Week 7

I love Austin's comment below about the little family at the temple. I can just envision this mom's enthusiasm and the little boy's awe as she introduced him to what should be among every little boy's biggest heroes. Now Austin understands more clearly why we try so hard to have the missionaries in our home every week. We aren't feeding them -- they are feeding us. If you want your sons and daughters to grow up with a desire to serve God on a full-time mission, may I suggest becoming more involved with the missionaries and the missionary effort now? It will instill in them a desire to share the gospel in later years. Thanks for your prayers and other support for Austin. It is knowing how many are cheering him on that spurs him to give his full effort each day. General Update:

Well, the Lord decided to throw some more curve balls my way this past week. I never knew how many various challenges I would have to face in the MTC. I guess I didn't know what to expect here in the first place.

The oldest Philippines district left this week, making my group the oldest district still in the MTC. I guess the only thing real exciting about that, is that means we only have about 2 1/2 more weeks left before we are out of here, and in the Philippines. I'm really excited to get out there because then hopefully I will be able to see some effects of all my work and study. In the MTC, we don't really get to see much of that besides our progress in the language. It's a little scary to think that these are my last 2 1/2 weeks in America for the next 22 months.

On the walk home from the temple today, a family was going on a walk and stopped to talk to my new companion and me. The dad asked if we would shake their sons hand and the mom said to her son "These are the missionaries!" The kids face lit up and he told me his name was John. It was pretty cool for me simply because it was one of the few times we've been able to stand out as actually representatives of Christ.

God bless.

Love, Elder Claiborne

Week 6

Elder Claiborne has had another interesting week at the MTC. In particular, he had two very powerful experiences this week that demonstrated to him personally the importance of following spiritual promptings. In each instance he acted on his prompting and his actions proved to be a tremendous blessing not only to him personally, but to others with whom he is working.

We add to Elder Claiborne's testimony that God speaks to His children through the Holy Ghost. However, it seems we often fail to recognize the promptings we are receiving. Perhaps the question should be not, "Does God speak to His children?" but "Are we listening?"

We are humbled and grateful this week for a Heavenly Father who is mindful of one young man striving to do His will and for a young man who has prepared himself to listen and act on direction from his Father.

August 12, 2011
General Update:

Well, another week down, full of challenges and uplifting moments. I wish I had exciting news about investigators, and how cool my mission is, but while I'm still in the MTC there is not a whole lot of excitement. The days feel like weeks, and they are all pretty similar; lots of studying, lots of reading, and lots of praying.

I love the nights when a letter or two comes in the mail, so for those of you who have been able to send them, thank you. I will be getting some pictures sent to Courtney for her to put on the blog she and my mom are working on. I'm moving forward and will continue to do so.

A dear friend told me this week that I should share my testimony of the Atonement with everyone I come in contact this week. It is impossible to express the extent of my gratitude for the Atonement of our Savior, especially in an email. I'll try and follow my advice though, and share a couple short thoughts. Just know that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of this world. I know it. The miracle of His life and sacrifice can penetrate even the most difficult struggles and rough times we will experience in this life. He is there. He lives. He loves us and is waiting for us to more fully turn our lives over to Him. Thanks to Jesus Christ, we have the ability to live with God again. Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us, and it is only by and through the infinite Atonement of Christ that any of it is possible.

God bless everyone, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Love,
-Elder Claiborne

Week 5

Here's Elder Claiborne's post from August 5, 2011:

General Update:

Alright, so I know my update from last week was not the most pleasant.. I probably should have done a better job of censoring my struggles, but I really couldn't do any better than I did. Anybody who is worried, or wondering what happened, don't worry about it. I'm in God's hands so I have to trust that He will take care of things. This week was not easy, in a lot of ways it was just as hard; however, I'll keep all that nonsense to myself because none of what I'm doing on my mission is about me. It's about God's children who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The language is coming faster than I ever imagined it would. Don't get me wrong, at times I feel like I can't say or understand a thing, but when I think about the progress I have been able to make, it really is a miracle. For 8 hours of each day, my district has chosen to speak zero English unless we get special permission to do so. We also have to teach every lesson in Tagalog. I may not be eloquent, and I'm sure everything I say is riddled with mistakes, but I am able to say/understand what I need to. Each Thursday night, we have TRC which is an activity where volunteers come and pretend to be investigators so we can teach in various situations. They changed the format however. Now, the volunteers are just themselves, and we have to teach them real lessons in Tagalog that will help them better come unto Christ. One of the people we taught this past time was a man named Oliver. Somehow, I was able to say everything I needed in Tagalog to without stopping to think. The lesson went great, and it impacted Oliver a lot. The spirit was strong in that lesson. It felt really good to be able to actually teach as a missionary, and actually impact someone's life for the better. It wasn't a role play like we do for most of the week.

