Ready To Time Travel

Heyyy everyone! Second week in the mtc has come to a close.  Sorry for the long email. I probably won't be able to send one next week so this one is making up for that!

It has been a crazy fast week! Time is flying by! The days seem long, but the weeks fly by! Lots has happened! My Visa came and the good news is that I got my flight plans today!! It's going to be a long travel day. I leave at 9:35am this Saturday and get to Australia Monday morning haha. I will spend a whole night on the plane! It's gonna be a party! I have no idea when my next p day will be. 

A cool random experience was that I got to help all the new missionaries come into the mtc. I had to stand and watch all the crying families and missionaries and then I would take them to their room! Kinda made me a little homesick watching it all haha. 

So this is very unexpected if you know me, but I joined the mtc choir. Somehow everyone wanted to do it so I was dragged into it haha. And last Sunday was the biggest choir they have ever had! They had 1057 missionaries in the choir! So I was glad I joined the historic choir haha. This sunday was fast sunday and there were significantly less people because everyone wanted to go get food. 

Fast sunday was another experience at the mtc. The dinner the night before was a riot, but dinner the day of was literally insane. The Sisters sang better than the Elders so they got to leave for dinner early. Then the Elder who said the closing prayer for choir hadn't even said amen before all 800 Elders had literally jumped out of their seats and started sprinting to dinner. Everyone was running as fast as they could to get in line for food. Thankfully, my district has fast runners so we got in line first. But when I went back to get more food they were out! The mtc literally ran out of food haha. So they were just handing out rolls. The salads have been hitting differently at the mtc. The salad bar is always reliable. But nope. Not on a fast sunday. I guess Elders and Sisters eat healthy when there are no other food options haha.  So fast sunday dinner was not very satisfactory haha. At least, I got one plate of food. I was still starving after. And sadly, I had finished all my snacks. So now it will be time for me to drop a ton of weight haha. The Elders are all teasing me on how much I eat. They are all calling me fat because I am eating so much. It's hilarious. I wish my poor mother could hear their comments and just laugh knowing that I pretty much ate her out of the house when I was home! 

It is fun to chat with all the Elders and Sisters while waiting in line or just walking to class. Everyone is generally really nice! I am usually standing in line for food or just walking somewhere and I strike up a conversation with an Elder or Sister. I ask them where they are going and how long they have been here or how long they have left in the mtc. It's funny because they turn the questions back on me and I tell them, "I have been here a week and I only have 1 week left." They look at me with astonished faces and say, “Your tag is Chinese. Are you not learning Chinese." I say, “Yes, I am." They are like “isn't that a 9 week program not a 2 week one?” I then say, "I was tested and I have a photographic memory and so I only need 2 weeks." Elders and SIsters who are gullible or who haven't been here for a long time totally fall into my trap and just go off on how incredible that is until I tell them it was a joke and I have been learning it for the past 12 years. It's fun teasing people haha. It gives me a good laugh.

Finally getting into a routine which has been nice! Working out during our class breaks. Doing lots of calisthenics with my district. And of course playing basketball every morning! I am cooking everyone on the basketball court which is so much fun! But then sometimes I get destroyed so it all evens out. I just hate guarding a 6'10 Elder. We have become friends so it is fun! He loves me for some reason…probably because he can dunk on me. It gets intense!

Something that is weird for some reason is that I haven't heard my first name spoken in 2 weeks. I only respond to Elder, zhang, or Jones. So I probably won't respond to my first name when I get back!

I love the mtc! Lots of time to study! I love speaking Chinese and thinking in Chinese! It is so fun to walk around and just hear random languages going on around me! The MTC is beautiful! There are flowers and trees everywhere. The facilities are clean and beautiful with incredible paintings all over! The only thing that is not great is the showers. I don’t think they clean them haha. I was getting attacked by a moth and a swarm of fruit flies the past couple days. But thankfully I am strong enough to kill the fruit flies haha. Every day is busy and I am going a million miles per hour! It's so much fun! Learning lots and drawing closer to the Lord.

Got to spend more time in the temple so that has been a great experience! 

A cool fact is that “Missionaries baptize 20,000 people every month around the world”!

