MTC 3.27.12

Hey Family!

So this week was pretty sweet. I think the highlight was TRC on Saturday (TRC is my favorite). In case I never explained what it is, it is when we teach members (most are return thai missionaries) about a gospel principle or a simple lesson. It is so fun because we get to teach real people and apply the gospel to their lives. The volunteers are really fun too so we have a good time. But this past lesson was on receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon. We read in Alma 37:38-45. It is Alma teaching one of his sons and he compares the words of Christ to the Liahona. But he talks about how the Liahona directed them on a straight path to the promised land according to their faith and diligence. The scriptures can guide us to our own personal promised land too, we just have to have faith and diligently study them. A few weeks ago I was thinking about my own promised land and where/what it was. This week I realized I probably won't know until I get there. Lehi and his family didn't know where theirs was, so why should I expect to know where mine is. I think that is why Faith is so important. We don't know where God is leading us, but if we trust in Him and have Faith the scriptures will lead us to the right place.

Let's see...other stuff that happened this week: Elder Oaks spoke this week at the devotional. It was superb. I love being able to hear the words of the Apostles. They are so powerful. Which reminds me, the MTC choir is going to be singing in the Saturday afternoon session of conference. Before you get all excited I won't be there. To choose who got to go they had us fill out surveys where we listed our choir experience. I put on mine that I was companions with someone who was really talented and since we have lived together for 2 months I was positive some of his talent has rubbed off on me. Apparently they didn't appreciate the humor because I didn't get chosen...oh well.

Humorous story: I was giving the spiritual thought in class this week. We give them in thai, so when I introduced my scripture I accidentally said Mosiah sib ed (11) instead of yiisib ed (21). The verse I meant to have everyone turn to is Mosiah 21:14 which is about humility and turning to God for help but everyone turned to Mosiah 11:14 which is about riotous living with many wives and concubines. Brother Day just started laughing while I was sharing my thought because I was reading about humility but everyone else was reading about riotous living. #amateurhour #thathurtstheteam

Other humorous story: Elder Gibbons and I were teaching our investigator (Brother Day) about the law of chastity. E. Gibbons was trying to say how the procreative powers are sacred. Instead of saying Power which in thai is amnaad, he said kingdom which is anaacag. So our investigator thought we were telling him about this kingdom of procreation and how sacred it is. You can imagine the confusion. #classic

This week Brother Day told us we were all addicts. He said we were all addicted to speaking english and needed to repent and use the Atonement to break our addiction. He such an awesome teacher. He said it jokingly but then it made me realize how it is totally true. I am addicted but I can use the atonement to change and quit speaking english. Our lessons with our teachers are so sweet! We are going to miss them a bunch in Thailand.

Well family...I love you...a lot.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Hashtags:

#thingsimprayingfor: charity, humility, patience, MOTAB Dubstep remix.

#twoweeksleft

#Holleratyourboy

Sam & Riley

Sam was scootering around Provo and saw some missionaries by the Temple.
Of course he went to check them out and low and behold he say Riley.
Such cute brothers.

MTC 3.20.12

Hello.

The MTC is still awesome. Good news: I leave in 3 weeks...from yesterday.
CRAZY! We are all super stoked to get to Thailand, mainly so we can escape the
200 square yards we have been living in for the past 2 months. It is weird to
think we have spent the last 2 months going to the same 5 buildings over and
over again. I honestly haven't been to 85% of the buildings in the MTC. I
haven't even walked all the way around it. That just hit me a few days ago,
bizarre stuff.

