ONE MONTH!

Hey all,

Can you believe it has only been 1 month since I said goodbye to you amazing folks? Yes, I said only. Truly, it feels like years. I kind of feel like we are in a time warp here... time just stopped the second I entered the MTC. At least that's how it feels. As soon as I hear about the outside world from any of my teachers, it hits me that the world continues on outside the MTC.

This week has been quite a good one. We got 4 sisters in our zone yesterday and 2 sisters in our room with Sister Ewell and I. (It has only been me and her in our room, we've been spoiled.) The sisters that moved in our room are awesome. I ecpecially get along with a sister going to Norway. She is hilarious. Her name is Sister Pace. So grateful for her sweet spirit.

So, we are spoiled here at the MTC and L. Tom Perry came and spoke on Tuesday. That is 3 apostles in 4 weeks. So blessed. Sister Ewell and I are especially grateful because once we get to Romania, we will not have that opportunity for a while. My testimony of the prophets and apostles grows more and more each time I see one of them walk in the room on Tuesday night and immediately feel the wonderful spirit that they bring with them. It makes me excited to testify to the people of Romania that I have seen and felt the presense of an apostle of God and know with all my heart that they are called by him to lead and direct us today. Seriously, I can't get over how blessed we are to have our church led by true prophets and apostles of our Heavenly Father.

Which kind of reminds me of something I learned this week. Well, something I've always known, but really hit me hard this week. There are a few things actually. First of all, I was reading in D&C 18: 36-38 and D&C 20:14... in case you don't keep your scriptures handy while you check your email, here it is.

          D&C 18:34-36 (talking about the Book of Mormon) "These words are not of men nor of man, but of me; wherefore, you shall testify they are of me and not of man; For it is my voice which speaketh them unto you; for they are given by my Spirit unto you, and by my power you can read them one to another; and save it were by my power you could not have them; Wherefore, you can testify that you have heard my voice, and know my words."

          D&C 20:14 "And those who receive it in faith and work righteousness, shall receive a crown of eternal life."

How amazing are those scriptures? Did you read them? Like really read them? I love where it says that we can testify that we have heard His voice. Because we have the Book of Mormon, we have heard his voice. And in the next passage, it says that all we have to do in order to recieve what He has told us is the greatest of all gifts, eternal life, all we have to do is receive it in faith and work righteousness. Basically, we have to receive the gospel in order to receive eternal life. Uhhh... who signed us up for this? That seems like a pretty amazing arrangement. Heavenly Father truly does love us SO much. He has given us SO much. And all He asks us to do is accept Christ as our Savior and follow Him. For me, when I put it in that perspective, it doesn't seem so complicated. It is so simple. You guys all probably had this realization a long time ago and I'm just now catching on. This realization truly humbled me though.

The other cool experience I had while reading my scriptures this week... So I told you last week that I was doing my "theme scripture reading" in a seperate book of mormon on patience... Oh my word have I learned a lot. It has been so awesome. Something that truly stuck out to me though was when I was reading 1 Nephi 18:24. Once again, I'll quote it for those of you who don't internet surf with scriptures right next to you.

(talking about Nephi and Lehi when they arrived to the promised land)

"And it came to pass that we did begin to till the earth, and we began to plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the earth, which we brought from the land of Jerusalem. And it came to pass that they did grow exceedingly; wherefore, we were blessed in abundance."

So a few months ago, Nate actually gave me a whole new perspective on this scripture. He mentioned how much faith it must have taken for them to plant ALL their seeds in this soil that they knew nothing about, they didn't know how or if their seeds would grow, but they excersized faith and planted ALL of their seeds. I loved this perspective and as I was reading it while studying patience I thought to myself "Okay, so what can I learn about patience from this?" And I thought about it and read and re read the passage, it hit me. How often do we plant all our seeds in faith, and expect immediate fruit to come from those seeds? Think of the patience they had to have while waiting for those seeds to grow -especially not even knowing what would come from it. I know, for me, even when I show faith and plant all my seeds in something, I usually get pretty impatient when I don't see the fruits of those seeds as soon as I would hope or expect. I hope this came across in words the way it is in my heart.

Well, this email is pretty long, so I will briefly explain what the downlow with our investigators. Mainly, I just want to talk about Maria. Last friday, we had an AMAZING and such a spiritual lesson with her. She has been struggling with commiting to pray and expressed to us that she didn't understand why sometimes God answers prayers and sometimes he doesn't and explained how when her mom was sick, God didn't answer her prayers to heal her. Talk about being able to relate. I thanked her for sharing something so personal with us and read D&C 121:7-9 and D&C 122:7-9 and explained that sometimes we don't know why God gives us the trials He does, but we do know that no matter what trial he gives us, it is for our good and that he will give us the strength we need if we turn to Him. I told her about our family and what we experienced with Jared and lots of tears were shed, from all three of us. (Sister Ewell, Maria and myself) and testified to her of Heavenly Father's love for her and how badly he wants her to turn to Him and that he is waiting for her. Then asked her if she would pray that night and she said she would and we invited her to kneel with us and to say the closing prayer. Once again, lots of tears. It was such a cool experience! And then the next lesson, she committed to be baptized on the 31st:) How amazing. 2 weeks ago, she didn't even believe there was a God and now she is praying and working towards baptism. I love it how the Spirit works.

It is so cool to sit in a lesson and listen to the spirit speak and tell me exactly what to say. I've noticed though, there are times when I am thinking way to hard to answer the questions perfectly and I am thinking too much to allow room for the spirit to speak to me and therefore, have no idea what to say. Or the things I do say don't affectt he person I'm teaching like I think they should. How important it is to lean not unto my own understanding and completely rely on the spirit to guide me.

Yesterday as we were watching the "newbies" come, I was watching a father with his son and he was giving him a hug goodbye and as he did he told him "For the next two years, you are not my son. You belong to the Lord." It brought me to tears. What a neat experience.

Okay, okay, I'll wrap up now. I'm sorry I just rambled on. I would love to hear how everyone is doing. Thank you so much for your letters and emails. They were received with gratitude!! I will do my best to write you all back today. Prep days are always a lot busier than I anticipate though. And with not much sleep last night, a nap might need to happen at some point.

Know how much I love you and miss you. You are all in my prayers!! Thank you for your love and support and for your prayers -I can definitely feel them and am so grateful!!

Missing you,

Sister Cook