Character of Christ

Savoring our last week in the Provo MTC

While here in the MTC, we had the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the wonderful talk “Character of Christ” given by Elder David A. Bednar from several years ago. Elder Bednar linked Christ’s character to the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice.  Elder Bednar said, “Jesus’ character necessarily underwrote His remarkable atonement. Without Jesus’ sublime character there could have been no sublime atonement! His character is such that He ‘[suffered] temptations of every kind’ (Alma 7:11), yet He gave temptations ‘no heed’ (Doctrine and Covenants 20:22).” 

He continued by saying that one of the greatest indicators of righteous character “is the capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to other people who are experiencing the very challenge or adversity that is most immediately and forcefully pressing upon us,” said Elder Bednar. “Character is revealed, for example, in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of others when we are hungry; and in the power to reach out and extend compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of our own spiritual distress. Therefore, character is demonstrated by looking, turning, and reaching outward when the instinctive response of the natural man in each of us is to turn inward and to be selfish and self-absorbed.”

We saw two inspirational examples of the Character of Christ this past week. The first was with the Jensens in our District from week 1. Brother Jensen got sick enough that they were sent home to finish their MTC training on Zoom. However, even during their health trials and premature departure, Sister Jensen turned outward to serve us by taking the time to make a game that we can use with our YSA in Italy, and then mailing the package to us before our flight tomorrow. The second example is with the Miles, which are the couple in Italy that we will be replacing. Here they are getting ready to pack up and return to their family, and they prepared many documents detailing our calling, sent videos of how to access our apartment, and then sent a message saying we would probably be hungry so they stocked the refrigerator with some essentials. They show us through their actions how to extend compassion.

Invitation for the week: Watch the YouTube video of Elder Bednar’s talk on the Character of Christ The Character of Christ - by Elder David A. Bednar

We had the opportunity to teach our teachers about personal revelation of first Knowing and then Doing, and also Doing and then Knowing

Our 2nd week District with our powerful teacher Sister Miriam Zeidner (Clockwise above us The Ballards, Woolstons, and Grovers)

Meeting Elder Wilson who's dad served in Italy with us 32 years ago

Our complete 1st week District (The Neills, Jensens, Bronx Thomas, and the Knudsens)

This is a giant mural of the young Joseph Smith pondering all he had been taught, and Steve putting himself in the photo 

Steve and I learning about fun activities where we can learn about family history for free at https://www.familysearch.org/discovery/