Elder Marcos A. Aidukaitis of the Seventy came to Washington this Saturday. The whole mission was brought together into one chapel and shook his hand and gave our names.He's a tall, somewhat goofy, looking guy. His accent is hilarious and he laughed loudly about everything he said. He had so much love. You could feel it. He's a servant of our Lord. I just know. He took us through some promises we find in the scriptures about missionary work. in D&C 4:4, 12:3, 75:3-7, we pulled a couple of these out of it: We will not perish. Salvation. Crowned with honor. We can be guided to the people who are prepared and willing to accept the message. Our tongues will be loosed. We'll have lots of baptisms (field is white already to harvest). These are all things I've heard and typically understood for the most part. I've heard that I can be lead to those prepared people. My tongue will be loosed and I will speak eloquently and beautifully. Well how come I haven't found those people? Why do I still mess up and not get a good point across sometimes? So... how does this all work. I've thought about these things a lot before and I often hear something in the wind whispering something like, "what about reality?" Sure, I have all of these promises, in theory, I should be baptizing twice a week. What's really happening? Nothing even close to that. Elder Aidukaitis asked us all a piercing question... does God always fulfill his promises to us? A couple people hesitantly mumbled yes and he cut them off and said, "NO!"
D&C 82:10 "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise."
There are requirements that come with all of the blessings.We can't be idle, distracted... we have to have a good attitude and be patient in afflictions and work hard. There are so many things he asks us to do for us to receive the fullness of His blessings. We can sit back and say, God works miracles... sometimes. His hand is in my life every once in a while. Or we can put him to the test. We will see the hand of God if we make the sacrifices he asks. "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven."
Fast forward to our way home from the conference. Oh and quick side note first.. I was in bed or in the bathroom for the past three days. Lost 15 pounds. So I didn't feel all that great... but I was so filled with faith from that loving chastisement that I didn't really care... so we skipped dinner and went to a street that we both thought about. Second door, a lady came out and started to talk with us. She told us that back in her hometown of Jamaica she would run away if she ever saw missionaries ha. She thought we didn't believe in the bible. A couple days ago she was having lunch with some friends and one of them told her that we do study from the bible. Angie has been praying for direction from God earlier in the day that we found her. It was her first day in that house and we knocked on her door. She said she knows that God is trying to tell her to listen to our message. She asked us so many amazing questions and we got to teach her about the Book of Mormon and how it came to be. She wants to come to church and start meeting with us.. It felt like I was in a story that all the missionaries have and that I haven't experienced. God does fulfill His promises. He is a God of miracles and love.. I can promise you that. My heart and mind feel in line and they're pointed to God. Keeping all the rules isn't enough. I've done that. Working hard isn't enough. I do that everyday. I need to be the instrument that God needs me to be. To be led and guided by Him and not by myself. That's where I want to be. I can either see God's hand and follow it or I can blindly follow myself.
Alright that's enough for today,
I love you
(The pictures are from us moving the bees)
Elder Trent Jay Merrill
No comments:
Post a Comment