July 7, 2014
hey everyone!!! :) this week has been great! :) we have been trying
really hard to find new people to teach, and have been succeeding as much as you
can on the week of the 4th of July. Its been kinda crazy, and very hard to
sleep at night because everyone lights off big old fireworks as we are trying to
sleep!! guess what time it gets dark around here so they can set off fireworks?
yup 10:15-10:30, guess what time i am going to bed?? You're right!! 10:30!
hahaha but its all good, we've still had a very good week :) we have had some of
the greatest visits with our investigators this week than any other week!
numbers wise we struggled, but the quality of lessons that we did have were very
good. We have a recent convert that had fallen away little bit coming back to
church regularly after not coming for 6 weeks! we also had a great visit with
our investigator Maddie who will be baptized this month! its really exciting!
Our investigators John and Linda are growing in there testimony of the book of
mormon, John even specifically told us that "you guys are sure making a believer
out of me" He will likely be next to enter into the waters of baptism after
maddie, He has some Word of Wisdom issues that we will need to resolve, but i
know that if he continues progressing at the rate he is right now he will be
baptized very soon! and i look forward to seeing that.
This is actually a little bit about what i wanted to talk about today, we
have a investigator that struggles with the idea of progression a little bit,
and thinks that we should be able to be perfect immediately. Obviously
perfection is the goal, and living with our father in heaven is also. But our
walk to perfection is that exactly, a walk. When you walk there are check
points, you get closer and closer to your destination, which for us is eternal
life. Now it is possible to walk backwards, in the walk of life, there is no
standing still, you are either going forward or backwards. But we are all
trying to "Walk to Christ" how fast we walk or how smooth the journey is
determined on how closely our lives are patterned after the Saviors, how closely
we are following the commandments.
We all learn to walk to the Savior at a different pace, but we all start
somewhere. When we were young, we began our "journey" crawling, and eventually
we try to stand and walk. What happens to a child when they first begin to walk?
Obviously they fall down a lot, so what does a loving parent do? The parent
cheers them on, and encourages them to try again, and if necessary they are the
ones that pick them up off the ground. Our heavenly father does the same for us,
he cheers us on and helps to lift us when we fall. Eventually the child learns
how to walk, he has began to follow Christ. Life is like a race where the
finish line is Eternal Life with our families and our loving Heavenly Father.
We run the race by following Christ. We run the opposite direction when we
choose not too. This child has learned to walk, and eventually matures to adult
age, where his experience walking is far above that of a child, but if you were
to tell me that this man never tripped i would call you liar. I don't think
anyone has ever completely mastered walking, and hasn't ever tripped. We all
make mistakes even when we are trying our best to follow Christ. But we can
still improve our walk. When we trip or mess up in life, we need to as swiftly
as possible stand back up and continue walking, this is known as repentance,
when we apply it to following Christ. We eventually become aware of the things
placed in our path that will cause us to trip, and we try our best to avoid
them. I would venture to say that this mind set, the mind set of continual
improvement is what eventually qualifies us for eternal life. Everyone sins on a
daily basis, trying to improve our lives and decrease the amount of sins in our
lives, or rather the times that we trip, is the important part, our goal is the
end of the race, our goal is perfection, but we do not get there with out
PROGRESS, we cannot instantly become perfect, if you do, (and no one has so i
don't feel bad about saying this) Anyone who has become perfect instantly might
as well die, now i know that sounds a little morbid yes, but they have finished
there "walk to Christ" and have no more need to be on earth, they have nothing
left that they can learn here, and might as well move on to the higher plane of
learning in the eternities. Earth life is "a time for man to PREPARE to meet God"
once you have done that, your purpose on earth has been fulfilled.
To finish i would say we all need to continue to progress, to continue to
watch for the things in life that make us trip, and prevent our progression to
perfection. As we strive to improve our lives and repent of our sins we will be
able to become like our heavenly father. We have no need to be on earth if we
immediately became perfect, we are here to learn and grow, and progression is
essential to our perfection, as we learn and see the blessings of following
Christ, our desire to "avoid tripping" grows, and we are able to overcome our
sins. Now don't get me wrong, we should try our very best to try not to trip,
and that we are actually required to be perfect to live with God, what i am
trying to illustrate is our path in getting there, God cannot look on sin with
the least degree of allowance, but we cannot be rid of sin immediately, and i
don't think God would want us to be he wants us to prove ourselves to him,
continually trying to progress, by doing what is known as Enduring to the End,
that is what i hope i've been able to illustrate, is how Enduring to the End
looks. i hope you guys enjoy this analogy, i hope that it gives us all a better
sense of what our purpose is in life. love you guys!!
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