Elder and Sister Bednar Visit the Ghana MTC

The anticipation has been growing all week for Elder and Sister Bednar's visit to the MTC!  

The day finally arrived!  We were all excited, nervous, and and a little anxious for this great blessing to have Elder Bednar come to the MTC today. 

The West Africa Area presidency and their wives accompanied them to the MTC!  

  President Brubaker was delighted to have this opportunity to have Elder Bednar speak to the missionaries.   

We had two hours with an apostle of the Lord!  It was an experience I will never forget! 

He told the missionaries that he was going to do something different today.  He said I don’t want you to take notes of what I say.  How many of you have taken notes and never look at them again?  It is so true!  I want you to write the things that the Holy Ghost teaches you today.

For the next hour he asked the missionaries to ask inspired questions.  He said why am I doing this?    Why don’t you just tell us what we need to know.  This is a cell phone.  It is an object that is acted upon.  You and I are sons and daughters of God.  We are given moral agency.  With agency we can act and exercise our agency with the help of the Holy Ghost.  That is why we are using this pattern.    As you teach your investigators, you are always inviting them to act.  You don’t persuade, convince, but the Holy Ghost persuades.  The Holy Ghost convinces, and teaches and our job is to be instruments through the Holy Ghost.  So this is the reason for the pattern we are using today.  Are you ready?

Missionaries listened intently to the responses.

Missionaries were anxious to ask questions prompted by the spirit.

It was a teaching moment for all of us to rely on the spirit, and to listen carefully......

Elder and Sister Tibbitts wrote the questions and responses of Elder Bednar.

One elder asked, how can we develop spiritual gifts we can use as we serve?

Answer:  Don't try to get spiritual gifts for yourself - then it's all about you.  As you are trustworthy, and obedient, those gifts will come through you for others' benefit.  

Question:  How can I better understand temple ordinances?

Answer:  Go into the temple and try to focus on what you feel, focus on the power of the Holy Ghost, more than what you see and hear.

Question:  How do we receive spiritual promptings as we divert from an outlined lesson plan?

Answer:  Quit worrying about it, it gets in the way of receiving promptings.  Think of Nephi who said I will go and do the things the Lord has commanded.  Just go and do your best and you will be guided.  As long as you are worthy.  Be a good boy or girl.  Sometimes you won't even know you're being guided, it will just be natural.  

Question:  What if you're called to one mission and then your call changes?

Answer:  You are called to serve as a missionary and then assigned to labor in an area.  You are not called to a place, but called to serve as a missionary.  The place isn't as important as the calling.  If there are visa problems, etc, and you have to go somewhere else, your calling is still the same - to serve as a missionary, just the place is different.  Elder Bednar is the only one who can change a calling to a different place and it's done by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.  

Question:  Agency

Answer: God knows us so well, just like a parent knows a child, that he knows what we will do but that doesn't mean he makes us do it.  We're the only ones of all God's creations that have agency - not animals, trees, etc. They don't have agency, only us.

If you feel like you're supposed to do something, just do it - follow the prompting, don't stress over it and it will happen.

Elder Vinson asked to share an example of the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.  The markets all used to be open on Sundays, but E. Vinson noticed they were mostly closed now.  He was told that after Ebola was gone from their country, as a thank you to God, the people all decided to close their markets on Sundays.  Many of them are Muslims but they followed suit.  They also wanted to give thanks for Ebola being gone.  

Question:  How better to personalize scripture study?

Don't just do a check it off scripture reading, like many of us do.  We put in the time, but we haven't really been IN the scriptures.  Go into the book, live it, take a question to the scriptures, let the words sink deep into your heart.  Be an agent when you pray - act on it, take something into the scriptures you're trying to learn about.  Have the scriptures be in you and a part of you.

Question:  How do we know when our faith is being tried?

He quoted Ether about receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.  Every day our faith is tried.  We need to do consistent things every day, quoted "Be not weary in well doing - out of small things comes that which is great."  Consistently doing small things every day is best.

At the end of the meeting, he talked about testimonies.  Sometimes our testimonies are casual, almost memorized.  We need to learn to bear pure testimony - it's not a talk or a story as some go on and on and tell about their travels, etc.  Your testimony is a spiritual exclamation point - brief, it's a declaration of what you know is to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost.  A testimony is not a talk.  

He then had each of the area authorities and their wives bear their testimonies, followed by his wife's and then his own.  It was very powerful.  

He then had all the missionaries come through and shake each of their hands. Kind of funny, they came with a security guy who quickly went to each of them after shaking everyone's hands, and gave them all a little squirt of hand sanitizer!  

A final thought that rang true to me was when he said, "Don't worry about being perfect - just be good."  

Sister Susan Bednar shared a beautiful message with the missionaries.
"If you ever get discouraged know the arms of heaven are wrapped around you.  They are the arms of our Heavenly Father.  He is there for you. "

She put her arm around Soeur Konan as she spoke to her and the other missionaries.   She gave her words of encouragement and told her she knew she would do a great job.

She said, "I also want to talk to you about your calling.  A Prophet of God has called you.  You will spend the next two years or 18 months inviting those you meet to come unto Christ.  When I read that I thought about the early days of the church.  Many years ago when the missionaries would leave from Salt Lake City, they would come back to Salt Lake City at the end of their missions, and report to the First Presidency.  I hope you will remember that.  You won’t have the opportunity to do that, but think everyday If I had the opportunity to report what am I thinking and what am I feeling to a member of the First Presidency.  Would I do a better job, would be a better missionary?  Would I serve with more love?  Would I try to have the spirit with me more?  How would it change my mission if I knew I would report to Elder Monson at the end of my mission.  That might make a difference in how we serve. "

 All sisters felt that she was talking to them personally.

Every missionary had the opportunity to shake Elder and Sister Bednar's hand!

The spirit was so strong!  Our testimonies were fortified and strengthened, and felt blessed for this tender mercy to be strengthened by the words and testimony of an apostle of God