Wednesday, August 10, 2011

MTC Brev #5‏



Hei alle!
A very good week this week! Many things learned and many things felt. Some exciting news is that I am leaving for Norway a week early in preparation for a member of the Seventy to come and speak to us! We shall leave on August 29th rather than September 5th. The district here is counting blessings :]. We are all so excited to leave and just be immersed in the language already. Nevertheless, much can and is learned here while in the MTC!
When it comes to Norsk, how you are understood comes primarily through your "tone of fall" - I am sure a few of you are familiar with it. The tone of fall is basically the primary reason I am incredibly stoked to learn Norsk. I don't know very many languages that use it. By the way you inflect your vowels and the length of your vowels you can make your statements and questions more clear or meaningful. It's really interesting! and the dialects are extremely different all across Norway. I am going to love it! I'm super excited to bear my testimony that first Sunday. Hopefully no children will cry.
More thoughts on the baptism by fire - I've discussed this with my teachers and my district and it is such a neat concept! Directly related to the baptism by fire is the change of heart to "no more desire to do evil." Thereby turning off the evil and filling the heart with desire to do that which is good. In a small example, you can't just go up to someone and make them desire something because you say so. Yet through the gift of the Holy Ghost you can find within yourself the desire to love others more sincerely than you ever have before, to read scriptures consistently, to follow God's commandments, for we can feel the goodness of following God through the Spirit. Another thing we have discussed recently is obtaining revelation through Church attendance. After going through the Temple, I really found a new appreciation for Church and what we do there. We are there in church to learn from each other, build each other up and discuss needs, solutions and our gratitude for our God. By attending Church we open up our hearts to God, and particularly through the sacrament we cleanse ourselves in order to learn more. An amazing opportunity every week!
Our teaching has been coming along well! Eldste Knudson and I are teaching quite well, and I am certainly learning many many things from him. The biggest thing I have learned from him so far is how to ask questions. Questions questions questions - the key to open our hearts and an investigator's heart to the Spirit of revelation and edification. Questions are precisely the way Jesus Christ taught - for through questions the investigator teaches themselves, supplemented with scriptures and simple statements of truth. Eldste Knudson rocks at questions, and that is what I need to use unceasingly on my mission. The next thing to do is listen to the answers of those questions, and seek through the Spirit for understanding. It is a miracle what you can do through questions and listening. I encourage everyone to go and read "The Spirit of Revelation" by Elder Bednar. I have come to realize that revelation comes extremely frequently, though we may not recognize it. Everyone, please read from the Book of Mormon every day and pray for understanding. I promise you that you will feel peace and comfort - especially through consistent effort.
Thank you Mom for those pictures, and thank you Christiaan and Anna Rose for the vitamins, picture (it captures your family perfectly :P) and cookies! Thank you everyone who sent me letters - I will respond to all who send me letters! Thank you all who have influenced my life and prepared me and every little way to experience my mission the way I am. I love it, and yes, it is one of the hardest things I've done - only to get harder in Norway. To all whose lives are throwing them curve balls, please read from the sciptures and pray for comfort (2 Nephi 4, Romans 8). God has promised us many blessings, and if we are faithful we may receive all (D&C 82:10). I love you all!
Inntill neste uke!
-Eldste Bryce Thomas Johnson

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