So on Sunday, Elder Gibbons and I taught in priesthood (the branch
presidency had some meeting). We taught on the great apostasy. So instead of
just lecturing about the great apostasy we decided to play telephone. So we had
everyone move their chairs into a circle and had one person act as the
prophet/revelation. He would check the phrase to make sure it was correct every
3 people or so. With the prophet, the phrase stayed the exact same. The next
time we took the prophet away. We started with the thai phrase "farang gin
farang plaag may?'' and ended with the english phrase "the DDR is in my
kangaroo.'' It was pretty hilarious. Somehow it made the jump from thai to
english. But it worked out perfectly. The first couple people in the circle
knew the phrase and had been learning thai for 2 months so they were like
Christ's Apostles. But the 5th person was a nccngthai and didn't completely
understand the phrase so he represented the church leaders after the Apostles
died. It was a cool little activity that really showed the importance of
prophets and revelation. We also had a sweet discussion about how the apostasy
can apply to us personally. Sometimes we think that the great apostasy was just
this event in history but it is more than that. It teaches us that if we are
not careful, our testimonies can slowly be distorted and corrupted until we fall
away from the truth. If we don't do the simple things consistently, we may be
descending back down the hill and not even know it. It is like walking up a
down escalator. If you stop walking up, you start going down. We can't take a
spiritual break and rest, if we aren't moving forward, Satan is pulling us
backward. That was kind of deep...#holleratmymetaphor.

But the MTC is seriously awesome, we learn so much everyday. Thai is still
coming. Some days I feel like I understand a ton of what other people say...and
other days I feel like a 1st grader that wandered into a college chemistry class
#holleratmyalliteration.

Thanks for all the letters and packages. They are the best.

Much Love,
Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only

Hashtags:
#thingsIlove: Breakfast in the temple cafeteria #sublime
#realtalk When the MTC dryer doesn't dry my clothes...#PSYCH
Bro. Day "It's not who I am, it's what I do that defines me.'' #DroppinBatmanQuotesInClass
#Likeaboss
#petpeeve: When random elders from other branches come at my ties, trying to trade. #AboutToFlex #HeDoesntEvenGoHere

MTC 3.13.12

HEY!

How is life? What is going on in America? How bout the world? Are the pyramids still there?

The MTC rocks. This week flew by. It was pretty nuts. The new Thai district came in on the 7th. They are sweet. They are learning sooo fast! They are going to be experts for sure! One of them is named Elder Cox, he is way smart #hetalkslikeanessay. But they are all pretty cool.

So last night E. Gibbons and I taught Phii Beer. We were planning on teaching him about the plan of salvation and committing him to repent, but he had a question about why some people in church didn't take the sacrament. We spent the entire lesson explaining how some people didn't take the sacrament because they had not sufficiently repented so they weren't worthy, how bishops help us repent, and how repentance blesses our life. In the end we still were able commit him to repent. It was awesome! We had this great plan, but the Spirit had a better plan. I loved it. Earlier that day we learned about teaching people, not lessons. We learned that we need to listen to the investigator but also listen to the spirit and then follow the promptings we receive. And that is what we did! It was marvelous as grandpa would say. I realized that sometimes I rely on my own wisdom and strength too much. I need to turn to the Lord for guidance and follow the promptings of the spirit. Teaching the gospel is #lowkey amazing.

On a lighter note Story time: This morning some of the English elders in our branch left for Atlanta. Elder Gibbons wanted to say goodbye to them before they left...at 3:20 AM. Being his companion, I have to go with him. So at 3:20 his alarm goes off, he wakes up and gingerly steps off his top bunk onto mine sending earthquake-like tremors through my mattress. I laid there, pretending to be asleep. I was hoping E. Gibbons wouldn't have the courage to wake me up. He did. So we get up and go to the departing elders' room. They aren't there. At this point I am thinking, "Alright, back to bed!" But E. Gibbons thinks they are at the travel office and wants to go down say by to them there. So we get there and there is not an elder in sight. So E. Gibbons asks the travel office employees where they went. They tell us they left already. So we leave. E. Gibbons is sure they haven't left yet, so we turn around and go back just to be sure they aren't hiding the elders in the back room or something. So we ask the employees again if they left already. They say yes. E. Gibbons says, "I thought they weren't supposed to leave until 4." The travel guy looks at the clock and says "yeah they left 30 minutes ago." This is when E. Gibbons realizes he forgot to change is clock for daylight savings time. So we woke up at what we thought was 3 AM to say goodbye to elders who already left. It was grand...#psych. #GoodtimesintheMTC

