Week 2 at the MTC (8/6/2015)

Elder Winegar and companion Elder Messick - MTC

Hey everyone,
Just writing to let you know that my week was better than yours. Last week I told you how Kyle Collinsworth's dad was in our branch presidency, and that I was hoping Kyle would come and give a devotional sometime before we left the MTC. It came a lot sooner than I expected, he showed up late Thursday night for a surprise devotional. We were told by our senpai (older missionaries in our district) during dinner to go right away to the devotional, and not to tell anyone. We rushed over as fast as we could, and heard most of his devotional.
One of the things he said that really struck me was that here in the mission field, God is the coach of this team. Unlike mortal coaches (yes, even Greg Popovich), whatever play He calls will work every time, no matter what. We must put our faith in Him, and be willing to act on whatever promptings He gives us. Afterwards, I got to talk to him a little, and I even got a picture with him (again, I will send pictures once I have an SD card reader).
While it was awesome to hear from Kyle, he wasn't even the best speaker we heard that week. For our Sunday night devotional, we were able to hear from Sheri Dew (I'm guessing mom will be the only person to know who she is, but she is the owner of Deseret Book). She was an amazing speaker. My favorite part of her talk was when she challenged us to gain a greater understanding of Jesus Christ as our Savior and redeemer. She asked "Are you willing to engage in a spiritual wrestling" to know if these things are true? If we truly have a desire to know more about this gospel, and we express this desire to Heavenly Father, He will bless us with answers.
Again, Sheri Dew was an awesome speaker, but still not the best. On Tuesday night, we were told to get to the devotional early and to find a good seat. We weren't told who would be speaking, but we were given certain instructions if it just "happened" to be an apostle. When the meeting was about to start, President Russel M. Nelson walked into the room! He gave an amazing talk about how we all need to become living epistles of God, shining bright for everyone to see how the gospel has blessed our lives. He told us that to have a true witness of the gospel, we must have the doctrine of Christ written in our hearts. Just from hearing him speak, I knew that he is a true apostle of God, and that he spoke with the spirit.
Other than that, my week has been pretty uneventful. I feel like I'm adjusting to life in the MTC, and I'm so grateful to be able to feel the spirit so frequently throughout my time here. I love to read all of your e-mails, keep them coming. Hope everyone is doing well!
-Elder Winegar