Seventy-ninth Week - July 27, 2015

Hello, Everyone!! 

First of all, Elder Connor Copeland hit his year mark this week.  I am so proud of him and his willingness to serve the Lord.  He is such an example to me of someone who serves others with all his might, mind, and strength.  I cannot wait to hear more of the miracles that he experiences as he continues to serve the Lord with all he has.  Keep up the great work Elder Copeland!!! 

 (Elder Copeland, who is Elder Wilde's cousin, serving in the Nicaragua Managua South Mission.)

This week we had the opportunity to meet with a set of Sisters in our Zone and to have a Preach My Gospel study with them.  We were able to learn together how to more effectively Teach People, Not Lessons.  The Sisters in the Zone and in the Mission continue to amaze me with their hard work and  diligence!  Elder Orr and I are truly grateful for all that Sister Torres and Sister Tian do! 

This week we had many opportunities to teach others about the Gospel.  While I would love to share with each of you the experiences that Elder Orr and I have had, I feel prompted to share something I learned in studies and thought about deeply this week.  Please bear with me as I try to articulate something that I have pondered deeply. 

It seems that on this mortal journey we are bound for a series of crossroads.  They come to us in a variety of ways and of varying degrees of importance.  Some matter very little to our personal growth while others have a direct bearing on who we are becoming and where we are going.  Some may be individual while others a family matter.  It seems that these intersecting roads of travel known as reason and faith affect everyone, no one is immune. 

The scriptures are full of such accounts when those of old come to such a point.  Confusing and conflicting voices seem to fill their minds with what their finite minds believe to be impossible.  It may happen to parents who like Moses led the Israelite nation, or their family, away from the bondage and sin that besets all of us.  Running for their lives, what could have been going through Moses's mind as he approached the Red Sea?  Had such a feat ever been done before?  I am sure that many, even himself, could have said, "Moses turn right or left, there is a huge lake of water there."  Such a feat was incomprehensible to them that reason as to the thoughts of men.  Yet Moses pressed on.  He knew that as he pressed forward, chose the path of Faith in the Lord, leaned not upon his or others' reason, they would be delivered.  He led them towards what had not been done before and the Lord delivered them from what was logically and seemingly insurmountable.  

It may come to each of us in another form such as Nephi who was commanded to return and obtain the Plates of Brass.  Twice they tried to persuade and even attempted to buy him out in order to obtain the sacred record.  However, they were without success; furthermore, their lives were nearly taken.  Yet Nephi tried a third time.  The scriptures say, "I (Nephi) was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."  Can any of us imagine Nephi's thoughts?  He did not even have a plan.  Yet he chose to follow in faith knowing that the Lord would provide.  Our daily lives are filled with such examples when we try try try yet it is to no avail.  Let us be like Nephi whose faithful heart pressed forward when logic and reason would have left others returning home only to report that what the Lord had commanded was too difficult. 

Finally, let us be like the Savior.  We cannot comprehend the extent of our Redeemer's pain, yet it was so much for him to ask, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; if it be possible let this cup pass from me." (Mark 14:36 & Matthew 26:39)   In his greatest moment of trial, He asked if there wasn't some other way.  The Son of Man thought through all the options and asked but in the end pressed forward with faith, nothing wavering until he had finished the work to which the Father sent him.  There will be moments in each of our lives where we will ask if there is another way.  In those times of trial, may we look towards the Savior as our example and press forward with complete and total faith that we may be able to become the celestial beings that our father sees us as.  Such faith is a defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ.

We live in a time and have lived in a time where logic seems to supersede and underestimate the things of God.  I would hope that each of us will have the courage of Nephi to go back one more time.  The faith of Moses to press forward.  The faith in our Father in Heaven to look for the rainbow in the darkest of storms while enduring them well. The Lord can make more out of you and me than can all the wisdom of the world.  I want to leave with a quote that our Mission President recently shared that seems rather fitting. 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone
And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

--Mariane Williamson   

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."  (D&C 6:36).  

Why? 

Because He Lives

Love,

Elder Wilde