Forty-ninth Week - December 29, 2014

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and had a great opportunity and memorable time with family!! 

On Christmas Eve, Elder Vaughn and I, among other missionaries, had the opportunity to work on the temple grounds giving tours of paintings as well as talking to people on the grounds.  It was a lot better than last time it didn't rain and it was, after all, Christmas Eve. Elder Vaughn and I were able to take a picture in front of a print of the statue of Christ sitting in the Visitors Center in Salt Lake.  We, also, were able to walk around and see what a wonderful job the Church did with the lights on the grounds.  Elder Summers (Idaho), Elder Moore (Texas but grew up in Guam), and Elder Jordan (Nevada) were all there as well, and we were able to work with each other.  We finished Christmas lights at about 11:45 and got home a little after 12.  Luckily for us, we were able to sleep in on Christmas day but that didnt really happen.  If there is one thing I have learned from my family and three younger brothers, it's that one cannot sleep in on Christmas morning.  That morning we were able to sit together and to open presents and eat a big breakfast together.  Forgive us for not being in proselyting attire, but at least Deloitte is represented well! 

Overall, it was a great Christmas experience and we had a lot of fun on Christmas day.  The day after, Boxing Day (equivalent to the United States, Black Friday) I got to call home and speak with my family for a little while.  It was great to hear their voices and to hear about some of the changes they had made since my departure.  It was concluded by a spiritual thought and a commitment to the family.  I will continue to follow up with them as they agreed to find, teach, and baptize someone before my return home in the following year.  I invite everyone, to follow up with them on that one ;) 

Finally, as we had anticipated a baptism for Saturday, I want to share with you one of the best experiences I have had on my mission.  Our investigator, David, was supposed to be baptized but in the end did not enter into the waters of baptism as he could not keep the Word of Wisdom.  On the day before his baptism, he told us what he had done and we sat and talked to him about what the next step was.  We felt prompted  to explain the Atonement to him and the requirements for baptism.  In the end after he decided not to be baptized, I felt prompted to tell him about a talk Elder Utchdorf gave several years ago.  The analogy he discussed was how if an airplane was just one degree off, then it could miss the runway and crash into a mountain.  I felt impressed to tell David that even one degree, disobedience to God's commandments, can make the biggest impact in his eternal progression.  Furthermore, after explaining this principle, I felt the need to explain to him that when we go one degree away from God that we start to go down a slippery slope and before we know it, we could be several degrees off, farther from the Kingdom of God.  He said that it wouldn't happen to him, and we told him that Satan has means to make that happen.  The day of the baptism, Satan showed all three of us the power that he has.  He made David feel so guilty that he wouldn't come to the baptism to support a friend who was being baptized. Furthermore, David felt like he had betrayed Heavenly Father.  

That evening, David gave us a call and I talked to him about what had happened and why he had felt those feelings.  In turn, he recognized what happened and why they had happened. While on the phone talking with him, I saw the October General Conference magazine sitting on my desk.  I felt like I should open it but had no clue what talk to open to.  I sat there staring at it and finally decided to open it and open to one of the two talks I hadn't yet read.  The talk was Elder Katcher's, "Triffle Not with Sacred Things."  I remembered the talk and invited David to read it on LDS.org:

Trifle Not with Sacred Things

(Click on the link above to listen, read, or print this talk.)

He accepted and we will be discussing it this week.  After reading it in my personal study, I understood why he needed that talk.  Elder Katcher discussed some of the trials he went through before he joined the church.  One of those trials included temptations from friends.  This related to David as his concern is the pressure that his friends will give him when he tells them he doesn't drink. 

From this story, I want to draw on a few key points that I have been reminded of.  The first is that when we do not do what the Lord has asked us to do we open ourselves up to the adversary and allow him to play with our emotions.  How grateful I am for the Atonement, which as David applies it, will help to return back on the pathway to our Heavenly Father. Second, the Lord knew what David needed and taught me a lesson about following through on impressions from the Spirit.  I believe, without a doubt, that if we had not listened to the Spirit, David would have been in a much different place than where he is now.  Often times, we are able to hear the Spirit whisper into our hearts but the harder thing to do is to follow through on those impressions.  The Lord will never forsaken us and while it may seem like flipping through a magazine will yield nothing, I learned that we receive light step by step.  It wasn't only until I had opened the magazine that I knew which talk to go to.  Life is often like this.  It is not until after a trial of our faith that we gain a convincing testimony of Heavenly Father and his plans for us. 

I am so very thankful for the prayers and support that has been offered in my behalf.  Thank you so very much! 

Love,

Elder Wilde