Enter In

What will it be like when we will be judged of our Heavenly Father? Is that an experience we should eagerly anticipate? Or is it a day of dread? Should we try and have all the joy that we can possibly have before that day when it all ends? I had several very enlightening experiences this past week that taught me important principles of being prepared for days of reckoning. A few months ago our mission decided to take a tour of the white house together. The process takes time and effort so few missionaries take the opportunity to take a tour there before their missions are over. I was so excited to be able to see part of the home where the leader of this great country resides. Many world changing and historical decisions have been made on those grounds, and I have a sense of reverence for the position of the President of the United States. 

We were told to submit our personal information for a background check to get security clearance to take the tour. When I got that email we were in the middle of preparing a report, so I quickly filled out the information and sent it off without thinking twice about it. As the day of the tour drew closer, I more eagerly anticipated this great opportunity to tour the white house and take a mission picture on the front lawn. Then my hopes were shattered. A list of all the participants was sent out last Tuesday, and my name wasn't on the list! I started to panic, but I looked back and saw the email I had sent, but then realized that I mistyped the email address! My application never went in, and there was no way for me to get clearance by Friday. I was devastated. A day that I was excited for became a day that I didn't want to come. There was a glimmer of hope because a brother in the ward I'm serving in is actually a member of the secret service. He went in to work that day to see if he could get me into the tour. I met him at the front of the line and he apologized because there was nothing he could do. In light of an individual who recently jumped the fence and got into the white house, security has become much tighter and the staff member that he appealed to rejected our request. It was so heartbreaking to walk away from the entire mission all lined up, leaving all my friends to enter in, while I remained outside. I realized, this must be the feeling of damnation. When we are not prepared to enter into the Lord's presence with our brothers and sisters so we have to be left outside. The statement Christ made about the true and faithful servant has taken new meaning for me.
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21"

I want to be ready to enter into the presence of the Lord! I don't think that means that we need to be fully prepared today, but it does mean that we need to be more prepared than we were yesterday. I hope with all my heart I get to be there, and you get to be there with me, so let's get ready. :) and watch the typos!

Faith in our Redeemer

 This week our mission had a visit from Elder Larry Kacher of the 70, to help lift and inspire us to be better missionaries. It was such a blessing to me personally. As we met with him as a mission council, he wanted to discuss how we felt that things were going in the mission generally. What we found that the general consensus was that we felt that our mission didn't have as much faith as we ought to have. "For, it is by faith that miracles are wrought." Moroni 7:37
We can't fill our potential without the help of the Lord, and we obtain his help through our acts of faith. I feel that at times in my mission, I have had a brighter hope and a better mindset about what is possible with the help of the Lord. I recognized extraordinary things that would happen around me every single day. The natural tendency is to forget the extraordinary things and I think that's happened to me over periods of time. I've made the decision that I don't want to just live my life in mediocrity, but I was to live by faith so that I can see great things happen. These past few days I've taken my challenge to share my testimony of the Savior with everyone that we have taught, and every time we had a powerful experience. We would sing the hymn "More Holiness Give Me," and share our testimonies of the atonement. That brought a powerful spirit into our lessons, and helped people to be more willing to act on the invitations we extended.
We visited the home of one of the members who turned out to not be home, and there was a pamphlet from the Jehovah's Witnesses stuck in the door, meaning the building had been tracted recently. My mind immediately came up with the excuse that we didn't need to knock the other doors because they had probably just been knocked that morning, but I noticed across the hall that there were flip flops leaning up against wall. Elder Peterson joked that it was probably a Filipino's home, and I thought that was probably true. I decided that we would at least try that door because I love talking to Filipinos. They were home! And happy to talk with us, we'll hopefully have an opportunity to teach their family. The Lord will give us opportunities to be a part of amazing things, we just need to have the faith to do what we're prompted to do.
I am so excited for Elder AJ Lim to begin his mission! I know his life will be full of miracles. I think we should all use this special time to rededicate ourselves to the Lord and seek His will so that we can be a part of the great history in our Heavenly Father's plan.

First Zone Training!

