Hello everyone,
Things are starting to pick up again. The goal with a
mission I'm finding is trying to keep your teaching pool up while still
teaching; I'm trying to get rid of the sine wave and make it an Every
Companionship Baptize Every Week line. Gotta study Find while you Teach and
Teach while you Find in PMG harder I guess.
Kinda cool experience
happened. Last week we got a media referral texted to us. These things are kinda
nifty - someone asks for the missionaries or an item through mormon.org and we
get a little text with their address and phone number to contact within 24
hours. Anyways, we got one and went to go check it out... turns out it was a
"ghost" referral to a member's home. She's a 14 y/o girl who is active and
didn't put in the referral, but while we were over there we talked to her friend
and her about inviting someone to take the lessons anyways. She actually went
and did it, and now we have a lesson on Thursday with one of her
friends.
I'm finding I love love love working with the youth programs,
especially those with strong quorums and groups. Some wards just have the most
awesome youth programs and it really is a pleasure to work with the kids there.
It also makes me realize the lack of a youth program in other wards... when you
see a name on an unbaptized list and then begin to think how hard it will be to
try and fellowship them in, you know you have a problem... but we try and work
through it anyways.
Thursday makes three months in the field. I can't
believe it. Seven more of those cycles is all that's left. Weird.
--Elder
Chandler
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Letter 9-18-2012
hellooo everyone
This last week was pretty awful so I'm not going to talk about it much. Injuries make missionary work hard when they mess with the time you get to sleep, and 6:30 always rolls around at the same time. Needless to say, numbers weren't that stellar. The highlight was a trip with the whole mission over to Ensign Peak and Heritage Park on Wednesday. The mission president's wife was the head of Heritage Park between missions so she pushed it and the prez caved. I think he feels bad for it now though because it "didn't contribute to key indicators". Oh well, it was really fun and gave me more energy.
This next week is looking to be a lot, lot, lot better. We had stake conference on Sunday. During the talks I was kind of mulling over my own questions (the topic for conference was "teachers" and was kind of ambiguous so the talks were all over the place). I came up with my spiritual thought for the week as well as pondering the direction that we, the missionaries, wanted to take the mission in this stake. It was a challenge the stake prez gave us. I thought of Alma establishing the church in Zarahemla in Alma 6, so I turned there.
It hit me really hard. The first thing he does is call a bunch of priests and elders to minister and teach to the people. What is the new mission doing, the main pilot? Putting a bunch of missionaries (elders) in a tiny area. The next thing they do is "month of perfection", which is the initiative here to update the church records (including blotting out the names of those who have no desire to attend church anymore) and keep a steady knowledge of every single household in each ward. The new mission has done both of those. So what's next? The people fasted and prayed for the welfare of the souls who had not yet heard the gospel.
I found a sheet lying in our dorm of a "21-day promise". Apparently about a year ago there was a statement made by general authorities promising that if members opened 21 days with a fast, prayed morning and night every day, read the scriptures every day, and were especially obedient, one of the people on a list of potentials would accept the invitation to take the missionary discussions. I've been trying to spearhead this with the wards and eventually the stake to actually get an initiative going on this one year later. It's the first time I think I've ever really got a "bee in my bonnet" (thanks mom?) to do anything. (Except maybe the app that Daniel Butler and I did at college... but that was a 6 hour project.) It's going to begin with a stake-wide fast which I've already set up with the stake. Super exciting stuff happening.
As far as us, we fasted on Monday. That day was the most productive day I think this area has had in months if not years. For all intents and purposes we got 5 new investigators and had 3 lessons. It didn't report like that - there's still some work to do to make them absolutely count - but I'm going to think of it that way. We're hoping to pick up most of them on baptism dates this coming week. Fasting works. I was bad at it at home but holy moley :) Now I know what it's like when Nephi says, while working on the boat, that he had no strength but the Spirit controlled his movements. So cool.
(Now please don't take me talking about this to mean to fast precisely. It's actually in the missionary handbook that missionaries can't ask people at home to fast for specific people in the mission. I'm just telling the success it has given hopefully to increase others testimonies on the subject.)
Anyways, I'll give things more specifically once things get rolling.
TTFN, Ta-ta for now,
- Elder Chandler
Spiritual thought for the week: reaction versus execution
This thought actually stems, from all things to stem from, competitive Pokemon battling. Now I know most of this next paragraph won't make sense but I'm going to type it out anyway for my personal blog. Feel free to try and follow along with one of the top Pokemon players in the world :) After that first paragraph it should be followable :P
In fourth gen UU, the mechanic of rain was obscenely overpowered. Many people (enough actually to keep it from getting banned) decided that it wasn't O(ver)P(owered) based on the grounds of "not being used enough to make a substantial hit in the metagame, its setup is too long". The requirements that it took to set up a rain team were too much for most people to see it as OP. As I started playing with rain though, I noticed a massive spike in wins. I wanted to refute the argument, but how? I thought about how, when I played with a rain team, I made the situation always include rain. Every single battle I was in, it was raining because my team that I used 100% of the time had rain. Not only did rain make the situation favorable for me every single time, but it made the other team play on its back foot and have to respond to the moves I made.
