My first Blog!

This past week has seen a lot of changes in the zone (stake).  We lost our 2 older districts on Monday, which makes my district the oldest one in our zone.   With the release of the other elders, we called new zone leaders which was Elder Adams and myself.  With Elder James being called as our new district leader.  I'm finding that I wish I could leave the MTC and get into the field,  While I am nowhere near ready to begin teaching in the Spanish language,    Not to say I'm not learning in the MTC, but that the day to day happening here are not a very good representation of how we will live once we are in the mission field.  Last week I also received a letter by accident saying that I was being sent to the Fresno  California Mission after being here for only a week.  I was freaking out, but I found that they had "tapped" me out in error, which I was super happy for at the time, but now I kinda wish it had been real.

On Tuesday we had the best devotional surprise with Elder Richard G. Scott coming to speak with us.  We were in the middle of an opening hymn when he walked in.  We of course stood up for his entrance, but it completely ruined the song, because we were all so happy to have an actual apostle come to speak with us.  He was a very direct but quiet speaker.  We could all easily hear him, but it had such power to it.  I can honestly say that never in all of our going to church, any of our current devotionals, have I ever felt the spirit so strongly as soon as he walked up to the podium.  He had not even begun to speak when the spirit hit all of us like a wall.  I just can't iterate enough how we could all just feel that we were in the presence of an apostle, a true apostle of Christ.  The spirit did not let us down either, the talk was inspired, he discussed our mission and the many promises that come from being worthy and set apart for our missions.  He was also one of the most humble men I have every seen.  His mannerisms and words also spoke very highly of his respect for the sisters serving in the mission field. He strongly emphasized the point "The Elders are somewhat expected and are helped to serve a mission, but for you Sisters. IT is A CHOICE!!"  He made sure that we all knew that it wasn't a responsibility of the sisters to serve missions but unlike us Elders, it was a far weightier choice than ours to serve.  There are many small things that he spoke of the highlight of the talk was when he finished discussing following promptings of the spirit.  As he finished he stated to us "I feel inspired at this moment to bestow upon each of you, especially those of you who will be serving in an area that requires you to learn a new language, an Apostolic Blessing."  As soon as he said this we all felt the power of this statement,  we have all had blessing from our fathers, grandfathers, home teachers, bishops and stake presidents.  But never have any of us been given a blessing from an apostle, and never an inspired blessing of the spirit.  This statement brought the spirit so powerfully that we all felt that this was a truly inspired moment, that he had felt the spirit tell him to bless us.  There are a few great things that he blessed us with, and I'll mail a copy of it once I finish writing it all down.  But no matter how well I write it, it won't have the same power, for as Moroni has said when compiling the book of Ether, "We are not made to be mighty in writing but mighty in deed and in word as we are prompted and supported by the spirit."

I love letters!!!!  Write me at justin.bandy@myldsmail.net.  Thank you so much for all the letters and cards and emails!  You are the greatest. 

Love you all and will talk to you next week,

Elder Justin Bandy

Manti Temple

Mi compañero Elder Adams

Provo Temple

Ancianos y Hermanos en el M T C