September 26, 2016

Agency is perhaps one of the most important things to understand. If we understand the importance of agency, maybe we will decide to use it a little better. 

The only thing that is truly ours that we have to give to God is our agency. Everything else came from him, we are just borrowing it. However, with agency comes opposing enticements. We have to be tempted in order to exercise agency, otherwise the only will we can choose to follow is God's will, making no choice but to follow him. 2 Nephi 2:16 says:

16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

D&C 29:39 puts it more clearly:

39 And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet

If we choose to give our will to Heavenly Father, he will make us much better than we could ever make of ourselves. But if we give our will to Satan then we may feel good for a bit, but ultimately will be nothing. He will just drag you down and then abandon you, just like he did Korihor (see Alma 30). 

In Alma 30:60 it says:

"...thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to he[ck]."

2 Nephi 2:27:

27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

..

Think of this, if there is no God there is no you. You would just be a body following the laws of nature like everything else. Everything has a specific job. An apple falls from a tree at the same velocity every time, the earth rotates around the sun in the same elliptical shape at the same speed every time, everything is determined. This is called determination theory. Determination theory is the theory that everything is pre-determined. That includes everything we do. The theory includes our brains saying that they follow a predictable pattern like everything else and there's nothing we can do to help it, however we have the illusion that we are the ones in control. You have no actual decision-making ability. But then if everything we perceive is an illusion, that means there's no real value in anything, including the ones you love, that would suggest that you nor anyone you know has no more value than a rock. Thank heavens that's not the case and determination theory is incorrect! If everything was pre-determined and there was nothing you could do to help it, why would we look both ways before we cross the road? Why would we play games and have vacations if all we are wired to do is survive?

Satan was the original one to want to take away our agency. He knows that if he can make us think that we have no agency, then he's winning. Satan has influence over our minds, which is why he can put thoughts of determination theory and nothing has value in the minds of atheist philosophers. But, if we give our hearts and mind to Heavenly Father, then we will know and feel that these things are true.

Monday:

We went out with a member to Olive Garden for dinner. The waiter handed me my water and I spilt it all over me, my shoes, my pants, and more importantly, my food. Leave it to me...

Tuesday:

You guys would be proud of me, I ate my first whole steak today! Other than that, just the same ol' stuff. Cancelled appointments, unsuccessful door-knocking, and people not showing up.

Wednesday:

We did some service. Then we went out to see if we could see people.

Thursday:

We had a zone meeting, then we had to move our stuff around because I went on exchange with another Elder. Then we went to another meeting. By that time it was 8:30 so we went to Walmart to talk to people.

Friday:

Well I may have had the single most embarrassing moment of my life. And no one judge me for this...We were in the church doing our weekly planning which takes a good 4 hours at least. So we decided to take a break for a couple minutes and lay down on the stage in the gym, the only other people in the church were other missionaries that we are all close with. So I kicked off my shoes because I don't like shoes and untucked my shirt. As we laid there Elder May did something and I yelled, "what'd you just do???" And he said he wiped a booger on me and I yelled, "NO YOU DIDNT!! I KNOW YOU DIDNT WIPE A BOOGER ON ME NOW TELL ME WHAT YOU DID!!" And guess who walked in right as I yelled that while we were laying down without shoes and an untucked shirt? The area 70. We got rebuked by his wife and then him (but they were nice about it and I'm sure understand we have teenage moments). Then they said they loved us and what we do...then as we walked out disappointed in our lives one of the other missionaries looked at us and said, "you look like you're guilty of something." So we hid ourselves in a small corner room to finish planning in shame. But then later that night we ran into each other again and we had a great conversation about stuff and he even gave me a hug so I don't feel awful anymore.

Saturday:

Service from 8am-5pm pretty much with a break for lunch. I was on splits with Elder Afleck and we were going to visit a less active when he suddenly felt we should turn on the street because he felt like we were supposed to be there for someone who was ready. Then someone walked out onto his driveway, Elder Afleck said, "That's him!" Then we taught him, gave him a Book of Mormon, got his number, had a good discussion and he said to come back tomorrow. Meanwhile my companion who was on splits with someone else committed one of our investigators to baptism.

Sunday:

Not much. Elder May had mad revelation to knock on the third floor left door of this complex as we rode by. Turns out the guy had talked to missionaries before and had a Book of Mormon. We were able to talk for a bit and get his number, he wanted us to come back.