This photo shows a missionary wearing a jacket. Could it possibly be cold enough for a jacket??? It was only 89 degrees last week.
He also wasn't too impressed with my dollar store dart board I sent him. I think he should put his thinking skills to use and figure out a way to make it work.
December 10
This week was extremely uneventful. We tracted all week long and got zero new people to teach. We are switching it up this week and are gonna work way more with inactive members. The best part of the week was our lesson with Mauro and we have another lesson with them tonight, yay! We also had zone conference which is always fun. I also wrote a big ol Spititual Spiel that I've been writing all week if you feel like reading it. Like last week, we had lots of appointments fall through. That means we have from around 1:30 to 7 every day to do nothing but knock doors. We found zero people though! We were praying and working hard and nothing happened. Some weeks are like that, but you need to give everyone a chance. Even if nothing comes out of it, the important thing is that you talked to everyone you could.
We had an awesome lesson with Mauro Villamil this week. His wife has an awesome testimony and she kept saying how excited she was for her husband to get baptized and how excited she was to get their family sealed. We will put him on date tonight for sure. They are so splendiferously fantastic.
Zone conference was Tuesday, and it took all day. It's basically meetings for 6 hours straight, like intense seminary all day long. It's fun though because we get fed and we can talk to all the other missionaries. That's about it for the week though.
 |
| Gotta love Facebook and people who post photos for me. |
Remember
This Spiritual Spiel is a tribute to my mom😁. She always says that the most important word is remember. This is what she told me in an email a while back, “When we remember our feelings and thoughts and experiences, we are in a better place to strengthen our testimonies and help others who are experiencing similar things.” I love you mom😊. I've been pondering this word all week and wanted to write down my thoughts about it. Fyi, this will probably be really long, so sorry.
A quote by George Santayana says “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Remembering the things we have experienced and the things we have learned is how we grow and it's what makes us who we are. If we don't use past experiences to guide us today, we wont ever grow and we will make the same mistakes over and over.
Elder Holland gave a great talk at a BYU devotional called "Remember Lot's Wife." Listen to it if you haven't, but in it he gives this statement, “the past is to be learned from but not lived in.” Remember the past and learn from it, but don't long for it. Look for a better future, have faith that as you rely on the Savior’s atonement and always strive to be better, you will prosper and find “peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.” This comes from remembering and learning from the past and applying it to your future.
Mosiah 4:30 says:
“But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.”
The sacrament prayer, which most of us listen to each week, says “O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.”
Remember our Savior always, remember to keep his commandments. As we remember the past we learn. When we do wrong, we feel guilt and shame and sorrow, I know I feel terrible. Sometimes as we repent and change and strive to be better we block that out and try to forget. This doesn't help though. We don't want to live in the past, but we need to remember how those things we did made us feel. It will provide protection from sin to remember the way we felt. When temptation comes, if we remember the feelings that have come from sin in the past, it will be easier to resist. I love the story of Alma the Younger. He was a very unrighteous child and fought against the church. He repented and became one of the most valiant servants of the Lord. He didn't forget his early days though.
Alma 36:13-16 says:
“Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments. Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror. Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds. And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.”
He didn't block it out. He had retained this memory all these years.
He didn't just remember the bad though, he remembered the good that came from the gospel and the atonement.
Verses 17-21 say:
“And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world. Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.”
Remember the good that comes from repentance and the gospel. I love thinking about the last time I went to the temple and the spirit that I felt inside. When I have doubts, or I get discouraged, or someone we talk to says some anti or bring up something against the church, I remember the temple or a time that I gained a witness of this gospel’s truth. Remembering these moments helps to strengthen me during hard times. I don't think anyone could ever lose faith or hope or leave the church if they just remember. Remember the feelings that come as you do good. A lot of missionaries have had hard times because their investigators have encountered some anti material against the church. The best thing to do they say is to ask them how it made them feel. Peace only comes from the Holy Ghost. As we remember the times that we have felt the Holy Ghost our testimonies will be strengthened. As a missionary, it is my job to extend commitments to everyone I talk to, so my commitment is to find ways to remember Jesus Christ this Christmas season and to write down when you have felt the Holy Ghost and when you have seen God's hand in your lives. Sorry for boring all of you to death but I felt like I needed to write that.
Another great talk about remembering the Savior is "Always Remember Him" by Garrit W. Gong in the April 2016 General Conference.
No comments:
Post a Comment