First, I will only share one thing of the non-spiritual sort.
Our residence is a glorious thing to behold!!! But seriously, everyone can tell we've been here for six weeks.
So here's what is so great about our room:
1. We have P-day eve "parties" every tuesday night. they last about 15 min between class and personal devotional/bedtime. We have a tradition where everyone in the hall comes over, we break out some chips and salsa, and all of the rest of the food, and just have a blast.
2. We have enough food to feed helaman's army. So that's pretty great.
3. we have so many decorations!! we have little bowling pins that go on the bed frames of the bunks that add color to our room. We have a mini christmas tree, and lots of little posters/drawings/paintings/
4. We have two basketball hoops, one is glow in the dark.
5. Speaking of glow in the dark, we have tons of glow sticks that elder batey got and a bunch of glowy stars on the wall.
6. Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling. They glow and have that super sweet flicker. So it feels like pirates of the caribbean when we turn the lights off.
So our room is legit. I'll send a picture of last night's p-day-eve celebration.
Now on to the best part.
I'm pretty sure I've said it before but the spirit here is unbelievable. Last night we had our last devotional at the Marriot center. We've been having them there because not all of the missionaries can fit in 19M so we get to walk over there. But now the number of incoming missionaries is decreasing again so we are moving back to the campus for those.
We went out with a bang for our last meeting there. For the choir piece we sang "nearer, My God, To Thee"... :)
I'm getting teary eyed just typing that. :)
It was amazing. I had never known the story behind the hymn and what some of the lines in it meant. But even in my ignorance I could feel a special power coming from that hymn. Now that I know what it all means I can't help but cry when we sing. I won't include an explanation of the hymn here or now, but you should find it. It is the story of Jacob when he had to run away from home.
I gained a powerful testimony of how we can come closer to God especially through our hardest trials while learning this hymn. I really do know that "so by my woes I'd be nearer my God to thee".
Such power and strength comes to me when I sing. On sunday we went to a film of an Elder Holland devotional. He told me something along the lines of, "when you're having trouble and things are difficult, bring music into your life". I love Elder Holland. I always feel like he's speaking to ME. He also said something I want to share: "you are engaged in the saving of a human soul. The most important thing in the universe."
And I also want to share with you another quote. This one is from Elder Klein. "The only difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is whether you see it or not."
It's so amazing being always able to associate with such powerful people. They all teach me so much each day.
I wish I had more time to speak to you. But I'm not the quickest typer and I only get an hour. But take my word for it that if I got all the time I needed to tell you all what the life of a missionary is like, you would be getting a short novel every week. Because there are so many little tender mercies everywhere. I really am struggling just to portray this idea, but this is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, and I really can't imagine my life without this experience, and I'm only 6 weeks in! I feel so blessed to be serving a mission and I really can't express my happiness right now.
- Elder Osborn
PS: I have a little idea. If any of you want to read along with me in my scripture study I will be studying 2 Nephi 21. I'll be starting there tomorrow. I really don't know how much study I'll get every day or throughout the week, but I just thought that this could be a cool little thing if you want to read with me.
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