Teaching about Decisions and Repentance
& Exploring on P-Day
Hi momma!
man those pictures of trek are super awesome! im totally bummed that i barely missed it! 4 more stinkin years is forever away haha. I COULD ALREADY HAVE A KID!!! or i could still be in Afghanistan..... hahaha(; well i waited as long as i could, but i guess i'll have to get your trek parables next week haha(:
yea i heard about Elder Perry, thats no fun. and okay, im for sure sending Granna an email today. also, she sent me this totally awesome package haha, and i had no idea she was sending it, but it was chalk full of food! hahaha, i'll send some pics... speaking of which lucky you guys today, i have a TON of pics to send haha, we had some cool adventures today and last week.
well yesterday in church when my comp and I showed up, one of the counselors in the bishopric said that one of the people who was supposed to give a talk in church wasn't gonna make it, so he asked if i could do it haha.............. that jerk!! no not really, but it was like that last thing i was expecting haha, plus i looked like crap cuz my allergies are kicking my butt and i was all groggy from Benedryl... but nontheless i went forth! so I'll send you kinda like a summary of my talk with the scriptures that i used, and i'll let you guys pull you're own from it(:
I talked about Decisions, Repentance, and used these scriptures in this order:
2 Nephi 10:23 -- i talked about why would Nephi say to rejoice (i think that's what it is in English, i just have a portugues with me right now haha) that we are free to choose, and i talked a little bit about the war in heaven. A lot of the time we say that resurrection is free but eternal life isnt, because every single person, good or bad, who has ever lived on this earth will be resurrected, but only those who obtain celestial glory will be rewarded eternal life. but i explained that even the resurrection isnt free, because the resurrection (or the atonement and then defeating death) had to be because man is in a fallen state because of our free agency, and we gained free agency in the war in heaven, or rather kept our free agency by not accepting Lucifer's plan. but that for this victory over Lucifer, Heavenly Father lost 1/3 of His children. i can't imagine what it would be for a father to have to let one of his children die, but this is so much more than that because it's not just physical death, its spiritual death, it's damnation to Outer Darkness to never return again to the presence of the Father. but free agency was so important, that Heavenly Father was willing to let them go, so the other 2/3s could have it. so that is why Nephi says to rejoice that we are free to choose, because it's more than just a big deal.
Alma 32:21 -- i then talked a little about how most of the decisions we make (especially the ones we make in regard to keeping the commandmants) are made by faith, not by a perfect knowledge. but we believe it is the right thing and we have hope that we will be blessed for it.
Alma 34:32 -- then i used this scripture to explain a little that the time given to us to make all these choices is this life, the choice to accept Christ as our Redeemer BEFORE we die.
Alma 36:11-21 -- then i read the conversion story of Alma the Younger, to show a really cool, unique expirience. Pretty much all of humanity, with the expection of a very few, will just have one time to look back on their lives and their choices as a whole and to be judged on those choices once... after we die. But Alma had this really cool opportunity to do like a midpoint checkup on his life. he was out trying to destroy the church, and angel appeared to him, and told him that if he continued doing what he was doing he would be destroyed, he was so scared he passed out, and during the three days while his body was unconcious, he got to see all of his choices up until that point, and the consequences of them, and that's in verses 11 - 16. i explained that all of us would be in that very same position that he was in after we die and go to meet with God, if it hadnt have been for one extremely important event, the Atonement. Jesus Christ already paid the price, he already suffered those pains and fears that Alma was suffering, and He did it for all of us so that we dont have to suffer them, but we have to apply His Atonement in our lives, we have to REPENT. this is in verses 17 - 18. then in verses 19 - 21 we see what happens when a soul repents. Alma did it, and he was freed from his pains, free from his consequences, because Christ already paid for them. and it's something that each one of us HAS TO DO in this life, or we will have to suffer for our choices.
then i bore testimony about how grateful i am that Christ has already paid for my sins, because Alma makes it seem pretty terrible, and im gratefuly that because of the Atonement, i wont have to suffer that. i also bore testimony about how grateful i am for the things that we learn in church, to help us make the right decisions, and to teach us to repent when we've made wrong ones.
well that took a long time haha, so i think i'll end there, but i've still got a bunch of pictures to send! have a good week, i love you guys, ill talk to you more next week!(:
p.s. - take a bunch of pictures of all your sick adventures!!
I see Zach hasn't changed since he was 3 and I made him take a picture with some pretty girls!
Thank you sooooo much Granna!!! i totaly loved getting that package from you!! haha i love you so much!!(:
so i've taught myself how to make a mean chicken fajita haha, i'd be such a good mexican stay-at-home wife haha.
Hahaha..... GROSS, all I can say as a mom!
check it out!!! i found a fricken saguaro!!! you have no idea how happy i was to see this thing hahaha
we did some cool exploring at some weird tide pools haha, and yea i know, pretty much the sickest shirt ever... im still trying to figure out how to get the "A" at the end off though haha
it was really hard to climb on that crap haha, good thing im a ninja
i got kinda stuck in a sticky situation.....
then we found this super sick cave among all these huge rocks. this is my lovely comp Elder Phillips
my comp was trying to take a picture of the gay sunset, but some really buff, super handsome gentleman kept getting in the way...
here was the crew today...
today for pday we played basketball. we had a sick game of 4 on 4 full court... it's a great reminder of how out of shape you get on the mission haha. but its all good, we came away with the win haha
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