I was filling out a Preach my Gospel survey from Church headquarters just now and one of the first questions was: "Choose the number of months you have been on your mission", then there was a slider with the number of months increasing from left to right. It took way too long to slide that thing over to 18 months. Can you believe that? I hit 18 months yesterday...
My parents always told me there was a time when I would have to start studying to get good grades in school. They told me this when I finished elementary school, middle school, and even high school. It's a point of extreme pride on my part that I have continuously proved them wrong. One part of my life where I cannot avoid studying though is definitely the Gospel. I can sleep through my DNA class and still get an A, but I can't sleep through personal scripture study and still apply the principles of the Gospel to myself. Luckily, I've discovered I really really really like studying and learning. It's awesome. So maybe I'll apply it to school when I get back, but the look of chagrin on my college professors' faces when they wake me up to hand me another "A" exam may be far too satisfying for me to miss out on ;) One thing is for sure though, I'll definitely have to show a lot more diligence in school from here on out. I got pretty darn lazy up there in Rexburg my last semester.
Well, Renaldo got caught up at work again yesterday so he wasn't able to come to church. Which means we're going to have to move his baptismal date back. We haven't told him this yet....he'll be way bummed. We invited him to watch a baptismal service we had just this past Saturday and he thought he was the one getting baptized. So that was a little awkward. We sorted it out though and I was really glad he was willing to do it haha. We gotta finish teaching him and he's gotta be able to come to church first.
He's really the only one we're meeting with consistently right now. It's been kinda frustrating in the search for new investigators the last couple of weeks. Not that I'm frustrated by it, it's just been a frustrating situation. There's a difference =) I have been feeling pretty worn out though, so I'm grateful for the P-day today haha. I'll get about 6 or 7 hours of relaxation before we gotta get back out there again. We cherish those hours.
One thing that has been really fun this transfer has been being a district leader here in Oslo. I haven't talked about it too much, but once I week I'm giving a district meeting presentation to a group of 12 missionaries. It's been a lot of fun, and the mission theme for August has been our missionary purpose. This past week, we talked about our personal covenants with God. It's something I've thought a lot about lately, and I'm grateful to have a nice platform to kind of get my thoughts out once a week. Our missionary purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping receive the restored Gospel..." Despite the use of the word "others" in that purpose, my basic point was that we cannot invite others to come unto Christ, without getting ourselves on the path first. That's something we have done by being baptized and confirmed by priesthood authority to enter into that sacred covenant with God.
We cannot teach the Gospel without the Spirit with us. How sensible is it then that our baptismal covenant is our key to having the Spirit as our companion? As stated in the sacrament prayers we hear each week in church, if we (1) take upon us the name of Christ, (2) always remember Him [aka allow the Atonement to be a part of our daily lives], and (3) keep His commandments, we are then promised that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. Maybe it's cause I'm a dirty "Spirit-less" heathen, but sometimes I think missionaries aren't selfish enough. We think too much about solving this problem or that with our investigators, without remembering that we ALSO need to make and keep that covenant with God, in order to have the Spirit present in inviting others to do the same. If we focus on our covenants and "getting the Spirit", everything else in our lives will fall into place, because we have the assurance that God is with us every step of the way.
Another important thing to remember for everyone is also that taking the name of Christ on us, remembering him (daily!), and "keeping" his commandments, are descriptions of a process rather than an event. No one is going to "keep" the commandments. Ever. Cause we aren't perfect, remember? But that isn't what "keeping the commandments" means. God doesn't need us to keep His commandments. It's for us. By living the Gospel and doing our best to follow Christ's example, we put ourselves in a position to be worthy of having His Spirit as our companion. That is what cleanses us and helps us improve. And that's really what it's all about.
Til next week!
Elder Sessions
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