Elder Jarrett W. Pinster : 2018-02-18

This week has been a blessing. I cannot even explain how lucky I am to be in this position in my life and to be have the ability to focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ all day every day. Here are a few points from this week and some takeaways that I had:

1) The Book of Mormon. It's just true. I've learned that it really is a book about love and families trying to follow Christ. I find so much comfort from reading it and I love the peace that comes while I read it.

2) I think I finally found my jump shot. An hour of gym time has helped me finally find that sweet stroke once again. The church is true.

3) This is the real gospel of Jesus Christ and it comes straight from Him. I never comprehended that everything we do is what Christ did when He was on the earth. I feel so blessed to be a part of the Savior's gospel. Growing up it never fully sunk in that we have all the truth Christ had. We are so blessed to have the full truth and to build a relationship with our Father in heaven. P.S please forgive me for my typing sins I'm still working on typing with a Samsung.

4) Make Sundays a blessing. Sundays are the best even though I get the opportunity to wear a suit for 14 hours. My first meeting is branch presidency which starts at 7:10 am and we get back to the dorms around 9 pm, but Sundays have never been so special to me. Sundays give us the opportunity to renew promises we made with our Heavenly Father plus we get to spend the rest of the day learning of Christ. We have a MTC wide devotional Sunday night followed by the ability to watch a video from a general authority. This Sunday was by Elder Holland. During today's devotional the MTC president and his wife shared how grateful they were for two missionaries who served in Texas and in Idaho. Because of two separate missionaries their families have been able to have over 40 members and thousands of names for temple work. An entire family genealogy had the truth because of two missionaries. It made me think about Elders Torrence and Semien who are going to Idaho and myself going to Texas. I don't know if we will have that big of am impact but it was so amazing to see the possibility I have that I can be a good enough servant of God to have that ability.

5) Elder Holland is my favorite person in the whole world. Here are some notes I took from a talk I listened to:

"One shot don't miss it to do a mission don't miss it."

"A mission is Real Life -- capital R&L. It doesn't end because we can always come closer to our Savior."

"Salvation is not easy because His sacrifice wasn't easy. Gethsemene wasn't easy and neither will a mission. We must take a step towards Calvary's hill to get salvation for ourselves and for those we teach."

"Following his gospel costs more of us because it costs more of Him."

"Moses 1:39, if you want to do His work you have to do it His way."

Holland was very upfront and direct but it allowed me to fully understand my purpose while being here.

6) Happiness comes when we don't think of ourselves. This week we got the opportunity to teach a pregnant young mom named Kaitanna about the gospel. As we taught truths, she talked about how true it all felt and fit together. She loved being able to see the plan of salvation and the ability to be together with family forever. At the end of the week we invited her to be baptised. She agreed and is now meeting with missionaries from the Provo mission with a baptismal date. My heart was full being able to see someone come unto Christ. I pray that she becomes a faithful member and her future child will be able to reap the blessing from the choices her mom is making.

7) We got 5 inches of snow and were lucky enough to play in it for like 10 minutes. I'd say the MTC is a blast!

I'm so blessed and happy to be in the MTC. This gospel is such a blessing to have in my life. There is so much happiness and joy that can come from knowing the truth. I pray we can all grow and come closer to God a little bit more everyday. God bless.

-Elder Pinster

Here are some pictures!