Yet another week passes me by in the MTC, where does all the time go?! I hope you are all doing well.

I don't know if I mentioned last week, but I had the opportunity last Wednesday to be a host missionary for the newbies that were coming in. It was pretty fun cause you get to watch all of them hug and then take pictures while your saying, "Okay hurry up it's time to go." It is a sad moment when it actually happens to you, but when it's all over you just laugh about it. It was a good time since June 3rd when I came in was the first day that they started doing the "drop off" service, and I think they will be doing that from now on. But anyways, I get the opportunity to do that again this Wednesday!

Other than that, things have been pretty calm and normal around here. I only have 2weeks left in the MTC! Then it's goodbye America hello Honduras. One of the teachers explained the weather in Honduras to be like this: Imagine sitting in a Black car in the middle of August in Arizona with no air conditioning, then add on the humidity of Florida, and that is what it will be like most of the time. Hmm...sounds great Haha I'm not one for heat but let me tell ya I will be sooner or later.

I have been reading a whole ton of the Book of Mormon lately, and it has really increased my testimony of being out here on a mission. One of my favorite chapters is Alma 5, look it up and highlight all of the questions Alma asks! I don't have any good referral center stories this week, I did talk to one person named Alex who's brother had recently died. His pastor and family were telling him several different things about where he is or will end up, and he asked me to tell him where his brother was. I told him all about the Plan of Salvation and why it was so important in our lives, and invited him to pray about what I had told him. He said he would definitely do it, because it couldn't hurt right?

The fireside that we had on Sunday night was by a director here in the MTC named Richard I. Heaton, it was fantastic. He spoke about how important it is for the investigator to pray. We went through the entire Book of Mormon and looked at examples from almost every book at how the prophets encourage them to pray. It is true though, no matter how persuasive I am, no matter how much I make the doctrine of the Mormon church sound appealing to them, it doesn't matter. We are not doing this work just to increase our membership. We are doing this in order to INVITE others to come unto Christ by HELPING them receive the restored gospel. The investigators verbs are the only thing that is different. They are to COME unto Christ by RECEIVING the restored gospel. We cannot fully accomplish our purpose unless we invite them to pray, and gain a full testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon for themselves.

Thank you all for your prayers and support, I feel it every day when I start to feel down. I know that I have the support of all my family and friends out here, and "I am doing a great work, and cannot come down" -Dieter F. Uchdorf

Love,
Elder Tinkham