Tuesday, September 13, 2016

When Life Gives You Lemons. . .

     Actually, I have never understood that phrase. I like lemons, and lemony things. Of course if we are talking about life lemons, they are pretty lame.

        Well, this week was really a tough one. We worked really hard and luckily for us, it is getting a lot cooler. However, this week, we didn't get to really teach anyone. We only got to have one lesson. At the beginning, we had a lot of lessons scheduled, then a lot of people were called into work, their family had a baby, you name it. It happened and made it so we couldn't meet. So we got to have a lot of time to try and find some people.  Unfortunately, this week, we didn't do much finding, we did a lot of looking. We talked to so many people, and had some great conversations about the gospel, the Book of Mormon, and they just wouldn't meet with us again.

        All that being said, this week was great and we saw many small miracles! We found that the key to these miracles is, you guessed it, obedience. Usually when we think of obedience, we think of rules and the commandments and such. However, this should not be the case!!! We have a great promise in D&C 130:21 (many people think this must be my favorite scripture, I use it a lot) that says, "And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." So if we think of obedience, we should think of blessings! You want to gain the blessing of feeling the spirit more, you should testify and share the gospel. You want to be more healthy, you should obey the Word of Wisdom, not just the part that everyone follows, all of it! If you want to have a better relationship with your family, try family home evening, family prayer, and family scripture study!

        So we tried obedience at the beginning of the week. And we have been studying the missionary handbook more and there are so many blessings we can gain from that little guide. Then we looked at what our missionary leaders have asked us to do and thought, have we been doing everything we can for that? NO! If we had then everything would already be done. So we worked a little harder on all the commandments, rules, procedures, and all the things we are asked to do. Although, we didn't see any huge miracles, we have felt the greater outpouring of the spirit that is promised throughout the scriptures.

        I'm sorry that this email is a lot shorter and a lot more preachy than my previous emails, but you can all deal with it. So we have worked on that this week and I invite all of you, no matter where you
are, what you are doing, and what you are supposed to be doing, to come unto Christ and be perfected in him! Work a little harder to be that person that you have the eternal potential to become! In the words of President Hinckley, "Now, my brethren and sisters, the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow. It is a time to be found keeping the commandments. It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain. It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another in all of our relationships. In other words, to become more Christlike.

        Let us do these things that the prophets have been asking us to do for as long as they have been prophets! In order to do this, we need faith, not a "perfect knowledge of things;...[but a] hope for things which are not seen, which are true." And now I say with Alma of old, "Now, as I said concerning faith--that it was not a perfect knowledge--even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge. But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." Try it, if you don't believe it, try it out, if nothing happens, go on your merry way, however, if something does happen, then
keep going, because then you can know that it is true. If we don't try it, then our "faith [having] not works, is dead being alone." So I challenge you to try it.

        Try not only the commandments that seem hard at first to people who don't know them, like giving up coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and tea; but try the little ones too. Those little commandments are what lay that foundations of faith in Christ so that "when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you."

     And so I now leave you with the final counsel of Alma to Helaman, "O my [family and friends], do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. And now, my [beloved family and friends], see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober. [And now], farewell.

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