the required work to receive blessings.

Anyways, I am so thankful for all of you and I cant wait to get to Romania, I just have to learn the language first. Just so you all know, letters are heaven sent here at the MTC (hint hint). If any of you see Timtams, and know what they are, we have a few Australians around here that want to do some slams. Just a thought. Anyways thank you all again, and I am so grateful to be here on a mission.

-Elder Ormsby

P.S. Here is the First Vision in Romanian. There are no accents on this computer so bear with me.

Am vazut un stalp de lumina exact deasupra capilui meu, mei luminos ca stralucirea soarelui, care a cobarat treptat pana cand a stat deasupra mei...Cand lumina s-a oprit asupra mei, am vazut doua Personaje, ale caror stralucire si slava intreceau orice descriere, si care stateau deasupra mei, in aer. Unul dintro Ele mi-a vorbit, chemandu-ma pe nume, si a spus, aratand catre celelalt "Acesta este Fiul Mei Iubit, Asculta-L"




Elder Ormsby with his two companions and the sisters also in the district












If its a little off, well its early. and a pday