I know some of you look at my emails and then give up trying to read the whole thing before you even start. So from now on I'll just point you to the coolest part right at the beginning, but there's much more for those who really wanna know what it's all about. Friday was cool, we had a miracle so check that out.
In case you haven't noticed, life doesn't go the way we want it to most of the time. Well, that would be too easy. We wouldn't grow. So Heavenly Father throws trials in our life to help us grow. We aren't here to just worship him. Many people believe that, but we were worshipping him before we were here on earth, so what's the point of sending us here? It's to grow, he's our father who loves us and wants us to become like him. No loving earthly father would want their kid to just sit at home their whole life and do whatever they want. So he sets regulations to help them grow into a man like him. Our heavenly father is the same way. And everyone knows something is coming Christian or not and that's the second coming of Christ. He is going to visit the Americas. This is why I believe there is so much Christianity in America, especially LDS. There are so many more LDS members, but particularly more so in America than anywhere else in the world.
Too many times people ask why trials still happen even though they're LDS and it's supposed to be the true church. Here's the answer... Firstly, just because we are Mormon doesn't mean we get a free ride. Look at Jesus, he had trials and temptation, so that alone should be enough reasoning. But there's more. Like I said, the second coming is near, and the lord has to prepare the way. D&C 112:24-25 says:
"24 Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord."
25 And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;
He is essentially weeding out the unfaithful to make a strong kingdom to support his son Jesus to rely on to carry out his work when he comes again. I especially like verse 25 where it says it will begin in His house. We are his house. Like I said, the second coming is coming and the way needs to be cleared. So we need to ask ourselves, when trials come, are we going to be the ones who prove to the Lord that we aren't capable of staying faithful and preparing the way for his son? I don't want to have to answer to that if I bailed out and gave up because things got hard. We look at Job who did all he was supposed to do. Then came the trial of his faith. He had everything taken away from him, his home, family, flocks, servants and health. He stayed with it and was blessed for it. Many of us falter on even one little thing. We feel like if something goes wrong than Heavenly Father doesn't truly love us so this religion is wrong. Again, he is trying to weed out the faithful to prepare the way and more importantly he is trying to weed out the bad in us so that we can be pure. In order to get pure diamond, first all the impurities need to be taken out. This involves lots of heat and pressure. The same applies to us. Trials are not comfortable. But we are being molded and prepared to meet God and become the greatest we can be. There is no improvement in comfort and no comfort in improving. We need to endure to the end and push through these trials along with submit our will and understand that there's a plan for us. My favorite scripture pertains to this. It is 2 Nephi 31:20. It says:
"20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."
This explains that if we keep the commandments and press forward that we will have eternal life. It doesn't promise worldly satisfaction in this life, but eternal life, meaning exaltation. The difference between existing forever and eternal life is eternal progression. Eternal life means happiness and growth forever, while immortality is just living in our current state forever. So basically, endure through your trials! There's a reason for them.
This is another random spiritual thought I had. I don't want to brag or be self-righteous but I've read my scriptures or something gospel related every single day for over two years, even if it was a sentence long. And I'm almost certain that if I hadn't done that along with prayer I wouldn't have stayed on the strait and narrow. Every time I would begin to veer off to the side a little bit I would come home and read and pray anyways. This kept me connected with Heavenly Father which I firmly believe kept me close enough to him on a daily basis that I wouldn't dare disregard him completely. I also know it helped because if I started veering off the slightest I would come home and read and pray and realize that I'm going off and I am being a hypocrite if I continue to go further off the path and then come home to read and pray. It also helped me know that no matter what, at the end of the day I was going to be talking to my Heavenly Father, did I want to talk to him knowing I'd just done something wrong or knowing that he's proud of my decisions? So read and pray every single day no matter what has happened and no matter how long, it will keep you where you're supposed to be.
Monday:
Well not much happened. I got a package from Kayli though. Receiving packages is an eventful thing for missionaries.
