So last Wednesday was District meeting and that was good. We learned about the 5 different motivations. So they are
love
duty
blessings
fear
force
and I realized through some good ol' personal revelation that this is exactly what Christ was talking about when He taught about how His law is a higher law. So being obedient is always good. God will never force you to be obedient, and I don't know how great being obedient out of fear is or how effective. But being obedient out of a motivation for blessings is good. If you read the scriptures you will feel the spirit and will have more general peace in your life. God works through promises and so if you are obedient to one of His laws He will bless you and you can count on it. But then the next highest level you can reach is being obedient out of duty to God. You feel like you should go to Church and keep the Sabbath day holy so that you can show God that you are being obedient, because He asked you to be and you want to do what is right. That is great!
But the highest law we can attain to is to be obedient out of love for our Heavenly Father and our desire to show Him our love and gratitude for everything He has done for us. I think this is the place our Heavenly Father wants us to be, because when we do this then we are changed and have an increased ability to serve and do the will of our Heavenly Father. Not only this but we begin to become who He needs us to be in order to fulfill our missions here on earth. Duty and blessings, and fear (see Bednar's explanation of Godly fear in his conference talk from this session) are kind of all encompassed in this highest law of LOVE.
The only way we can attain to a higher level is through the influence of the Holy Ghost and a humble heart. Study what a "humble heart" is this week and let me know what you find. This has been what I'm working on studying a lot. A good place to start is 2 Nephi 4.
What next. Okay some experiences.
OH YEAH! I went on exchanges this week! With Sister Livingstone from Canada. She's like the Sister AP. She is basically just awesome. But anyways what that means is I was in the English program for a day. weird. In the english program bishops and ward mission leaders (plural because they cover one or two STAKES) just give them lists and lists of referrals. Like, what? And a ton of them are golden. Sister Livingston found a family who was ready to be baptised, they had recieved all of the lessons previously, and just had to have a quick review and then get married. In the first lesson with them she was like, "Okay, so Friday we're gonna take a field trip, grab your marriage license and stuff and getch'a married!" and the couple was like..."yeah, that sounds good!" so the next day they got married and I'm pretty sure they were baptised this week. Crazy stuff. During the exchange I went to Idaho, back to Utah, and then back to Idaho. There's this weird space between Utah and Idaho that nobody knows what exactly it is.... (I'm talking about the signs that say Utah and Idaho. I can't figure out how to send a panorama) Anyways I'm rambling hard core. On to something else.
We actually got a referal this week and they are a family with 4 kids! So cute, and SO READY. We shared a thought after getting to know them and explaining our purpose, and I gave the closing prayer and this guy, their cousin, was like, "Thank you for this blessing". So I actually have to go now because we have a lesson with them in TEN minutes.
We saw a bunch of other miracles this week. Like yesterday the Elders texted us saying that they had a guy call and ask to be baptised. We ran to the car we were so excited. And then we looked him up in the area book (under the guidance of the Spirit cause who would do that in this situation?) and there he was "DON'T CONTACT. HE IS A CREEPER" basically. So the Lord is protecting us. We sent the Elders over there so hopefully they survive and who knows maybe he will get baptized.
Learning a lot, and loving every day, even the hard ones.
Sorry it's short today, a lot of our P-Day was taken due to some service and then this lesson. VIVE LA OBRA MISSIONAL! woot.
Love you guys!
mle
ps. my mail box is lonely...
pps. love you nugget!
love
duty
blessings
fear
force
and I realized through some good ol' personal revelation that this is exactly what Christ was talking about when He taught about how His law is a higher law. So being obedient is always good. God will never force you to be obedient, and I don't know how great being obedient out of fear is or how effective. But being obedient out of a motivation for blessings is good. If you read the scriptures you will feel the spirit and will have more general peace in your life. God works through promises and so if you are obedient to one of His laws He will bless you and you can count on it. But then the next highest level you can reach is being obedient out of duty to God. You feel like you should go to Church and keep the Sabbath day holy so that you can show God that you are being obedient, because He asked you to be and you want to do what is right. That is great!
But the highest law we can attain to is to be obedient out of love for our Heavenly Father and our desire to show Him our love and gratitude for everything He has done for us. I think this is the place our Heavenly Father wants us to be, because when we do this then we are changed and have an increased ability to serve and do the will of our Heavenly Father. Not only this but we begin to become who He needs us to be in order to fulfill our missions here on earth. Duty and blessings, and fear (see Bednar's explanation of Godly fear in his conference talk from this session) are kind of all encompassed in this highest law of LOVE.
The only way we can attain to a higher level is through the influence of the Holy Ghost and a humble heart. Study what a "humble heart" is this week and let me know what you find. This has been what I'm working on studying a lot. A good place to start is 2 Nephi 4.
What next. Okay some experiences.
OH YEAH! I went on exchanges this week! With Sister Livingstone from Canada. She's like the Sister AP. She is basically just awesome. But anyways what that means is I was in the English program for a day. weird. In the english program bishops and ward mission leaders (plural because they cover one or two STAKES) just give them lists and lists of referrals. Like, what? And a ton of them are golden. Sister Livingston found a family who was ready to be baptised, they had recieved all of the lessons previously, and just had to have a quick review and then get married. In the first lesson with them she was like, "Okay, so Friday we're gonna take a field trip, grab your marriage license and stuff and getch'a married!" and the couple was like..."yeah, that sounds good!" so the next day they got married and I'm pretty sure they were baptised this week. Crazy stuff. During the exchange I went to Idaho, back to Utah, and then back to Idaho. There's this weird space between Utah and Idaho that nobody knows what exactly it is.... (I'm talking about the signs that say Utah and Idaho. I can't figure out how to send a panorama) Anyways I'm rambling hard core. On to something else.
We actually got a referal this week and they are a family with 4 kids! So cute, and SO READY. We shared a thought after getting to know them and explaining our purpose, and I gave the closing prayer and this guy, their cousin, was like, "Thank you for this blessing". So I actually have to go now because we have a lesson with them in TEN minutes.
We saw a bunch of other miracles this week. Like yesterday the Elders texted us saying that they had a guy call and ask to be baptised. We ran to the car we were so excited. And then we looked him up in the area book (under the guidance of the Spirit cause who would do that in this situation?) and there he was "DON'T CONTACT. HE IS A CREEPER" basically. So the Lord is protecting us. We sent the Elders over there so hopefully they survive and who knows maybe he will get baptized.
Learning a lot, and loving every day, even the hard ones.
Sorry it's short today, a lot of our P-Day was taken due to some service and then this lesson. VIVE LA OBRA MISSIONAL! woot.
Love you guys!
mle
ps. my mail box is lonely...
pps. love you nugget!