Applying the Gospel to Missionary Work: Repentance

     Since being on my mission I have gained a deep appreciation for daily repentance.

     As some of you may be aware, once a week missionary companionships conduct a 3-4 hour “Weekly Planning Session” during which we set goals and makes plans as to how we can best forward the work in our area. There are thirteen guidelines which we use to direct our weekly planning session, the final of which is “Conduct companionship inventory.”

     “At the end of your weekly planning session, share with your companion appropriate goals, and ask for his or her help to accomplish them. Discuss the strength of your relationship with your companion. Discuss any challenges that may be keeping your companionship from working in unity or from being obedient. Resolve conflicts. Share with your companion what you think his or her strengths are. Ask for suggestions on how you can improve. If needed, set goals that will improve your relationship. Conclude with prayer.” (Preach my Gospel)

     There are a lot of situation-specific conversations that come as a result of living with another human being 24/7. You no longer have the luxury of keeping ANYTHING to yourself. Any bad habit or silly quirk or annoying tendency you may have quickly becomes apparent within the first week. No one is exempt; we all do at least one thing that will drive our companion nuts. I imagine that spending so much time together in such a manner gives us a taste of what an omnipotent being gets to experience. Unfortunately, human beings tend to be a lot less forgiving than said omnipotent being when for the 489^th time they have to say, “Sister Ashworth, will you PLEASE stop leaving all the cupboards open whenever you get something from the kitchen??” (I have a problem.) Companionship inventory gives you the wonderful opportunity to acknowledge a need for improvement, and the to “share with your companion appropriate goals” and “ask for suggestions on how you can improve.”

     As missionaries we have been called by a prophet of God to preach the restored truths of the plan of salvation and of the gospel, but we are not perfect. As Paul taught, we “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 5:23) Each of us has broken a commandment or failed to act righteously despite our knowledge of the truth. We learn from the Book of Mormon that “for all [our] doings [we shall] be brought into judgment. Wherefore if [we] have sought to do wickedly in the days or [pour[ probation, then [we] are found unclean before the judgment-seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God, wherefore, [we] must be cast off forever. (1 Nephi 10:20-21) How fortunate it is then that we have access to Christ's mercy through conditions of repentance. “If we confess our sins, [Christ] is faithful, and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

     Laying aside for a moment the eternal ramifications of sin. Ere and now there is another real consequence to defiling our lives with disobedience. After we are baptized we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands. This gift of the Spirit is essential in missionary work. As missionaries we are called to “preach [Christ's] gospel by the Spirit (D&C 42:14) we are admonished that “if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.” Disobedience drives away the Spirit, and therefore even the smallest acts of rebellion or neglect inhibit our ability to fulfill our purpose. If we are to be effective disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we are fulfill our missionary purpose, which includes calling others to repent, we must learn to repent properly and completely ourselves.

     Elder David A. Bednar taught 

     “Repentance is a principle of hope and healing- not of discouragement and despair. Repentance indeed is humbling- but not frightening. Repentance is simultaneously demanding and comforting, rigorous and soothing.” What a gift it is to repent! Indeed it “is a priceless gift made possible through the atonement of him whom we love, serve, and follow.” (Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary, Seminar for new Mission Presidents 2011)

     In Isaiah we read, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:16-18)

     When our spirits become dirty or disfigured, we are not told to wallow in our fallen state, but rather to “Awake! And arise form the dust... put on the Armour of righteousness. Shake of the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity.” (2 Nephi 1:14,23) The Lord is calling us to action; to free ourselves from the bonds of sin by coming unto Jesus Christ and being made clean through his priceless gift of the atonement. And when we answer that call, when we repent, it is then that we are made effective servants of the Lord. It is then that we are able to “thrust in [our] sickle with all [our] soul, and be laden with sheaves upon [our] backs.” (D&C 31:5) 

     Of this I testify in Jesus' name, amen.

Applying the Gospel to Missionary Work: Faith

 

("The Annunciation" by Rose Datoc Dall via her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rosedatocdallstudio)

     I have decided to start a series of posts that will hopefully help those of you not currently serving full time missions to feel more comfortable with sharing the gospel, by illustrating how the different principles and ordinances of the Gospel help ME to tackle such a task. Over the next few weeks I'll cover five different topics: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. Today's topic: Faith.

     As I'm sure you may have guessed, missionary work is work. It is hard, hard work. In a talk given at the Provo MTC in June of 2000, Elder Holland said, 

     "Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?...I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?"

     I have had occasion to ponder on the power of Christ this past week. I am not sure what enabled Christ to be so submissive, meek, humble, patient, and full of love, that without ever faltering from the path, he could willingly submit to all things which God the Father saw fit to inflict upon him. I do not yet understand how it was possible for a being to rely upon his own self when suffering under the greatest trial and affliction known to man, and to come out victorious. What I do know, is that because he did, we now have in our lesser moments of trial what he in that climactic hour did not: someone to rely on.

     Elder Holland went on to Sate, 

     "When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions...I promise that because of your faithful response to the call to spread the gospel, He will bind up your broken hearts, dry your tears, and set you and your families free. That is my missionary promise to you and your missionary message to the world." ( "Missionary Work and the Atonement,” 20 June 2000,  emphasis added)

     What allows us as missionaries to unlock the enabling power if the atonement? That same thing which has ever inspired to men to act: our Faith i.e. our Trust in our savior. As spoken by the Prophet Moroni, "O Lord, Thy righteous will be done, for I know that thou workest unto the children of men according to their faith."