I was very nervous to be a lead in planning and giving zone training for the first time on my mission, which is weird because I've done many district meetings and it's pretty similar to that. We were really concerned about making the training meeting an uplifting and instructive experience for all the missionaries. As we thought and prayed about what would be taught and how we would run the meeting, impressions came to our minds that felt like really good ideas. One of those ideas was to demonstrate teaching in common terms by giving an example of me trying to explain my gymnastics routine to someone who doesn't really know much about gymnastics. It was also a good learning experience for me. We got a volunteer to come up and I explained my old high bar routine to him, and I was surprised by how confused he looked when I used names for skills like 'kip,' 'giant,' and 'endo.' Those are the inward expressions that people make when we teach with words like 'atonement,' 'resurrection,' and 'ordinances.' Then I went back and taught the routine again in simpler terms like 'swing' and 'handstand' and used a video to show exactly what it looks like. Sometimes it's hard to remember that everyone doesn't have the same understanding of words that we do. As teachers, we need to put a lot of time into understanding our material so that we can relate them in a way that is understandable to people with different backgrounds than ourselves. We studied the atonement in Preach My Gospel as a zone, having everyone read a sentence at a time. The simple act of studying the principle together brought a powerful spirit, and the comments that were made were amazing. We talked about the atonement in terms of 'mistakes,' 'suffering,' 'forgiveness,' and 'healing.' I learned that I still have a lot of studying to do of basic gospel principles to be a fully effective teacher. I love how simply the resurrection is taught. 

We will all suffer physical death, but Jesus Christ overcame the obstacle of physical death for us. When He died on the cross, His spirit became separated from His body. On the third day, His spirit and His body were reunited eternally, never to be separated again. He appeared to many people, showing them that He had an immortal body of flesh and bone. The reuniting of body and spirit is called resurrection and is a gift promised to each of us. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we will all be resurrected regardless of whether we have done good or evil in this life. We will have a perfect, immortal body of flesh and bones that will never again be subject to disease, pain, or death. The resurrection makes it possible to return to God’s presence to be judged but does not guarantee that we will be able to live in His presence. To receive that blessing, we must also be cleansed from sin. (PMG Pg 53)

Christ's body and spirit was separated when He died, and then they came back together when He was resurrected. The same thing will one day happen with you and me, we know that is true because we know that Christ lives. We don't have to say goodbye to those we love forever. This week's challenge is to study the atonement and share it with someone who doesn't know what it is!

Saved

Where does it say the words, "Plan of Salvation" in the Bible? It Doesn't! That matter of fact struck me really hard when President Cooke was teaching us about the Plan of Salvation. Knowing the path of our existence is the most important thing we could ever learn about! I guess I've taken for granted that knowledge that has been passed down to me by my parents from when I was young. That knowledge culminated in my experience going through the temple for myself, and learning about the great necessity for salvation and the need of a redeemer to make it possible. This week I learned that I need to find common ground with people to help them understand what God's plan for their happiness is.

"O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect." 2 Nephi 9:13

My sentiments are the same. The plan of redemption is so wonderful, I am glad that I won't be lost to God and my family forever because of Jesus Christ. My new companion Elder Jacob Peterson is a veteran missionary from Mesa, Arizona. I was in DC 3rd Ward when his trainer found out he would be training him. He is the best singer I've ever heard, and has a genuine love for every person that we meet. He is so converted to the gospel, there isn't a single person he isn't willing to go out of his way to share it with. The other night we were walking out of a rehabilitation center and he contacted the EMTs parked out front, AWESOME! We also recently got a new Ward mission leader named Geoffery Heath. He was recently released from serving as a stake high counselor. Yesterday we had our first coordination meeting together, and that was a powerful instructive moment for me. We talked about a couple that are progressing towards baptism, and they helped me to realize that there was a lot more preparation to be done to help them truly be ready to enter into the covenant of baptism. We laid out a plan to help them progress, discussing the kind of experiences they would need to have and commitments that they would need to keep. I felt like my purpose finally became clear. I'm not just here to help people to go through the ordinance of baptism, but to prepare them for the path of salvation. That path is long and difficult, and we can help them be ready to travel it. It's been over two years that I've been a missionary, and I'm still just starting to figure things out. But I love the I journey!