Agency and Obedience

hey everyone!!

    so we got to watch a talk that elder holland gave a while ago about missionary work. he gave it in the mtc so i dont think you can look it up or not but if you can i would want you to try. he speaks with such emotion and is just the best. he said alot of things and kind of got onto a tangent when he was speaking and talked about missionaries who are called to go on a mission and end up going home. he said that if it is medical reasons or complications that it isnt the missionary's fault. but to those who get called and go home because it is too hard is a disgrace. they are pitiful members of the church and they will be forever in regret for not doing as the Lord asks. he is very blunt haha but its a good point. if you commit to doing something you better stinkin do it. thats what Christ does, what God does, and we want to be like them.

      we talked alot about agency this week. that it is necessary for us to have agency or else we can never become a like our heavenly father. through the choices we make with agency defines who we are and who we will become. elder pieper from the 70 spoke yesterday about the subject. he said that we will never do something that we dont want to do. that we should decide NOW what our choice will be when faced with the adversary. they say that if you make it so that you have to make a decision every day that eventually you will slip up and make a mistake and screw it up. satan knows the natural man and our desires. what makes us tick. what distracts us from the truth and the righteous path. he doesnt make us choose the wrong. he only makes us get tired of choosing the right. like in the morning when you wake up. if you have decided that you will get up at 630 every morning no matter what then that is what you will do. but if you wake up everymorning at 630 and think to yourself should you get up or not, then eventually you will just say it doesnt matter and roll over and sleep longer. this is what satan wants. he wants us to be worn down by our own will. he doesnt force us to steal or lie or cheat or be offended by someone. he wears us down so much by having us make a decision every day. then we in our own minds will find that the wrong thing to do isnt that bad. that taking a break from doing what God wants is okay because our backs hurt, because your kids wont settle down, because someone didnt say hi to you one day. are you really going to let a simple and pointless thing eventually destroy your faith for the Lord?

      through him all things are possible. i cant say that enough.

     but in other news im doing great! DL is easy now but i still forget when the meetings are. all the missionaries that were here my first week are gone now. we are almost the oldest in our zone. every sunday we have to prepare a talk in total spanish (frustrating) and we dont even know who is going to talk. after the sacrament our presiding authority gets up and picks two speakers from the crowd. its sooooo nerve racking! but once you find out you dont have to talk you can relax. sometimes, well most times, i relax to much and wake up during the closing hymn haha. oh well my subconcience is getting smarter. the food sucks now. ill leave it at that. but my cereal blueberry muffin top still rocks. did you know there are 52 languages tought in the mtc?? mind bottling. and spanish has the most of all. people going to finland and speaking finnish are the worst off cuz thats the hardest language to learn period. poor missionaries. i dont know if ive said this before but in the mtc they ask us to call each other either elder or hermana. im still battling with it. saying 'hey dude' or 'maaaan' or 'bro' even is like my life. but all things must come to an end and obedience is key.

     someone said that obedience is the gateway rule to everything. you will never do anything wrong if you arent obedient. and you will never do anything right if at first you werent being obedient. so thats fun. obey and become a God. why does it seem so hard at times? life on earth isnt a sneeze compared to eternal life. dont waste your precious seconds on earth envying, lusting, being mad, or even just doing nothing. because if your not progressing then your getting further away from our father in heaven. i love you all very much and thank you SSSSSOOOOOO much for the christmas stuff!!! paz

ps i cant call on christmas cuz theres 2000 missionaries with 5 phones