     I know that whatever trials we may face, whatever struggles we may have to endure as the work goes forward, we will be given the strength and the courage to overcome them as we look unto the Savior faith. Remember the prayer of Alma as he headed out the mission to reclaim the apostate Zoramites:

     “O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people… O Lord, wilt thou comfort my soul, and give unto me success, and also my fellow laborers who are with me…Yea, wilt thou comfort their souls in Christ. Wilt thou grant unto them that they may have strength, that they may bear their afflictions which shall come upon them because of the iniquities of this people. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ. Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee.” 

     And then we read, 

     “...it came to pass that when Alma had said these words, that he clapped his hands upon all them who were with him. And behold, as he clapped his hands upon them, they were filled with the Holy Spirit…And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith.” (Alma 31:31-38)

     I know that as we look to Christ to support us in our missionary efforts, we will experience the same blessings as did Alma. To be sure, trials and tribulations will come, but we will not experience those trials and tribulations, save our sorrows shall be swallowed up in the joy of Christ- a joy comes as a natural result of our Faith and Trust in our Lord and Savior. 
     Of this I testify, in his name, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

Accepting the Atonement

So today I was browsing the good ol' interwebs when I came across the following question:

Help me, general public:
When all you want to do is make someone happy, when their well-being seems to upstage your own, when helping such an individual is all within your realm of desire and nothing seems to accomplish that, and worse if all they say is there isn't anything you can do to help when you know in your gut you can because those gut feelings for others are the only ounces of sincerity we have left in this world, what do you do? How can you fix a gash so it can be made better than it was before?
Any response will be taken into consideration. I'm looking to change and save something worth saving.

Honestly, I couldn't help myself. Maybe I'm just experiencing premature-hyperactive-missionary-mode (I believe the clinical term is PHMM,) but I had to share my thoughts, and the only way I could think to do that was to liken whatever these to people are going through to the roles we play with the savior when we are choosing to accept his Grace. The following is what spewed out:
(Please note that the person I was dumping my thoughts on was LDS, so at least they knew who the crap I was talking about.)

If someone says that you won't be able to help, then you won't be able to.
Not because you are incapable of fixing their problems or taking their pain away, but because in their minds they have already determined that a problem is un-fixable. And when it comes down it, accepting your help isn't something you can make someone do, it is something they have to choose.
It is like the atonement.
*WARNING* Going into missionary mode here.
Christ already suffered for our sins, he has all power, so why aren't we just perfect already? In some ways I think it is because we say to ourselves, "I cannot change, too much damage has been done, I am not fixable." but in Alma 34 it says,
"if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you."
that is so powerful, that word, "Immediately."
We are taught in Mosiah 15, "...all those who have hearkened unto their [the prophet's] words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God."
In both these examples, we see that what we need to receive a remission of our sins is to believe that such a remission of sin is possible. And we see that the Lord is true to his word, for in Alma 36, Alma relates,
"And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more."
Until Alma remembered the words of his father, and asked Christ to save him from his torment, he was stuck in a state of misery.
Isn't it amazing that something as simple as accepting the help of another is what dictates our very salvation?
So this was a really long, round about way of saying that what you may want to try focusing on first, is convincing your friend that a problem such as theirs IS fixable. I have a feeling that you already have all the tools one would need to help your friend, but that won't do him/her any good if they don't believe it.

After giving this impromptu and unasked for sermon, the thought struck me, "Hey! Isn't that what missionaries are needed for in the first place?"

Of Their Own Nation and Tongue

In some ways I have been a little bummed out because of my mission call. I mean, my mother served in Colombia, my father served in Italy, part of me was kinda expecting to carry on the legacy of going foreign, or at least that I'd speak another language.
And don't worry, I understand how ungrateful of me that is. I have been asked by God to bring others to him, and it's pretty disrespectful to be displeased with his choice. Who am I to question the directions given by an omnipotent being? Whoever I am, what I am is rather stupid.
In my defense I think most if not all my displeasure came from the worry about what the reason was that I had been sent stateside. For some reason I have come to associate the "spiritual status" of my fellow laborers in the vineyard by where they were sent to labor. (Oh you went to Arizona? That's nice...) So when I read that I had been called state-side, all I could think was that my heavenly father didn't see me as strong enough to handle the jungles of Africa, or the urban sprawl of Mexico City. That my heavenly father didn't see me as smart enough to learn Mandarin, German, Tagalog, or even Spanish! That if there was a reason I was being sent to North Carolina, it wasn't good one, because only incompetent people get sent state side.
Now I do think there is a reason I have been sent where I have been sent, but I didn't know what it was until this morning when I was reading the 29th chapter in the book of Alma. After seeing the success which his brethren, the sons of Mosiah, had had amongst the Lamanites, Alma seems to have had similar feelings, (albeit on a much grander scale.) He writes,

  O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

  Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

  But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.

 My first though was, "Sheesh! Alma is sinning for wanting to preach repentance unto the whole earth? What am I to say for myself, that I am whining about traveling a mere 2000mi away from home to preach the gospel?" And so I read on. A few verses later,

  Now, seeing that I know these things [the plan of salvation], why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?

  Why should I desire that I were an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth?

  For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.

That last verse (which happens to be v.8) is where I found the reason for which I have been called to North Carolina. That the people of my nation may be taught by one of their kindred, and in our tongue. As Alma says, "We see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true." He goes on to affirm

  I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

  And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.

What a blessing are the holy scriptures unto man! A verse from the tenth chapter of Corinthians comes to mind,

  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

How grateful I am to have found not only commiseration, but resolution in just a few verses! Truly I have been blessed this day. On that note, it strikes me now that this morning I was feeling the strongest disinclination to keep up the habit I have established of studying my scriptures first thing in the morning. There was even a moment that I paused and thought, why am I feeling this way?

Hey, two thumbs up for yielding to the enticings of the spirit, right?