Hellooo!
This week was interesting. It went by crazy fast. For the record, I leave two weeks from yesterday. Yikes..... I should get my flight plans anytime this week, and Wednesday I'm hosting the newbies. So It'll be awesome to see what I looked like SEVEN WEEKS AGO! yeesh.
So I saw this talk on following the spirit by Elder Bednar sometime last week or maybe the week before. I never know anymore. But he shared this story about how he felt like he should take this dad, who was at a priesthood meeting, to his son's basketball tournament where Elder (at the time Stake President) Bednar's son was also playing. They all had a great time and all was well. Elder Bednar got a call sometime later, I think five months, saying that the man's son had died. He was so grateful because that was the only time he ever would've had to see his son play. And it was a cherished memory for the father. Bednar said he didn't know it at first, but after the call he was sure that it had been a prompting from the Spirit. He told us that as long as we are doing our best to be "good boys, and good girls" we will have the Spirit with us and we will be guided and not know how or why. That was really important for me to hear. The Spirit is THE most important thing to have with me. Not even just now as a missionary. So everyone: be good, and good things will happen.
Last Tuesday was a really good devotional. Elder Pearson of the Seventy came and spoke about our Identity. He showed how our identity sets a chain reaction that determines our actions. And because we have free agency to make choices, those choices set off a chain reaction that decides our fate. It was something I really needed to hear. He said we can't just teach people about the Gospel. In order for them to want to change the way they live, they must understand, believe, and their identity must be that they are literal children of God, and are heirs to the Kingdom of that God and all that he has. We are all his children, and are all entitled to that birthright. We only need to live in that manner. Also, he said that we, as missionaries, can no longer be "Adam Vuinovic with a missionary tag on." I have to be "A disciple of Christ". Realizing this, I look at myself as a missionary sharing the gospel to God's children, and not Adam from Galt who's going to Ecuador (the coolest place ever). It was something that helped me immensely to "become a missionary".
Going along with identity, we also spoke about the importance of it in priesthood meeting this Sunday. After the French Revolution they took King Louis' son and in order to disgrace the family they tried to corrupt him by exposing him to the vilest of things and surrounding him with lustful women and things like that. After six months he hadn't broken in the slightest. They asked why not. He replied, "I cannot do the things you ask. For I was born to be a king." That totally rocked my brain. If everyone only knew who they really were, their true eternal value, life would be so much easier because we would know of the inheritance that awaits us from our Heavenly Father. Most importantly, the Adversary would have no power over us because we would have no desire to sin. It's one of his greatest tools to make you forget who you are, because then it is so much easier to get you to do what you would have otherwise refrained from.
I love you. Have a great week!
