September 12,2016

Hello! 

I hope everyone's week went well! I had a pretty good week! We had a few meetings, but we still managed to get some work done in our area. 

I had the wonderful opportunity of giving a training on Desires. I won't give the whole training, but I will touch on just a few points: 

1.) Agency only works if you are obedient. Disobedience causes the adversary to make you "miserable like unto himself". Thus we must educate our desires. Do we want to serve God, or Satan? Are the desires of our hearts leading us upward and forward toward God, or further from him? Do we aim for His pleas, or the worlds? 

2.) Righteous desires are more than passive preferences or fleeting feelings. Making a split second decision upon the arrival of instant gratification can lead to detrimental consequences.  In this realm, self mastery is not in our habitual attribute, but becomes an irritant. Righteous desires are those with eternal pleas, and not temporal things. 

3.) Those who truly want the desires of their hearts, will receive them without delay. For as Alma taught "I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction." (Alma 29:4) If you desire the things of the flesh, you will obtain them. IF you desire the things of God, you will get them. God does not remove your agency. He will respond to our earnest pleas. 

4.) If we are unhappy it is because we so desired to be. This one is difficult to recognize until one reflects on the eternal grand plan of progression. You see, we progress in only 2 ways. 1.) Toward God. 2.) Toward the Adversary. Each decision we make causes us to progress into darkness or light, Telestial or Celestial, Exaltation or eternal damnation. We set the standards of temptation. The sizing and the magnitude of temptation is determined to the heed we give to it. We make choices every day. Each choice we make is either a building block toward God, or a loop hole toward the adversaries final trap. We must then be honest with the consequences of our desires. We must be courageous enough to say that our desires are wrong and that we need to change. 

5.) Drawing upon the Atonement of Jesus Christ to change. As we recognize our wrong desires, we then must determine how we will change. Change in its process requires the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We must reflect upon our hearts, and prayerfully consider our eternal destiny. Are we really doing what's right when we act on our desire? Our all loving Heavenly Father wants us to have eternal happiness. That is His desire. He wants us to succeed and obtain all that he hath, and we can choose that path as we make the sacrifice necessary. 

I have recently began a study on the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The significance of this part of the Atonement is deep. 

Preparatory to affixing the condemned to the cross, it was the custom to offer each a narcotic draught of sour wine or vinegar mingled with myrrh and possibly containing other anodyne ingredients, for the merciful purpose of deadening the sensibility of the victim.

The Savior did not partake of such, knowing the contents it contained would cloud his focus on the children of men during his death on the cross, and with his communication with the Father. In that very moment, we can understand that the Lord really did engrave us upon the palms of his hands. He undoubtedly did so. 

As He was crucified there was one Malefactor on His right, the other on his left. Thus, the prophesy of Isaiah being fulfilled "he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12)

I know Jesus Christ performed the Atonement perfectly. There was no fault in His countenance, no disobedience in His choice, step by step he performed what was necessary for the children of men to succeed and obtain every needful thing. 

I love you, and I know that he also loves you. If he didn't, we would have been damned to hell at the first sight of sin. 

Elder Jared M. Greenburg 

Missouri Independence Mission 

Warrensburg Missouri Area

Got a hair cut. I wear my sun glasses inside cause it's always sunny in d-ville