AWESOME
WEEK. This week I had some personal spiritual experiences and got the
energy and desire I was looking for. God answers prayers, especially if
we open our hearts to Him, strip ourselves of our pride and selfish
desires, repent in sackcloth and ashes, and truly say "Lord not my will,
but thine be done.." The mish is hard but sometimes we have to just
accept it and trust that the Lord will make it turn out for your good
and you just need to say "Come what may and love it," because God loves a
willing heart. Elder Holland once quoted a great swimmer who was asked
what the key to his success was. The Swimmer said, "When I don't want
to kick, I kick. When I don't want to stroke, I stroke." Even if we don't wanna do what the Lord asks, we should just forget our desire, do
what the Lord wants us to do, not with a bad attitude and with
resentment, but with the trust that God will make it work out for the
good and that Going with what God wants is really the only intelligent
thing to do in the end, especially if you are a missionary.
The
mission is 100 million times easier in the long run when we do it the
Lords way. The only hard part is having the courage to give Him the only
thing that doesn't belong to Him in the first place, which is our
heart, or our will. Every thing we have was already His in the first
place. The Lord will never be indebted to us. So we shouldn't do anything
for God if we have the attitude of, "I am going to do this for you so I
can have blessings..." because God does not owe us blessings or
anything at all for that matter. If we are thinking that way, it is like
we are trying manipulate and control God. "I am only gonna do this so
this blessing will happen..." Read Mosiah 2 and you know what I am
trying to say. Instead, we should serve God with the attitude that 'Man
is nothing,' and our own wants and wishes are nothing.
This
is from Elder Lawrence E Corbridge's sermon, called "The 4th
Missionary," to his missionaries when he was a mission president in 2002
(Just google it if you wanna read it) :
"Moses saw God face to face, experienced His presence, saw the workmanship of God's hands, felt and
witnessed His greatness and glory, and when it was all over, he said: "Now; for this cause I know that man is
nothing, which thing I never had supposed." (Moses 1:10).
Could it be that in comparison to the
greatness and glory of God, Moses saw that man in his weakness is
nothing? Mormon described this same condition of spirit when he
described many of the Nephite people living at
the time of Christ's birth: "Behold, they do not desire that the Lord
their God, who hath created them, should rule
and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy
towards them, and they do set at naught
his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide. O how
great is the nothingness of the children of
men..." (Hel. 12:6-7). "
In the end, your heart and your will is all that you have to give that the Lord does not already have. If you
give your time, two years, and your strength, you give only that which He grants to you with each beat of your
heart and each breath that you draw. If you dedicate your gifts and talents, you only return to Him what He
already has given to you. If you pay tithing you only return to Him a tenth of what he has already given to you.
Everything that you have to give to the Lord, has its origin in Him, except one thing: your will. He does not have
your heart, nor your mind, unless you give them to Him. It is the only gift you have to offer that He does not
already have. And so when you give yourself, you truly give everything to Him.
Jesus spoke of this matter of giving or consecrating yourself in different words. He spoke of losing
yourself. He said:
25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt. 16:25, 26)
Just give it up. Surrender your will to Him. Unconditionally. Withhold nothing. Turn it all over to Him;
all of your desires, wishes, dreams and hopes. Be true and faithful in your head and in your heart, not just in your
behavior. Trust in Him. Trust Him who knows all things. Trust Him who has all power. Trust Him whose love for
you is perfect. Trust Him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for your sins, and for your weaknesses as well.
Trust Him that He will make of you, immeasurably more, than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of
yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary
man. He will create a God.
I think that President David O. McKay once said something like this: "The greatest battles you will ever
fight will be within the silent chambers of your heart" That is the battleground between what you want and what
the Lord wants. If you surrender, if the Lord wins, you win also. If you win, if your will prevails, you and the
Lord both lose. The only wav to win is to lose. Lose yourself in the Lord's work, and you will win beyond your
wildest imaginations, for "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
And that sums up what I am trying to say haha. Couldn't be said better...
But anyways about what happened this week...
Omar Lazaro was baptized on Saturday!!
and Confirmed On Sunday!! And will be receiving the priesthood next
week!! Man this dude is CONVERTED. He is definitely the most impressive
convert I have had so far on the mission. He was a member referral and
came to church for the first time 6 weeks ago! He is 18 years old and
just as tall as me and a boss b-baller and he is just a boss.
He
is already excited to serve a mission next year, and marry in the
temple. Even before he was baptized, he would come with us to our other
appointments so he could sit in and listen and learn more. He is now
really excited to start fellow shipping and working with the missionaries
here in Lasam. He texts me all the time about how he is constantly
sharing his testimony to his family and friends and neighbors, bearing
testimony of the BoM and of Joseph Smith and Thomas S Monson. Last night
he told us about how one of his friends chided him for decided to
become a Mormon and all this stuff, but he said he stayed firm and said
that he knows that Thomas S Monson is a living prophet of God. I am so
excited to see what his life will turn out to be as a member of this
church and a disciple of Jesus Christ. Plus the girl that referred him
to us, Angel Saragosa, has a thing with him and they are like kinda
going out haha. The branch President keeps giving him crap saying that
he just became a Mormon for her, but that isn't true cause Omar received
an answer from the Holy Ghost that the true church of God was restored
through the prophet Joseph Smith. He is about to Finish 2nd Nephi! This
dude is the real deal. I am gonna miss him, and all my other recent
converts as well, so much.
So yah, also......I
AM TRANSFERRING!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED and sad... I spoke in sacrament
meeting and totally brought the heat and used some pretty vivid
scripture in D&C 121 about using the priesthood in righteousness
(because it is kinda a problem here in Lasam) and yah I just spit fire.
Then I bore testimony and said goodbye to the Lasam Saints and cried and
all that haha. I probably gave away half of my ties as
remembrances...So mom and dad and grandparents, make sure you send me
some more ties in my birthday and Christmas packages :) President
Andrada called me Sunday morning to inform me that I AM TRAINING
YESSSSSSSS! I am so excited. My new area is in Vintar, which is like the
biggest geographical area in the mission, and it is also close to
Laoag. SO I have a bus ride later that is gonna be long and tiring
haha.
I am so grateful that I got to serve 8
months in Lasam. I learned SO MUCH and grew quite a bit, and I had 11
baptisms (Thanks to part member families and member referrals of course)
and I am never ever going to forget these wonderful people. I love them
and I pray I will see them again one day, either still in this life, or
perhaps in the Celestial Kingdom, which I cant wait for... I love these
people.
I am ready to kick some butt in Vintar
and baptize everyone and train a new missionary and help him have a good
start to his mission. Seriously whoever my trainee is, he's a lucky dude
i mean elder, cause he is about to be immersed into this work and WE
ARE GONNA GO SUPER SAYAN!!! I hope he is American so I can make fun of
him hahaha. (Cause the Filipinos are sensitive and don't understand
sarcasm so I can't joke with them the way I want). I will be in Laoag
for most of this week waiting for my trainee, so I am gonna take a nice
vaca and eat some fast food and catch up with other missionaries and I
am excited haha.
I Love you all, and God be with you,
-Elder Andersen
Goodbye Lasam :(
Me and Omar :)
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