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Dear Family,
It is so good to hear from you. On occasion plenty of people don't realize that missionaries are real human beings. We are not baptizing machines that convert people. We are regular people just like you who are sharing the gospel full-time. It's this interesting thing behind the principle "God won't give us more than we can handle." Heavenly Father at the end of the day is still our father. He loves us and He wants the best for us. He won't give us more than we can handle, but we have the capacity to give ourselves more than we can handle. Complexity is a tool of the devil. It's just Satan that's all. We look at the church as this laundry list of things to do and think "how is this going to fit into my life?" This church is not a part of our lives, this church is our lives. We think of this so-called thing called 'life' as larger than Christ's Church. This is incorrect. Life is not larger than Christ's Church. Christ's Church is our life. You may be thinking "that is so easy for you to say, you are a missionary and you live and breath the gospel because that's all your time is filled with." This is false thinking. We covenant to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. Whatever you do, whether it be work or family time needs to contribute to the Kingdom of God. I would love to just write a talk dispelling myths in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We are not a social club. We are not the 'mormon club' as I have heard it termed. Thinking of the church this way comes from all of the extravagant ward parties where less-active, new members, and part-member families aren't even invited, the weak ward councils who only talk about activities, and the members who are afraid to tell other people they believe in the Church. The members who are afraid to tell other people they are a mormon. God will prune His vineyard (Jacob 5).
I don't know how many of you saw Brother Ridd's devotional talk last night. In Nova Scotia it starts at 9. It was amazing. He spoke of understanding real intent. It reminds me of Doctrine and Covenants 121:34-46 (By the way, it is not D n' C, it is Doctrine and Covenants). Plenty of people are called. Plenty of people are members of the church. Plenty of men hold the priesthood. Plenty of people take the sacrament and plenty of people wear the temple garment. Plenty of people do mormon things. However, how many of us actually partake of the sacrament. How many of us are worthy to actually hold the powers of heaven. How many of us actually are worthy to enter the temple. How many of us actually belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
Kobe Bryant (yes this is for all you Lakers fans out there). "Know your why." Do you actually believe that Christ died for your sins? Do you actually believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet? Do you actually believe the Book of Mormon is true? Do you actually believe that God is real? That there is a God? Many are called, but few are chosen. Those are just some of my thoughts about that talk. Will you all go and read it?
This past week I was stressed out. I have been making a few mistakes with over complicating things. In my studies I was all over the place. Studying from 10 minutes of this and 10 minutes of this and 10 minutes of this. It's just too crazy. I was also stressed out because I have been on my mission for five months and haven't taught a real accountable investigator or baptized anyone. I took this morning to examine my expectations about serving as a missionary in Atlantic Canada. This reminds me of a talk that Elder Bednar gave "That we might not shrink." He speaks of a man with cancer whom he associated with. He explains 'John, it's not about having enough faith to be healed. Do you have enough faith, not to be healed?' What it comes down to is having faith. It's not about having faith so that God will conform to our will. It's not about reading our Book of Mormon and expecting for our marriage to work out or our kids to stay active. It's not about paying our tithing and thinking that we'll get money in the mail. It's about none of that. It is believing that Christ COULD heal us if we had cancer. He COULD bless us with a happy family. It's believing that Christ CAN. So my conclusion. Do I have enough faith not to find anyone for two years? Do I have enough faith not to baptize anyone? What if it doesn't happen? That is okay. We didn't find anyone to teach this week, but we worked our guts out.
We had plenty of difficult conversations. I was reading through a talk by Elder Bednar (I need to shake his hand in my life) called 'And none shall offend them.' Unfortunately I missed the mark of his talk. His talk is pretty much a discourse on why being less-active is a CLM. My young and stupid brain thought 'okay all I've got to do is just lay down the hammer with the less-actives and then God will bless me.' God is not a vending machine where we put in scripture study and out plops a successful career. We just can't go after our vain ambitions.
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President Leavitt also came over on Friday to view our weekly planning. I am trying to add an audio clip of his visit so you can listen to that. I love President. He does a great job at reproving people and then showing an increase of love. There are people here to teach. We will find them. I just need to relax and not stress about the situation. I learnt a lot this week about just being empathetic towards everyone and understanding why people are the way they are. Even when we mess up God still loves us. It's like a teenager who wrecks a car, but still gets a roof over their head and food because the parents still love them. Okay, maybe that wouldn't happen, but you see my point.
It will happen. We just have to actually believe that Christ CAN make it happen. Do you actually believe in what this Church teaches? Why?
I love you all!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
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