July 6, 2015
Family,
Thanks
for the packages. The chips and pretzels were good. The peas are
amazing. I'm really loving those. Also the roles and other treats
are great. I shared the roles with my district Sunday night and they
loved them. They told me to tell you thanks for them.
Sister
Baker's performance was good. They all played, but the husband. One
of the daughters was on the violin, another on the piano, another on the cello,
and the boy on the guitar. They played 4 songs. Love one another, I know
that my redeemer lives and 2 other pieces. It was good. Sister
Baker talked a little bit, played a song, talked a little bit, played a song,
for the whole devo. She was the guest speaker. She encouraged us to
give 100 percent and the big difference that has from giving 95 percent.
She also reminded us to "lean not unto thine own understanding."
President Burgess shared the same scripture during Mission Conference
Sunday morning.
I'm
doing great. Mandarin is coming. I still feel quite a bit behind
everyone else, but it is fine. That is crazy Elder Oaks came. Very
cool. Especially what he said of the ward. Thanks for all your dear
elder letters, emails and other notes. I really appreciate them.
I
forgot to tell you last week that we stopped teaching Zhong Yu Fan and got 2
new investigators, Muzhihao and Danshixian. We have taught each of them 4
times and have our 5th lesson with Danshixian tonight. We had a decent
amount of teaching this week. We taught 7 lessons. I am picking up
a little more of what the investigator is saying and am able to say what I want
to say better. It is great to have this practice teaching to help us
improve our teaching and learning to implement the teaching skills,Ch 10
of PMG, into our lessons to make them more effective and help us focus the
lesson on the investigator and their needs.
One
of our investigators asked us this question during the lesson, "If I don't
know about the commandments, am I sinning?" I didn't know this was asked
till after, but my comp got it and tried to respond. I spend the next
personal study looking more into this topic to be able to have some scriptures
on the topic and make sure I understood the doctrine clearly. Helaman
7:23-24 reads, "For behold, this saith the Lord: I will not show unto the
wicked of my strength, to one more than the other, save it be unto those who
repent of their sins, and hearken unto my words. Now therefore, I would
that ye should behold, my bretheren, that it shall be better for the Lamanites
than for you except ye shall repent. For behold, they are more righteous
than you, for they have not sinned against that great knowledge which ye have
received; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them..." We know
that it is much worse to sin, when we have increased knowledge. The more we
know and receive the more responsible we are (D&C 82:3). We learn in
D&C 137:7-9 that those who died without the knowledge of the gospel, who
would have received it, will inherit celestial glory. Our duty is to warn
since we have been warned (D&C 88:81-82). A good reminder about the
nature of repentance is found in D&C 82:7. If we commit a sin we have
repented of, the old sins come back. If we did the previous sin, then we
really didn't repent fully in the first place. If we truly repented, we
are changed and no longer have even a desire to do the things we once
did. Repentance is not a short process you check off and are done.
Repentance is continually ongoing. We are continually proving to the Lord
that we will never do the sin again, that we have changed. We are always
repenting (changing) of the sins we previously committed. It is not a sin
if they don't know about it, like scripture study, prayer, and others, I
believe, unless they know through the light of Christ that is in them that what
they are doing is wrong. We learn that the Lord can't look upon sin with
any allowance (Alma 45:16) and there are countless ways to sin
(Mosiah 4:29) so we need to be repenting everyday. Plus the more we
learn the more we need to repent, because the sins are counted more heavily
because we know more. The argument might come, "Well if the less I
know, the less responsible I am, then I will not learn any more." If
you are saying this, then it is already to late. We learn that man cannot
be saved in ignorance (D&C 131:6). It is no surprise that the leaders
of the Church are so amazing. They have so much knowledge and know so
much, that they are constantly repenting, constantly changing and more aligning
their will with the Will of our Father in Heaven. I love the story of
Howard W Hunter, who asked John Huntsman for a blessing. When asked why
the blessing was needed, the prophet responded, something like, "I had a
bad thought about someone.". He was so in line with the Savior's
will that having just a bad thought about someone, made him feel not good and
need a blessing. Hope that all made sense. I'm scatter brained always,
trying to type this all real fast in an hour.
Saturday
was fun. We had a devo that night and got to go out on to the N parking
lot to watch the fireworks. It was treat yourself day too. We got a bunch
of people's snacks and put them all in a box to have that night. It was
sweet. I love treat yourself day. All day we were treating ourselves.
Sunday
morning we had a mission conference, which they have every fast sunday.
It was good. We were reminded of pg 168 in PMG of doing good, not leaning
unto our own understanding, and yielding our hearts unto God. President
Burgess shared a quote from one of the leaders of the church which was good.
"It is better to be trusted than loved." He shared a story of
President Hinckley and an asian man. This man was in the united states
for school and was about to head home. While in the US, he had converted
to the LDS church and President Hinckley got to talk to him for a minute before
he left. He came to understand that by converting to this church, he
probably would lose his job he had in Asia, his family would probably disown
him and he would be rejected by many. President Hinckley asked him why he
was doing this, why he would be willing to sacrifice so much. The boy looked
to him with tears in his eyes and said, "It's true isn't it? Then what
else matters." President Hinckley felt ashamed for his asking that
question and learned from that experience.
My
comp and I are practicing a cello and piano arrangement to hopefully perform
before we leave. We are able to practice during add study. We are
probably going to play, Consider the Lilies. It's a really cool
arrangement and fun to play.
My
comp and I got released from our calling to be Sacrament bread coordinators
Sunday and were called to be Zone leaders. We also got a new district
leader. We have a little over 50 in our zone and are getting more in a
few weeks. It will be a blessing to be able to serve our fellow
missionaries and learn from them as we all try to come unto Christ and be
better instruments in His hands. I hope I can do better at being
optimistic and be like the man in Elder Porter's talk who never got down, who
when others were around Him, it was was impossible not to feel buoyed up.
I hope that I can stop worrying about myself, focus on others and be able to
lift them up and strengthen them and be able to let them feel the Savior's love
for them through me.
I
know that this gospel is true. I feel the Spirit testify of this to me
over and over again, as I pray, as I study the scriptures, as I sing praises to
Him and as I serve his children. I know that as the Lord learns to trust
us by our following the prompting He gives to us through the Spirit, we will
have opportunities to bless others lives and help them and to serve them.
Thanks
for all your prayers in my behalf. I am strengthened by them and by your great
examples to me.
Love,
Elder
Stratford
This is Josh and Laura Baker (Katie's friend). The Baker's just moved into our ward and Jenny Oaks Baker (the violinist) was going to the MTC with her family to put on a fireside for the missionaries. They kindly took some homemade rolls and treats to Josh for us.
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