so guess whos the new seminary teacher here in apatzingan?? yes, shocking as it may be haha i'm starting to teach the seminary class here haha pretty cool huh. its funny and kind of ironic too i think, the elder that hardly ever attended seminary is now teaching it haha. i personally think its rad because i feel like the Lord is kind of giving me a second chance to learn all this stuff seeing as how i didnt take advantage of it in my youth. and especially since this year its the new testament so we get to learn about the life and teachings of Christ and his apostles, what better way to learn how to become a better missionary and person than to learn from the man who did it perfectly!
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| look at what i found in the chapel haha |
i actually wanted to touch on this note too, just for all the youth out there, and especially for my younger brother connor. yes connor, im going all missionary on you right now, sorry bud but i have to haha. if you're not taking advantage of the blessing you have to be able to attend seminary, in all honesty you're just short changing yourself. and this is coming from the kid who never went, so yes i do know what i'm talking about haha.
in the class i teach there is a normal attendance of about 3-5 kids, and these are kids that sacrifice time they could spend working to help there families to attend seminary. and really you can see the blessings from it. there is one young man in the class who elder nielson and i are actually helping him prepare for a mission. he asked me what some of the most important things he can do to prepare for a mission and i told him three things, attend seminary, go on visits with the full time missionaries, and go to church and take the sacrament each sunday. and these three things apply to everyone...wherever you are in the world.
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| congrats to elder ontiveros for his first baptism in the mission! |
and for you connor i'm gonna add a fourth...go to mission prep...there is not a mission prep class here yet but i'm working on establishing one here. these 4 things really are all you need. seminary is important for a few reasons i've come to realize. one of them being is that it gets you into the habit of waking up early and being attentive enough to study the scriptures and learn something. because yes you can take a lot more out of seminary than just learning and really growing in your testimony of the scriptures haha waking up early being one of them. also going out on lessons with the full time elders is something that helps you get into the groove of teaching people, because most 19 yr olds don't have much experience with teaching people, especially people you've only known for a few days or minutes even. but its always good because you can learn how to teach and also missionaries always love a member to come along to lessons and put in a nice testimony :)
going to church and taking the sacrament are things that are sometimes looked over in preparation for a mission. but really there is one thing that has come to be the most important for me, and this is something that applies to every member of the church, each time we take the sacrament we renew an extremely important covenant with our Heavenly Father and we receive a renewed access to His spirit to accompany us during the week. and its extremely hard to live without the companionship of that Spirit, and our Father in Heaven has made the necessary medios so that we can have that extra help in our lives. these are the things that i told the young man in my ward here to do and hes doing them and its really having an effect. and i know it can work for all of you. especially you connor. you seriously are such a rad kid, all the time i think of you being a missionary, and especially how your personality is going to be such a great tool you'll have. however you have to accompany that great personality, with other talents that you have. you're a really smart kid, if you applied your ability to beat any video game into studying the gospel...you will be an amazing missionary. and please don't just take this as missionary dennis getting after you or thinking that i'm just trying to give you a hard time. these are things that i look back on and regret that i never did as much as i could have, and i don't want you to do the same.
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| bautismo |
do everything you can. the Lord has invested a lot into you and has so many great things that He needs for you to do in this life. and this is something that applies to every young man out there, not just my younger brother connor. and again this is not an elder maccarthy getting after the young men email...this is an elder maccarthy trying to help you all in whatever way i can. because these really are the most important two years of your life and you need to get everything out of them that you can. i went off on a bit of a tangent in this email with that haha and there were a couple other things i wanted to tell you bet they'll have to wait till next week haha. and congrats nathan on your mission call...go show those people in columbus ohio whats up! and enjoy the ward activity this weekend. anyways hope everything is going good for you folks back in the states and keep the faith and stay rad!!!
much love from mexico,
Elder Maccarthy
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