I first studied the Love of God, and then trusting God, and then
repentance, and then doubting God. It was actually very interesting.
Basically what I learned was that Laman and Lemuel followed Nephi
sometimes, but the almost always did it out of fear. Fear is never
enough to change a heart. For example, in 1st Nephi 17:53-55, Nephi
shocks his brothers, and they humble themselves and help him build the
boat. In 1 Nephi 18:15 and 20, they untied his brother and humbled
themselves, but only out of fear of the judgements of God. Sometimes I
act out of fear, which brings temporary consequences, but when we act in
faith and hope, it brings lasting and eternal blessings. And that is
how, like in last general conference, it was said by Elder Robbins that
we go from "failure to failure without losing enthusiasm". It is by not
fearing God. Sometimes we want almost to scare the people we teach into
doing the Lord's will, but we need them to act in faith, not in fear.
In District Meeting, we talked about how Nephi in 1 Ne. 4 followed the
Spirit and knew it was of God because he weighed out his options. He
saw that it was a good thing. Then from the story of Saul waiting for
the Prophet Samuel to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord, but then deciding
that it had taken too long and it would be better if he were to offer
the sacrifice, that it is better to obey than that which we think makes
more sence. We cannot outsmart God. This was from 1 Sam. 15:22. It lead
to another scripture, 2 Ne. 4:19 which is my favorite.
This week we had a church tour with Maricela, and the Spirit was
extremely strong. It was a very powerful lesson. She loved it all and
asked many questions. On Friday we had exchanges, and there were some
elders who were having a hard time having the faith to find, and Elder
Hanchett did an amazing job at inspiring them to find. On Wednesday
night, there was a lady who called us and asked us why we hadn't come to
visit her in so long. Of course we came by and helped her out. She
loves the Gospel and says she knows that the church is true. She said
she could not be baptized because by doing so she'd be breaking one of
the 10 commandments which is to honor her father and mother, and that by
getting baptized in another church she'd be dishonoring them, but
that's the same as Nephi in 1 Nephi 4 saying he can't kill Laban even if
the Spirit says because it's one of the 10 commandments not to kill.
We talked to Victoria, our recent convert, and taught her about the
Restoration, reading from Joseph Smith History. She loved it and said
she wanted to read the rest of it before the night was over. It was
interesting that just because the light came, Satan fled. If we stay in
the light, Satan loses all power over us. Elder Hanchett taught me that,
as he has taught me many things.
For church on
Sunday we talked about unity in the ward, and that the Lord cannot
prepare people for the Gospel if the ward is not unified, that the Lord
wants to send these prepared people to "Zion", where the people are of 1
mind, but he won't settle for less. Like in Alma 16:16, that there was
no inequality between them, so the Lord was able to prepare by His
Spirit the hearts of the people. Thus we are passing around a calendar
for a 40 day fast where for a member takes one day for every day of the
month to fast until the end of 40 days, and they do it so they can find
the prepared.
Every day I love the Spanish
language more and more. I find myself talking to English speaking people
and I cannot for the life of me think of the word in English. It's
pretty interesting.
I love you all, and thank you for your prayers.
Love Elder Sant
No comments:
Post a Comment
Gracias!