First off, we know we have fre agency. Without being able
to choose for ourselves, how would we have joy? Anything that attempts
to take away our agency is not of Christ. We know that. However, we do
have rules to help us know how using our agency correctly will get us to
a place we want to. It is so cool because we know that we will all
inherit a degree of glory. It is just up to us to decide which one we
get (I'm going for the best one)! It is not just heaven and hell. It is
so much better. Why would a loving Heavenly Father want any of his
children to go to a place of misery? He is just and loving. And he made a
good plan for us. That's why we have the Atonement. The Atonement makes
is possible that we have free agency... but that's maybe getting too
deep.
I am also learning more about Satan. He's a tricky
fellow, you know. Of course, if I were Satan I would not want people to
know who I am because knowledge is power. We are so blessed to know that
Satan first of all exists, that he seeks our destruction, and that by
turning correctly to Christ he will have no power over us. none. I think learning more about his nature helps us overpower him and learn how to avoid his snares. He just can't keep up!
I also realize stronger the divinity of Christ. He
is the Son of God. That made it possible to perform the Atonement for
the entirety of mankind. He was no ordinary man. I acknowledge that
fully and deny anything that says that he is in any way ordinary or
anything less than the redeemer of mankind.
I have been learning about the reason for faith
unstead of a sure knowledge of everything. Faith is essential for our
progression in a spiritual sense. Christ teaches things not of this
world, but rather focuses on things of a spiritual sense which do help
us here in this life as well as in the life to come. We have spiritual
proof of everything -- people just have to try it to find that out. The
Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness is spiritually uncorruptible and
cannot be affected by things of this world. Our evidence does not rely
on things of this world, which I find as a comfort because this world is
rapidly changing and entirely unreliable sometimes.
Joseph Smith was a prophet. As a fourteen-year-old
boy he would not have received so much persecution from fully grown men
were it not for the truth he had seen. He did see Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ. Satan wanted to cover this truth and so led people to
persecute a fourteen-year-old, who people would normally not trust in
such matters. Back to Satan -- he seeks to destroy our souls. But
nothing could stop this beautiful truth from coming to the world at the
time it was meant to be restored.
This week was great! I learned so much. We had Stake Conference, to which the missionaries were invited both Saturday evening as well as Sunday morning. Saturday
evening was a session for all the adults and young men and young women
in the stake. It was ALL focused on missionary work and how members and
missionaries can easily and effectively work together. Anyone surprised
on the theme? I restate what I say practically every week: : Do
missionary work!! It is meant to be done. Let others come into your
life, bring the missionaries, and let the MISSIONARIES do the "awkward"
part of inviting them to learn more about the gospel. It is so easy.
As Saturday's meeting the missionaries came together
and we all sang in a choir. There were two songs. I was the conductor.
Haha, I have never conducted a choir before and I seldomly conducted in
seminary because I would much rather play piano, but surprisingly the
missionaries pulled it together and sang like angels! I will admit that
my faith was dimished through practices, but when the time came to
perform the Spirit was there and I think there were some really
nice-sounding angels helping us out. That was really cool.
Sunday
was a broadcast from Salt Lake City, where we heard from Elder Bednar
and Elder Hales. They were speaking specifically to the stakes in
Germany. Elder Bednar actually gave his talk in German himself! THAT was
so cool. I really admired that and it made me realize how cool it is to
be speaking this language no matter how difficult it is at certain
times. I learned a lot from these apostles. "Nimmt mein Joch auf euch!" I
really loved it. Elder Bednar has a great love for the german people.
Well, things are going well here. I am happy!
Testimony just growing and growing because of the experiences we are
having! I love you all at home and anywhere else you all are! Thank you
for your support of missionary work!
Liebe Grüße, Elder Jack
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