Oh, Sunday morning we had the craziest thing happen. Elder Engle was brushing his teeth when his jaw locked open. He couldn't move it. I guess it started hurting real bad too. As he was running out the door to go to the front desk to head to the hospital E. Gibbons asked if he wanted a blessing. So E. Gibbons annointed, and I sealed it and gave him a blessing. It was hectic. So they peaced out right after and were gone until lunch. We were all freaking out, Elder Engle is probably the most loved elder in our district. Our district isn't complete without him. But it turns out, they were about to give him a shot to relax his muscles and fix his jaw when all of a sudden he could close it again. Just like that. Crazy huh?

Hashtags:

"I have this 6th sense where I can sense when people are upset." #Ithoughtthosewerecalledsocialskills #Icouldbewrong

Much love all of you.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

MTC 3.6.12

Hey family!

The MTC is great. Still having fun. Yesterday we learned about recognizing the Spirit in our teaching. We were taught to sometimes take a step back and pause for a bit and really listen for the Spirit. So last night, E. Gibbons and I were doing some practicing teaching with E. Simonsen and E. Kramer (of our twin district) and we challenged them to baptism. E. Kramer said yes, but E. Simonsen had some concerns, so we did what we learned that morning and paused, listened and then acted. It was supreme. The Spirit helped us resolve his concern completely. The Spirit is the true teacher, if it isn't in the lesson then nothing is getting accomplished. All E. Gibbons and I have to do is create an atmosphere where the Spirit can be present and let it work its magic. The Holy Ghost is the true converter.

So last night, during daily planning (after our sweet teaching experience) E. G. wanted to plan out every detail of our Pday. What time we'd get up, what time we'd do our laundry, what time we'd return to the room, what time we'd go back to put our clothes in the dryer, what time we'd leave for the temple, what time we'd come back from the temple, what time we'd start our emails, what time we'd finish our emails. It was ridiculous. He even wanted to plan what time he would write a letter to each person. I always thought the P in Pday was for Preparation...not Psycho. It was pretty entertaining.

Last wednesday (Feb. 29th) was the end of our goals. So that means we SYL'd (Speak Your Language) all day long. It was nuts. E. G. was asking to get some copies made in Thai and the copy girl was not ok with it. She told him if he wanted help he would have to speak english. E. G. refused. Her attitude changed from content to contempt faster than I've ever seen. In the end, she wouldn't copy his stuff for copyright reasons...it was hilarious.

On Sunday, Alex Boyer gave the fireside (He is one of the only black guys in motab and has a mormon message about him. check it out, it is pretty cool). But it was the funniest fireside we've had so far. He was hilarious. I have never heard so many black jokes in my life. "It scared the afro out of me" #myfavorite. It was really spiritual at the same time though. He has a way strong testimony and is passionate about the gospel.

So the Thai news this week is that they are very touchy people. Apparently, personal space doesn't exist. Bro. Jenkins said that people will rest their hands on your thigh in church meetings and stuff. He said people will come and rub your stomach while they talk to you. It will be pretty interesting. Oh, he also said they give a lot of butt slaps...#goodgame? Pretty much, it will be awesome and bizarre at the same time.

Thanks for the letters. They are the best! I love you tons...mucho tons.

Elder M. Riley Creer

The Only

Hashtags:

Apparently one of the dryers generates a near perfect C note #thingsmycomptellsme #Lifewithsomeoneobsessedwithmusic

Got the lowdown on Cutco this week...again #backwheniwassellingcutco #canttakeitanymore

(background info: our classroom has a one way mirror opposite our board so people can evaluate our teachers and stuff)

Our district leader stares at himself in the mirror when he talks to us #uhhyournotTHATgoodlooking

My comp is a hoarder #interventiontime

Sunday prelude number had 2 sisters singing and 2 sisters signing #couldntstopthinkingabouthappyhandsclub

MTC is a blast. Missionary work is awesome. #besttwoyears #ADRIAN