Tuesday:
I taught a 30 minute lesson at a meeting about how to begin teaching. It went well and I was scared because everyone in there had been on their missions for almost two years. Then we did service. Sometimes I feel like my name tag says "elder sanders free moving and lawn care." Because that's what it feels like, I just rode six miles on my bike to mow someone's lawn and trim the edges in the hot southern heat. I met someone in the ward who asked if I knew an alma mattson. He used to work with him, small world. And a side note, I keep being called a Jehova witness, it was funny at first but now it's getting annoying.
Wednesday:
I'm not going to disclose names, but we went to teach someone today and we took a member. They got to talking and the investigator was a big time drug dealer who brought in truckloads of all kinds of drugs from Mexico. He never was violent but was shot four times, watched two of his friends get killed, his uncle was killed and his best friend shot and robbed him. And the most amazing part is that he made it out, he decided he wanted a better life and left all the money and the lifestyle behind. The member we were with shared a part of his past that involved him selling drugs as well on a lesser extent. They were able to connect so well. A lot of times people with a past look at us like we've never made a mistake and for someone to be willing to share that helps with that so much. My companion and I disregarded our lesson and they talked the whole time and it was great. Members are important in the conversion process.
Thursday:
Not much. But we were teaching a lady on her driveway for about 10 or 15 minutes and the dog was literally barking the whole time. Then we asked if we could say a prayer and kinda just messing around asked the dog to stop. It didn't. So we were like k alright and the second we folded our arms and bowed our heads it stopped. The whole prayer it was silent and 30 seconds after we said amen it started barking again until we left. Coincidence? Maybe. But a cool one if that's the case
Friday:
while tracting we prayed to find someone who wants to listen to us and let us teach them. After the prayer I said, "I'm feeling a guy." Elder May said, "he's going to be 24." I said, "Yep and he's going to have facial hair." and he said, " And his name will be Michael." And I was like he's going to be wearing blue and white. So we went out and found a guy who was wearing white and blue and had facial hair. We were silently gasping and knew we better not mess this up. Then he said his name was Mike. Then he said he was 23! We taught him and are continuing to do so. To top it all off his friend FaceTimed him and was also interested! We taught him too. He said if he were to join any church it'd be the Mormons because they seem the most Christlike. So there we are.
Saturday:
Well I'm 19 now. This is my first birthday away from home and surprisingly was tied with 16th birthday as my favorite. My companion elder may made a candlelit romantically set up breakfast for us. And it was legit. He also paid two other elders who were coming to pick us up to stop by Krispy Kreme and get donuts. He's awesome. And Kayli, oh my goodness, she outdid herself. I then opened her package that she sent me for my birthday and whew, that girl, she knows how to get to my heart. I won't get into details but just know, she's amazing. I was sad because I was looking in the mail twice a day for my mom's package but never got it so I thought it was late. But THEN we went to a family's house for dinner and they yelled happy birthday and I was like wait, how do you know that? And they surprised me with the package my mom had sent for me to them (this lady sent my mom pictures of me when I was new and they talked for a bit and so she had my package sent to their house so I could get it in time). They also provided treats. And when I opened my package I was like HOLY COW! She outdid herself twice! I won't get into the details of that either, but I have the best missionary mom ever. My companion said at the end of the day that he's never heard of a missionary getting that much love for a birthday. So I felt loved.
Sunday:
we taught some Muslims today and had a great conversation and sharing our beliefs. I honestly think they are one of the closest religions to truth out there, more than most Christian churches even. We actually have lots of similarities. And these guys are the only people who respected us and wanted to have an adult conversation as much as we respect them. They even made us dinner! They had great countenances and were loving and supportive and acted on their faith, a lot like us, of course they act on it differently. Anyways, it was eye-opening, my respect for Muslims tripled. I feel bad that Americans shun them so much. The reason I believe they are closer than most religions is because it's one of the only ones that hasn't changed and branched off over the millenniums, they have stayed the same, so they were established closer to Christ's time and aren't adapting to worldly wants or hiring people for money. There's other things that I've heard about their beliefs that correlate with our beliefs but I won't quote them because I'm not entirely sure about the beliefs on our end, it's more deep doctrine that I don't want to get into and I'm not totally sure and don't want anyone to take my words for truth. But it's interesting to see how closely related they are.
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