Played sand spikeball this morning so that was epic! However bad news is that I re rolled my ankle that I rolled a couple months ago. Sadly not as cool of a story as last time. My companion had his shoes on the floor and somehow I didn't see it and stepped on it and twisted it really weird. So you can all imagine me limping around haha.

This week the President of the Seventy shared this story in the devotional. He said that they had revised the Missionary Standards and sent it to President Nelson to review it. They got the book back with three words written on the inside by President Nelson! He had written "Add more Joy".  So the committee who was in charge of making the new Missionary Standards threw that copy away and started to rewrite a whole new Missionary Standards book with more joy in it! I love the fact that President Nelson wanted the missionaries to find joy in keeping the commandments! Love President Nelson and how he was inspired to add more joy to the missionary standards! All the Elders and Sisters love that story! It was the talk of the mtc for a couple days! Everyone was like you will have joy or you got to find joy in keeping the Missionary Standards.

Spiritual Thought for this week: based on a devotional given by President and Sister Neilson of the Seventy.

Doctrine and Covenants 123:17

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

This scripture explains how we should put a smile on our faces and do whatever you can do! When you can't go on or can't do something, stand still and the Lord will fill the holes.You will have the spirit if you are cheerfully doing your best. Heavenly Father will never leave you or let you down! Trust that Jesus is walking besides you. If you can know this fundamental truth then you don't have to worry about what you can or can't do or know because He will help you when you fall short. 

Where is your heart? Is it all laid before the Lord?  You must be converted to the Lord. I don't know why this has been such a focus lately, but I want to emphasize that a testimony is not enough to survive spiritually anymore nowadays. How will you be fully converted? 

Let me give some examples from the scriptures. 

In Luke 22:32 the Lord is talking to Peter and he says "and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." This was an apostle of Jesus. And Jesus did not consider him fully converted. In John 21:15-17 Peter had returned to fishing after Jesus left. 

But Jesus appears to the disciples and asks Peter "lovest thou me more than these?" The Savior was asking whether Peter loved fish or Him more. 

I want to ask: do you love the Savior more than your "fish"? The Savior was holding a fish for Peter but what would the Savior be holding for you? A phone, social media, sports, spiritual neglect, pride? What would it be? And then he would ask…do you love me more than [     ] 

What's causing us not to be all in? We have to remember that it's not about us it's about Him. When the Lord knows He can trust you then everything changes. He wants you and your heart! His invitation is to come…so drop your "fish" and come! :) 

He is waiting with open arms for you!

You might ask what does conversion look like?

Alma 23: 7-8 talks about how the lamanites buried their weapons of war. They were attacked and may have been tempted to return and dig them up again. But instead they trusted and turned to God and knelt and prayed. 

I challenge you to lay down your "weapons". When you fully bury your weapons deep in the earth where you will not dig them up, then you will know you are being converted! Don't fight against God! I challenge you to throw them down! It would make Jesus happy that you aren't fighting against Him, but instead coming to Him ready for his loving embrace!

After we lay our weapons down, we are supposed to act and do what the Savior did. (3 Nephi 27:21) He performed the atonement. Thankfully He doesn't require us to do that. 

When He was performing the atonement He asked for the cup to be removed. But then He said probably the most important words ever said. "Not thine will, but thine be done" (Luke 22:42) That is what He is asking us to do. We might want a "cup" or trial to be removed, but as we follow Him and say to Him "not thine will, but thine be done" we will be converted to Him. That is discipleship. That is conversion. Whatever the Lord requires. I am there. When we have this attitude the Heavens will open and you may do all things through Christ which strengtheneth you (Philippians 4:13). We must have our will swallowed up in the Father like Jesus did. (Mosiah 15:7) 

I know it is hard but come on people! Throw down those weapons and come and allow the Savior to wrap you in His warm loving embrace as you turn your whole will over to the father. 

Sorry that got really long haha. Just so much great stuff! 

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Here is the link for this week. Sorry for the bad picture quality. 

I am just jumping with excitement to finally head to Australia this week! Kinda scary at the same time! But, oh how I am ready to time travel!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zv3T8hovA8vZnNpc7

-Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)