So this week was hecka long in the moment.. but now that P-day is here, is seems to have gone by fast. Normally we don't email this early in the morning, but they changed our P-day schedule so we go to the temple later in the day instead of in the morning.
Friday: So tonight during study time I finished my study that I had going on about light. I have talked a little bit about it in my last email, but this is like the overall thing after studying it. I think I have come to a conclusion as to what light, fire, darkness, and peoples choices all mean and how they come together:)
2 Nephi 19:18-19 "For wickedness burneth as the fire... and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke." Verse 19 "And people shall be as the fuel of the fire" What ever choices you make you have a fire. What's different is what comes from your fire. 2 Nephi 12:5 "Come ya and let us walk in the light of the Lord" 2 Nephi 10:14 "I will be a light unto them forever". When we walk in the LIGHT of the Lord, do what's right and keep his commandments, our fires that we kindle and grow create LIGHT. We take those sparks and send sparks to others to create LIGHT. Now here is the difference... if you are not walking in the LIGHT of Christ all your fire does is create smoke (2 Nephi19:18) Your smoke is what creates the darkness. The darkness becomes thick and may consume the small fires of LIGHT. 2 Nephi 19:2 "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined" The smoke consumed them. That's what the adversary does.. he targets the weak. They had the LIGHT but their fire was weak, so the smoke won... Essentially. Even though your fire may look out, there are still embers inside that burn and shine LIGHT. Now that is the key. Every person has a fire, it can be a fire of good or a fire of evil. The fire of the good creates LIGHT in the darkness. The fire of the wicked creates smoke and darkness. No matter how much darkness you create there will ALWAYS be LIGHT, therefore the darkness will never win. Those embers will burn. Sometimes it takes a hard hit to create those sparks and find those embers. That is when we kindle the sparks. 2 Nephi 7:11 "Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled". Your light source may be weak but it is ALWAYS there. You may think you are eternally lost. Bust open those logs and kindle your embers to start your fire up again. You are not lost forever. We all chose light when we chose to follow Gods plan. Those embers are always there. It all depends on YOU. It's your choice to act or not. But nothing will come if you don't act. That's not how things work. Nothing can ever be done unless there is an action. YOU have to start the process. God is there to help us but we need to ask him for help. He won't force us to do anything. WE have to start. After we start we will receive Gods help.... but we can also receive help from others. Again it all depends on YOU. Only YOU can start but you will never finish alone. The people who love and care about you will be there. Christ will be there, and anyone else you ask. If you are not sure where to start ask God. Acts 9:6 "What wilt thou have me do?" It's answered in Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you". It Mentions "YOU" twice in the one verse. I think this answers the question of "What wilt thou have me do?" YOU. YOU are the answer. Only YOU can start.
Fast forward to Tuesday: So I studied all about Light and what it represents. I decided to study the opposite. Darkness and the Shadow of Death. It's mentioned a lot in the verses about light and here is what I have come up with. Job 10:21-22 "Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death" Verse 22 "A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death without any order, and where the light is as darkness" What is the shadow of death? The shadow of death is the adversary and sin. The land of darkness is life. Right now the adversary has been working on making our world dark. He is the shadow in the darkness. Now wait... you can't have a shadow in darkness. That is exactly what he wants. He wants to blend in. He is being so subtle. The world is dark so he blends in. He takes what our world is and makes it seem okay. That's how he gets you. So subtly that you can't even see him. Psalms 107:10 "Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron." When we sin we carry the weight of that sin and we get a chain put on us by the adversary. The more we sin the heavier the burden and the more chains we get. Why do we dwell in his shadow to where he can take us so easily? Yes we live in a world that is dark and he can move freely and slowly chain every one of us up. All we got to know is how to defend ourselves. And that is with Christ and LIGHT. Psalms 23:4 "Yea, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me" Psalms 107:14 "He brought them out of the darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder" Like in Psalms 23:4 we should not fear because we have Christ and we have our LIGHT. The rod we learn in Nephi, represents the word of God. With that and light of Christ and our testimonies nothing can get us. A shadow can not exist in light. Something has to be blocking the light for the shadow to appear. So we can't let anyone or anything block our light. Now if you are caught in the chains how do you get out? 2 Nephi 1:13 "O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep... Shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound." SO WAKE UP! Realize what you are doing and change. That's what repentance is right? Changing for the better. As we use the atonement we can shake off the chains. Walk away from darkness and come to the light. Now as missionaries we bring the gospel to those lost in darkness who know nothing else. We come and bust open the logs and help them kindle their embers to get their fires going. We have the key to unlock the chains from them and free them. We are going to make the world light. I think its Matthew 11:28-30? where he says "take my yoke upon you for my by yoke is easy and my burden is light" if we get in the yoke with Christ he will help us and he will help lighten the load if that makes sense.
Wednesday: Today so far has been a pretty busy day so far. Lots of language study, lesson preparation and much more. I've just been thinking about Friends today and how important it is to choose good friends. Just one of the days where you miss the squad and the boys. I struggled for a little bit finding good friends through elementary school. I was so blessed to find my best friends in the sixth grade, and then in high school finding some more best friends. I was able to find people that were the brothers I never had. Man have we been through a lot together. As I read this and they read this I am 100% positive that we all thought of some of those great memories. Seriously so many that I will die of laughter remembering them hahaha. Here is what is great about friends, True Friends. They will always be there for you no matter what. That's one thing I know for sure, my boys got my back and they know I got theirs. It is so important to have good friends. They are there to support you and there to just talk while sitting on top of a suburban when you have nothing else to do on a Friday nights haha. I am so thankful for my boys, the RED SQUAD. The squad will forever live on. Love you boys! Thanks for all the times you've been there for me and all the good times at JCW's, Walmart, In the BURB, the Canyon and all the other times. Some good mems and a lifetime of mems to come. There is a song "Old Friends" by Ben Rector and what he talks about is soo true. Now dont cry when you listen to the song, but you might get teary eyed a little bit ahaha.
This week has just been another one of learning hard Finnish, teaching lots of lessons where you don't understand a word...but in the end it all works out cause the spirit is there. It gets a little boring to tell you guys every week that I went to class, went to lunch, back to class, and then went to bed. You got to mix it up a little bit. Sometimes you just gotta add those M&Ms to your ice cream when you usually have oreos hahaha.
Love and miss yall!
Elder Love is out
No comments:
Post a Comment