You'll Never Guess!

So this past week has been Mission President's Seminar for all the new mission presidents. So we knew that the special devotional on Friday night was going to be a good one. I had the good idea to sing in the choir so that we would get very good seats. (usually we don't sing in the choir because there is too much work to be done!) So in the choir some sisters spilled the secret that the speaker that night was going to be Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (my favorite Apostle, if you can have a fav. that is) so I was supper excited that I would get a chance to see him in person! But that night, even before the prelude music started, Elder L. Tom Perry walked in. I was kind of disappointed that it was not Elder Holland, but I was excited to hear from another Apostle nevertheless. Then who walks in but Elder Neil L. Anderson, the newly called Apostle! I thought to myself, hmm...this is interesting, then Elder Quinton L. Cook, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder David A. Bednar, and D. Todd Christofferson one by one enter the room with their wives. Then finally Elder Jeffrey R. Holland comes in last! It was so amazing because all the people in the large multi-purpose building, which seats more than a thousand were all standing and you could feel the Holy Spirit so strong! Elder Holland was the only one to speak though. But it was a wonderful talk, about how central the Spirit is to us, especially when we are teaching. He also commanded us not to teach if we did not have the spirit with us. He told us several different ways that we can recognize the Spirit and to be mindful of those times so that we may be able to call upon the Spirit when we need it. He spoke such wonderful things that I could not put them into words. I encourage you to go to lds.org and search for a talk by Elder Holland, maybe one on teaching by the Spirit, or any other topic of interest, because he speaks in such a way that penetrates your soul! He concluded by saying "Welcome to the work of Angels!" He said that as missionaries, we are angels in the eyes of our family, in the eyes of our investigators, and even in the eyes of our Savior who will forever be eternally grateful for the work that we are doing on His behalf. It was so beautiful that I am even getting teary-eyed just thinking about it. We all stood again as the Apostles were exiting the room, then after they had left, all of the new Mission Presidents turned around and were waving. I looked around myself to see who they were waving at, was it another Apostle? No, there were just us, the Missionaries. What? Oh, yeah! We are Missionaries! We are the Lord's Army here upon the earth and they love us! I seriously wanted to sob with emotion when I realized the great and marvelous work that I am currently apart of!

Not much time left but I got my flight plans a couple of days ago!
I leave at 5am on Tuesday morning from the MTC, then go to Salt Lake City to catch a flight at 8:35 to Kennedy New York. From there is a straight flight to Kiev, Ukraine! We should be arriving there at 9:05am on Wednesday. But it will feel like 12:05am according to Utah time. That is going to be so weird! Kind of like time travel!
-Meagen
6-30-09