Elder Bednar!!!!

November 25, 2017

Friends and family,

Another awesome week! We're all really excited to leave on Monday so next my email will be from Spain! Today is a super busy day so sorry for the short email! Elder Bednar (one of the Twelve Apostles) came to the MTC and talked about lots of cool stuff. One thing that he said that stood out to me was that testimony is what we believe, but conversion is when we consistently act on testimony. In the Bible, James says "By works a man is justified, and not by faith only" (James 2:24). In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Nephi states that "we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23). Let us remember to try our hardest to live by what we believe.

I love you all!
Elder Coleman

TB pt2!!!

November 18, 2017

Friends and Family,

Another great week! We got our travel documents yesterday so everyone is really excited about that. I'll fly straight from Salt Lake to Amsterdam and then to Spain on November 28^th so that'll be super fun! It's crazy that I only have one week left in the MTC! ALSO Monday the MTC brought Taco Bell which was amazing. It's the little things hahaha.

For the past few weeks Elder Christie and I have been teaching a man named Jaime. We've learned so much from teaching him and he's just an awesome guy! Super sad that Thursday was our last lesson with him, but that's mission life!

I've been thinking a lot about the names by which Christ is called. My favorite for the week is The Great Physician. The Book of Mormon tells the story of Christ appearing to people in ancient America after His resurrection. Not only does He physically heal the people (in 3 Nephi 17), but He also spiritually heals them by giving them His gospel and helping them to live it. I know Christ can heal us, because He has healed me. If you want to read the whole story, go to mormon.org/BookOfMormon and get a free book!!!

I love you all!
Elder Coleman

TB Though

November 11, 2017

Friends and Family,

This week flew by for Elder Christie and I! As per usual, lots of class, lots of studying, lots of teaching. The highlight of this week was definitely driving to Orem to pick up my visa, and finding out that there was a TACO BELL NEXT DOOR!!! Many of you are aware of my obsession with TB so let's just say there was a grand feast. President Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to us this week which was so so so cool. He talked about how God will always forgive those who try to change and ask for his forgiveness.

Funny moment of the week is some other elders were teaching this guy from Chile, and one of them tried to make a joke to him, but he literally just stared at the elder and said "when you're learning a language, first you learn to speak, then you learn to read, then you learn to write, and LAST you learn to make jokes." Everyone just died laughing because of how true that is. Also, fam sent me this huge thing of soda, so we made the most redneck cooler out of tin foil from Chick-fil-a wrappers and some boxes. The things we do for cold soda!!

This week, I've been thinking a lot about this verse from Isaiah: "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee" (Isaiah 54:10). God is saying that the mountains will literally move and hills will disappear before he breaks his promise of kindness and peace unto those that seek him (See John 14:16-18, 27; Matt 11:28-30; Isaiah 49:13-16; Mosiah 15:18-19; Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 51:11-16; Isaiah 52:9-10; Isaiah 54:7-8; Isaiah 41:10, 13; Isaiah 40:28-31). God is good, and he will always comfort us if we but ask!!

Elder Coleman