MTC Highlights

Shane's emails from the MTC have been an absolute joy to receive. He freely, unself-consciously writes of promptings of the Holy Spirit, and bears his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, things he rarely if ever did before. When I passed along a warning from a friend to him that the missionfield can be somewhat of a letdown after the MTC, he wrote : "Well, I certainly believe Lisa about the mission field being a let down, but I refuse to let that bother me. I don't expect to go out and automatically have an awesome experience. The most I expect to be able to do is to bear my testimony in spanish, and hope that people will understand me. I know things will work out, but I know I won't go out and immediately everyone in New York will want to be baptized by me. That won't happen until month two."

Our sons have always been easy-going, able to get along with pretty much anyone. If they don't, you can bet that it's not from lack of trying. Case in point, Shane wrote: My companion and I were having some trouble getting along. It seemed that no matter what we talked about, we would argue about the stupidest things. After a little while I tried to stop them, but he would usually try to carry it on for a little while longer. While I was in the dorm room taking my turn at taking care of Elder Burnham who'd had shoulder surgery, my comp, Elder Glover was in class. So I made his bed, ironed his shirts, and shined his shoes. Since then we've got along well. Charity never faileth, I suppose."

After he'd been in the MTC for about a week, I came up with a litttle theme for the next two years. SW. It's his initials, and, to me, it also stands for stripling warrior. So I sent him stripling warrior figures, some to keep and some to give away to his roommmates if he wants to, a stripling warrior tie tack, gummy soldiers, and a camo fleece throw to snuggle up with after a long day of doing battle for the Lord. This is Shane week, his first week in NY, so I'll post a couple more MTC highlights later. Please join us in praying for Elder Shane Washburn, and for all of our missionaries.