I'm really starting to love reading the Book of Mormon every day, if you really get into the scriptures, they are amazing. I started reading the Book of Mormon when I got here, and I'm in the middle of Alma right now. It's great.

I have a great district here as well. We don't always agree on everything, but we love each other nonetheless. There is so much to learn from other people when you stop, pay attention, watch and listen. There is also so much we can all do to strengthen others. Some guys in my district do a great job remembering to have fun, some do a great job following the letter of the law at all times. I think as a missionary it is important to find a way to do both. That's what I'm trying to do.

Scripture chapter of the week is 2 Nephi 4. It is an amazing chapter. Read it. I miss everyone and love you all very much. Letters make life a lot easier around here, so please send them!

Love,

Elder Claiborne

Week 4

This was Austin's most difficult week so far. We could sense in his email how hard the adversary has been working on him. Yet there was no indication of anything but a continuing determination to serve God's children. Sometimes it is our deepest struggles that create the greatest opportunities for growth. We can sense Austin's growth even in these few short weeks. As he talked about what a struggle this week has been, Austin shared the following:

"Last night I read something that has made me do everything I can to change my attitude. . . In Preach My Gospel it says that 'the attitude you have toward your mission experience is a reflection of your love toward your Heavenly Father and His Son and your respect for the priesthood.' I know I love the Lord and His Son with all my heart. . . The only way to get through this life is through the grace of the Savior, Jesus Christ. So I will do everything in my power to show my love by having the best attitude toward my mission as possible."

Keep that focus, Elder. The adversary is no match for you AND your Savior.

Week 3

Here's an update from Elder Claiborne. Notice that he attends to the "most important" information first. lol. He might be serving a mission, but he is still a Claiborne. If anyone wants to respond to his not so subtle hint for packages and wants to know what to send, here's our response -- we have NO idea. Sorry. Good luck and thanks for thinking about him:

Hey everyone! I don't have much time to email (like always at the MTC!) but I'll try to fill everyone in on some general updates. First and foremost, the basketball courts finished getting refurnished, and opened up this past Monday! That gives me something more to look forward to each day. Also, no other district has been able to beat the team my district organized, or even get close for that matter. Swag. Something that hasn't opened up yet however, is the Temple. It sure would have been nice to go there these last couple weeks. It will be open for my next preparation day (P-day), which I'm really excited for. That will be a really peaceful, nice break from all the studying we do here each day, I can't wait. Speaking of studying, the language is crazy! It is coming though, slowly, but surely it is coming. The days here are very long, and very tightly scheduled. I've sure had a lot of ups and downs. More downs than ups to be honest... It's been rough on me so far, but I'm still pushing along. I know that the harder I work here in the MTC, the better I will be able to serve the people in the Philippines when I get there. My companion's name is Elder Lindsey. He's from West Virginia, and we get along really well. It is hard adjusting to having a companion all the time though. Oh, and by the way, packages will be very hard and expensive for me to receive when I'm in the Philippines, so if anyone would like to send me packages (like for my birthday on September 7th ;) then please make sure they get here well before September 5th... That is the day I fly to Manila. Oh yeah, and I found out I will be stopping in Hong Kong for a layover and you don't need a visa to leave the airport there, so I get to see Hong Kong for an hour or two. That's exciting. But yeah, please get any packages to me well before September 5th. I miss everyone and love you all very much! Keep me in your prayers, I can use them. I have everyone in mine. God bless.

Week 2

General Update from Elder Claiborne:

Sorry I haven't been able to get any updates out until now. It's pretty crazy in here and we don't really have any time to email, so this will be short. The MTC is a great place for learning and feeling the Spirit. I love that about it. The language is still pretty crazy but it's coming faster than I expected. I'm ahead of most guys in my class I think, but we all still have soooooo far to go. I have a lot of ups and downs while I'm in here emotionally.

I am allowed very little time for emails, so please send letters or use Dearelder.com to write me an email. They will print it and get it to me the same day or day after. We have a LOT more time for letters than we do for emails.