Letters From The Field – Elder Tanner Bennett’s Mission Blog – Week 8

Well, I am officially beginning my second-to-last full week here at the MTC.  I have no words to say about this other than the silent screaming in my head of excitement. The MTC is unlike any place I have ever been on earth. Aside from the temple, I have never felt more peace, more understanding, and more love for our Savior, Jesus Christ and His great Atoning Sacrifice. I have seen the effects of the Gift of Tongues on myself and my entire district, I have seen and received incredible blessings and power through the Book of Mormon, I have grown in my testimony, I have changed in ways I never expected to, and I have fallen absolutely in love with a people I have never met.

The MTC does this to you, service does this to you. Learning and developing Christ-like attributes will do this to you, and I know that it is through our love for God and all mankind that we can improve not only ourselves, but the whole world. I invite all of you to take more time this week to study the Book of Mormon. We have been told to “feast upon the words of Christ.” President Nelson in his last conference address said that as he worked to study the Book of Mormon more, he saw an increase of knowledge, personal revelation and blessings. I know that this is true, and through the Book of Mormon, and coming to know our Savior, we can know the mysteries of God and His will for us.

Now for this week:

This week has been truly unique. I was invited unexpectedly to join a choir that was made for the June 1st priesthood celebration broadcast. I say unexpectedly because I had no idea this was happening until the music director felt that they didn’t have a powerful enough bass section. So I got called out of my study time by my zone leaders, and went to record with the Choir. It was a really cool experience, the photography director was a convert who found the gospel after being struck by lightning 3 times, and then had this amazing revelation that he needed to find and join the church. It was an amazing story.

After this, a sister came up to me and asked if I would be able to accompany her to perform “Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd.” I was asked because they needed someone to transpose the piece from G major (1 #) to C# major (7#’s, that’s all of them) and play it for the Sunday Devotional and for the President’s Dinner on Tuesday. However, as I was arranging it with this Sister, who has one of the cleanest voices I have ever heard, truly beautiful, we both had the prompting we needed to add more to the piece. We prayed together and the prompting came unanimously that we were supposed to add “Armies of Helaman” after the 3rd verse in place of the Chorus. It was amazing. Performing it on Sunday was the 2nd most spiritual experience I have ever had performing music (The 1st being “come thou fount” while in Germany). It was truly incredible.

Speaking of Sunday, I also got to play the organ! That was fun. I like the Organ. People were really confused because missionaries almost never get to play the Organ, so that was neat.

Another cool thing was we got to preview the release of the new BOOK OF MORMON VIDEOS. It looks SO AMAZING. I can’t wait to watch them all. Much better than netflix! 😉

This week has been exhausting, but I feel so much strength in my testimony and in the work I am doing. I can’t wait to serve the People of Taiwan. OH! Also, cool note, we met the OLD TAIWAN TAICHUNG MISSION PRESIDENT AT THE TEMPLE TODAY! That was really cool. We spoke in Mandarin, solid dude.

Anyways, it has been an amazing week, and I hope to hear from all of you! Also, CONGRATS TO MY BROTHER WHO IS NOW MARRIED! YAY!!!! And hello to my first ever sister, Shantelle.

I love you all a whole lot!

Best wishes from the MTC,

Elder Bennett

莨长老

我爱你们！加油！