Thursday, September 3, 2015

Temple Day

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't write yesterday! We decided to go to the temple last minute, so we had to take our P-day a day later. 

This week was awesome! We are seeing the fruits of finding those who are prepared. We found 5 new awesome people this week, and now 
 We miraculously have 4 on date for Baptism, and hopefully 2 more this week!:) 

We had interviews with President And Sister Vest! We love it interviews because we just feel this lift of being edified each time! 

The temple was amazing, as always! I feel a boost of energy and power that comes so tenderly whenever I go. The Lord speaks to us in so many different ways, it's amazing what you can learn. 

This coming week is going to be a doozy! We have MLC all day tomorrow, and then we are training the zone on Thursday. That gives us literally no time to prepare any trainings! Then of course we can't not end our week without an exchange. We are going on exchanges with the assistants. I'll be going with Elder Garrick. We went to school together in junior high school and he's from stansbury. so this will be great! Haha! 

Here are some insights from my studies this week about repentance.

D&C 18:10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;

-First thing we need to know about Gods nature is that he is not going to let us fall forever, and be in shame and misery, he has not sought out to destroy us, nor condemn us. We matter to him, if we didn't, the Atonement would not have taken place, and men would have been sold to the devil at Adams transgression. However, our Father recognized that sin was the problem, he knew it would keep us apart. He cannot stand sin, but he can stand the sinner. The Atonement was the only way sin could be taken out of the sinner. 

"11 For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.12 And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance." 

-Here's the good news. In the grand council in heaven, we had our Fathers plan explained to us. When Christ said: "Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever." It was accepted. And we jumped for joy. Thinking about this moment has caused me much reflection. Repentance, is a change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. Furthering my point about God condemning the sin, and not the sinner. We feel Godly sorrow because we know the sin has effected us, we know that we did not follow the Lord. But that does not mean that sin has to become a part of us. What he asks of us is that we recognize that we have disobeyed his commandments, when we recognize this we know that we have gone carnal. Therefore we are not spiritual, and we are not in line with Gods will. The only way we can stop the Natural man is on conditions of repentance. The Atonement advocates the fact that we can be forgiven as we come unto the Lord and accept his power to overcome the carnal state that we are in. He can enable us to put off the sin, and become saints who keep on trying. He breaks us free from sin, and we become clean in the sight of God. 

"13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth
-When I repent, I can imagine the Lord looking at me and saying "Elder, I am so proud of you. Thank you for trying again. You have given it another shot, you have kept the Faith in me!" I sometimes even feel a presence of someone hugging me. I don't imagine him saying "get away from me". We learn from scripture that when ever the Lord addressed the sinner he has said: "come unto me" I can picture him saying "please, don't abandon me, I know what you are feeling, just believe in me" I can even imagine the Father saying "oh child, please. Make the right choice, please. Choose to stay. Use my Atonement. I want to see you again" We are to "trust in that spirit that teacheth us to do good" one of those good acts  is to come unto the Savior when we have not done our best, and ask for his best. That we might be able to do better. Our souls are great in the sight of God. He cares about us enough to give the option to receive redemption. He wants us to succeed. He has given us everything that we need to succeed. We just need to do those things with faith in his son, and an eye single to his glory. We are not working WITH Repentance. We are working THROUGH repentance. Our Father in heaven Weeps when he sees us struggle, hence why "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God". We feel the tugging guilt of our wrong doings because he is nudging us to change. The only acceptable change is through the Savior. We feel peace when we repent because we have become reconciled to God. We are no longer off the path but on it. God, cares, he is not playing the shame game. He is playing the change game.

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