The beginning of the week was absolutely crazy. We
spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for and executing transfers. It
was epic. Nothin is quite as great as going to bed at 12 and waking up at 4:30.
It was way fun though. I love spending time with the going home missionaries
and missionaries coming in. One of the missionaries that went home was Elder
Limocon. I miss that kid so much. The day before missionaries go home they have
the opportunity to go to the temple and to a famous American war cemetery,
receive counsel from President, have a testimony meeting and eat a lot of food.
And we get to tag along. It's awesome. It's amazing to see the changes that
Elders and Sisters undergo while they are on their mission. It's really put
into perspective when we see the brand new missionaries come in the next day.
It's amazing how much more the Lord can do with our two years than we can.
While we were waiting for conference to start
(which I will talk about later by the way), I received a call from John. He had
been sick for the past couple days and wasn't expecting to be able to make it
to conference. As I answered the phone, he said, "Is it ok if I still come
to church?" Me: "Of course! Are you feeling better?" John:
"Better, but still not good. But I really want to go to church." As I
heard those words come out of his mouth, I was filled with a humble joy. It
amazed me to see this man, who is not even a member, have such a strong desire
to go to church regardless of being sick. Our actions during trying times truly
do reflect the desires of our hearts and our faith we have in Jesus Christ. He
was able to make it to the Sunday morning session and hear the prophet of the
Lord speak. It was an amazing experience. I've thought a lot about his great
act of faith and reflected upon experiences I’ve had in my life. One thing that
President Ostler taught us the other day is this: "You learn in life that
excuses don't get you very far." All they really do is rob us of blessing
the Lord was willing to give us. John was a great example to me.
Oh my goodness. Conference was great. General
Conference is my new favorite TV show. When I get home, that's all I’m
watching. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved so many talks from
General Conference. One of my favorite talks was given by Elder Christofferson.
I really look up to that man. When he speaks, you can feel the vast knowledge
behind his words. He speaks with power and authority. I love the way he
addresses not only spiritual principles, but also logical concepts. One example
he used that I really liked was the following, "Resenting the law of
gravity won't keep a person from falling if he steps off a cliff." The
reason this stood out to me was because this describes the Philippines. The
majority of people here can't comprehend the concept on eternal truths. Just
believing in Christ and going to church will not save you at the last day.
There's so much more to the gospel then that. The phrase I hear numerous times
a day is this: "We all worship the same God. How you worship isn't really
important as long as you just believe." One day, they will come to
understand that there is more to the gospel than just belief. I've got a lot
more work to do while I’m here.
I also love hearing and learning about the
connection between mercy and justice. The more I learn about those two
concepts, the more I realize how perfect God's plan truly is. He is perfectly
just and He is perfectly merciful. I just loved conference so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment