Elder Hilliards last week at the MTC

Last day with brother packer.  The sister is Sister Tuilotolava

Zone picture

Well, this has been a pretty good week.  We said goodbye to all of our usual teachers already.  They both had plans for thanksgiving.  Brother Packer wan't very emotional about it, we even sang "till we meet".  Brother Birrell on the other hand.  He wouldn't let us sing "till we meet" and his eyes were still a little watery.  I'm glad to have had such great teachers.  The next major event wan't until yesterday.  Thanksgiving.  It was a good day.  After breakfast, we started off the day with a devotional.  And our speaker was Dallin H. Oaks.  That was pretty cool in and of itself but then a bunch of his kids and grand-kids performed during the devotional.  There was a piano, 3 violins, a couple of violas, 2 cellos, and a classical guitar all playing at once.  One of the violinists, (I'm guessing his daughter) was freaking amazing.  This particular family was the Oaks-Baker family.  They played Love is Spoken Here, and a few other songs.  Then Dallin H. Oaks talk was about the importance of music to the work of the Lord.  It was such a great devotional.  After the devotional we had a devotional review, which is pretty normal except we got our whole zone together for one big devotional this time.  The spirit was so strong hearing everyone share their and experience and what they are thankful for.

After this, we had lunch.  This was the best lunch I've had in the MTC.  Because it was thanksgiving dinner.  They gave us real turkey, that was actually cooked.  They gave us real mashed potatoes and real stuffing.  I had 3 plates of food it was so good, and refreshing and REAL.  But I think the biggest thing, and my favorite thing was that because we were the "Polynesian" branch, we got a couple of real Polynesian foods.  We got this weird drink that was made with oranges and it had quite a bit of the orange in it, but it tasted pretty good.  The other thing we had was a fresh roll covered in coconut cream.  That was one of the best desserts I have ever had.  After that we had another devotional that pretty much everyone slept through because of the food.  All I really remember was that it was about the humanitarian work in the church and that I have already seen most of the videos.

Then we watched 17 miracles.  That movie was actually really good.  The actors weren't very cheesy, and the stories were well told.  The spirit was strong.  And I really loved hearing the song at the end "Oh Savior, Redeemer of My Soul", sung by my first seminary teacher, in fact, I think this was the last song he sang to us before we changed teachers.  It was such a great experience I don't think I will ever forget how I felt during that movie.  Once we finished up with that movie, we did some service.  We made meal bags that would be sent to hungry kids and families around the world. At the end of the service we made more than 350,000 meals.  The most that the MTC has ever done at Thanksgiving.  I'm so thankful to have been a part of it.

Then after this we went to one final devotional.  We had a talent show and a bunch of stuff like that.  The talent show was just a small section, first was someone performing on the organ.  Next was a Yodeler who was actually really good despite how annoying yodeling is.  After that was rubber ducky (why?).  Then a jazz piano jam which was okay.  And then, our whole zone sang.  We sang love is spoken here.  The spirit was so strong and a bunch of people came up to us at the end to say that ours was the best act.  But was really cool happened at the end of this final devotional.  Our closing hymn was "I believe in Christ".  We all started the song sitting down, but we all ended the song standing up.  The spirit was incredibly strong.

Before I end this email I want to leave you with something I learned from the devotional on Tuesday.  In the talk, Lion King was quoted.  "Simba, you have forgotten who you are and so you have forgotten me.  Simba, remember who you are".

I love this quote and it really hit me hard.

Well that is all I have to say for now.  Talk to you all tomorrow.  

Love

Elder Hilliard

PS Remember who you are

Garrick's  zone

 Elder Yuan

 His Badge

Here he is with his companion and some others in his district.

Another week in the MTC for Elder Hilliard, really not much to report.  Not mentioned before was the fact that Elder Hilliard actually sang in a choir and for Neal A. Anderson. He got his first hair cut in the MTC and it looks pretty good.