Simple and Powerful Hymns

Well, this past week has been amazing. I've felt the Spirit so strong. We teach lessons to fake investigators in the TRC and The Spirit was amazing when I retold the First Vision. I had it memorized in english, but I forgot it because I memorized it in Spanish. So we gave an english lesson, but parts of it in Spanish. It went really well though.

On Sunday we had a fireside, I don't remember who gave it but he had a position in the MTC. But before every fireside and devotional we sing 3 prelude songs, and then an opening hymn. And while we were singing the prelude songs it hit me how powerful hymns are, and I've gained a love for them. But every now and then we'll sing songs from the childrens hymn book. I think these songs are even more powerful than the ones from the hymn book. The lyrics to the children's songs are so simple, but powerful.

In class on Monday or Tuesday our teacher, Brother Penailillo, gave an awesome lesson. He was relating the Lion King to repentence. And how Scar gets him to run away from his life after Simba's dad dies, and he lives the Hakuna Matata life (Eat Drink and Be Merry). And Rafiki is like a bishop or prophet who tells him what he needs to do to get back. I think the most powerful part though is when Simba sees his dad in the clouds and Maufasa says "you've forgotten who I am" and Simba replies with "no I haven't" and Maufasa states "You've forgotten me, because you have forgotten who you are." That statement is very true with our Heavenly Father. As we stop doing the things we know are right, we get farther away from him. I think y'all should try watching the movie with this in mind.

One of my teachers got the flu, and then the person subbing for him got the swine flu, and a few people in our zone have the flu. But I'm still going strong. AND THEN, last night we had a devotional from Elder Bednar. He gave a great talk. It was about not worrying about a profound prompting from the Spirit to act, but to "be a good boy" and as you do the things that are right you'll be guided. He told a story about his General Conference talk. He had one prepared but 2 days before it was due for translation he woke up at 4 a.m. and wrote a new talk that he gave in confrence. All he knew is that he was talking after Elder Oaks and before Brother Stevenson. Oaks talked about serving others in temples, Bednar talked about Blessings of temples, and Stevenson talked about Temples in homes. And Monson closed telling everyone to go to the Temple. They all felt inspired to talk about temples which i think is amazing. Oh, and I went to the temple today and the I felt the Spirit so strong as I was a proxie for sealings. It was goood knowing the joy I could bring the people I was doing the work for.