Hello everyone!
This week has been the best week Thus far in my mission! Our awesome,
hilarious, 22 year old investigator got baptized. It was such a
beautiful baptism. Akamatsu choro baptized him, and the spirit was so
strong. Noguchi is his name. I have only known him for a week and a
half, but I have grown to love him so much. He has such strong faith,
and through meeting with him many times, and playing basketball and
being with him at church I have learned so much. It has been such a
rewarding experience and a blessing. My testimony has been
strengthened by his simple, strong faith. I am so happy.
This week I felt a change inside me. I want to do everything that I
can to "create success" as Elder Ballard's talk is titled. Before this
moment in my mission, I think that I felt, or at least acted as if if
I do what I should be doing and am obedient and giving pretty good
effort, that success will come. THIS IS SATANS'S LIE TO GOD'S
MISSIONARIES. I know realize that we have to literally make success.
We have to give everything, and truly do absolutely everything we can
to see, find, teach, and baptize God's children. We as missionaries
need to step up our game and literally give every second of every day
everything that we have to offer, and then rely on Christ and give
even more. Miracles come from faith, but without action we have no
faith. We as missionaries and as members across the world need to
think less about "oh I'm doing pretty good" or "oh I work pretty
hard", or "I'm trying really hard." To say those things is to admit
that you are not giving everything, or that is the way that I see it
at least. If you are giving everything, you will be seeing success.
That is promised by Elder Ballard. He says, If you give everything
that you have, and work the hardest that you can, you will baptize
constantly. The only reason that we don't baptize constantly is
because of our lack of faith. This concept is obviously pretty
intense, and pretty hard to really believe, but it is truth.
We have become a passive `try hard` society that is living far below
the standard that God expects. If you are not giving everything, `not
consecrated` and you have been to the temple, then you are not
following God. This is why we are all sinners, because we cannot
always give everything to God in every second, but we sure definitely
can give a whole lot more than we are giving. We as missionaries and
as members must seek to consecrate everything to God. There is always
more to give, and there is always something that we are holding back.
That is our task here. To become like God. God is perfect. Do you
think that it will be easy to become perfect? It is imperative that we
stop taking the easy road. We need to stop taking the road that will
not offend anyone. We need to be bold. We need to take the hard road
and stand up for and what we must do because they are true. We need to
give everything. We have to EARN eternal life. Many of us do not take
this responsibility nearly serious enough! This is the greatest gift
God can give, he wants to give it, but we have to be at a level of
perfection in order to be able to receive it. This is our call: to
become perfect. We should repent every night to be perfect, and then
try harder the next day to literally be perfect. I so far from perfect
myself, but when we recognize that this is the expectation, we stop
telling ourselves nice little lies from Satan, and we stand up tall,
and do what needs to be done. WE CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN TO ETERNAL LIFE.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love,
コノバー長老
Elder Conover
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