So what is the power in this idea that by creating a condition that, only for me, is favorable all the time as opposed to looking at general statistics where, percentage wise, the favorable condition I use isn't that common? I had no idea, but I felt that the idea was an interesting and strong one, so I applied it to my study on the Holy Ghost. As I studied the question harder, I realized the real question was one of keeping the other person on their back foot. It was a question of execution vs reaction. This brought me to a greater understanding of the power that the gift of the Holy Ghost really has.
When we are younger (or for anyone without the gift of the Holy Ghost), we have the light of Christ, we can feel the Holy Ghost from those that have the gift, but we don't have the gift. What does that mean we're doing? We are reacting to situations. We have the influence of something that is really good, really powerful, but it's only being used every once in a while. The light of Christ is reactive. When something happens, we can deem it bad or good, moral or immoral, in alignment with the will of God or not in alignment. It's after the fact. It's great, it helps us learn. I's been the staple of morality (and mortality) for every single person in existence up to the time of Jesus Christ, bar certain prophetical exceptions. It wasn't until after Christ's death even that he actually bestowed the gift of the Holy Ghost upon his disciples and gave them charge to give it to others (John 16, Acts something).
What makes the gift of the Holy Ghost so special then? Why do we need it, why is it such a cool (and I mean cool) blessing? It's because it gives us the power to execute. It gives us the power to have this (bear with me) massively overpowered menace to the great and abominable church metagame. And not just that, but to be able to use it all of the time. It's not something someone else brings upon us through reaction, it's something that we have the knowledge to be able to keep with us at all times. Possibly most important though: The gift of the Holy Ghost lets us be the will of God, and not just react to it.
How is that thought so cool? (I'm honestly kind of shaking, asdg holy moly) The gift of the Holy Ghost is the ability to be perfect. Literally perfect. If we were to follow the Holy Ghost in everything it told us to do, we would be perfect. If we can hone ourselves to the point where the Holy Ghost is our actions, we will be perfect.
"And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked... Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father... giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men"
Here's some scripture math for you, mom. Flesh (Jesus Christ) subjected to the Spirit. will of the Son swallowed up in the will of the Father. Will of the Father = Holy Ghost. Scripture math that into, "the will of the flesh being swallowed up in the Holy Ghost". The key link there is the gift of the Holy Ghost. As we strive to become perfect, "even as our Father in heaven is perfect", we need to have our will swallowed up in the Father's through the Holy Ghost. Because of Christ's "demigod" status, he was flesh and the Father. Through that connection he had power over life and death, and overcame the first part of the fall, spiritual death. The overcoming of the second death, that which is spiritual, though, comes from his perfectness in intent and the ability to have his will swallowed up in the father. Technically with this definition it would be possible for each of us to account for our own sins (not infinitely like the Savior) if we lived our lives directly in line with our wills swallowed up in the Father's. That would not be possible without the gift of the Holy Ghost; the ability to execute as a member of the Godhead as opposed to reacting with the light of Christ.
Hopefully I didn't take the implications too far. Take a ruler to my wrist if I'm teaching false doctrine. But this stuff rings true to me.
This last week was pretty awful so I'm not going to talk about it much. Injuries make missionary work hard when they mess with the time you get to sleep, and 6:30 always rolls around at the same time. Needless to say, numbers weren't that stellar. The highlight was a trip with the whole mission over to Ensign Peak and Heritage Park on Wednesday. The mission president's wife was the head of Heritage Park between missions so she pushed it and the prez caved. I think he feels bad for it now though because it "didn't contribute to key indicators". Oh well, it was really fun and gave me more energy.
This next week is looking to be a lot, lot, lot better. We had stake conference on Sunday. During the talks I was kind of mulling over my own questions (the topic for conference was "teachers" and was kind of ambiguous so the talks were all over the place). I came up with my spiritual thought for the week as well as pondering the direction that we, the missionaries, wanted to take the mission in this stake. It was a challenge the stake prez gave us. I thought of Alma establishing the church in Zarahemla in Alma 6, so I turned there.
It hit me really hard. The first thing he does is call a bunch of priests and elders to minister and teach to the people. What is the new mission doing, the main pilot? Putting a bunch of missionaries (elders) in a tiny area. The next thing they do is "month of perfection", which is the initiative here to update the church records (including blotting out the names of those who have no desire to attend church anymore) and keep a steady knowledge of every single household in each ward. The new mission has done both of those. So what's next? The people fasted and prayed for the welfare of the souls who had not yet heard the gospel.
I found a sheet lying in our dorm of a "21-day promise". Apparently about a year ago there was a statement made by general authorities promising that if members opened 21 days with a fast, prayed morning and night every day, read the scriptures every day, and were especially obedient, one of the people on a list of potentials would accept the invitation to take the missionary discussions. I've been trying to spearhead this with the wards and eventually the stake to actually get an initiative going on this one year later. It's the first time I think I've ever really got a "bee in my bonnet" (thanks mom?) to do anything. (Except maybe the app that Daniel Butler and I did at college... but that was a 6 hour project.) It's going to begin with a stake-wide fast which I've already set up with the stake. Super exciting stuff happening.
As far as us, we fasted on Monday. That day was the most productive day I think this area has had in months if not years. For all intents and purposes we got 5 new investigators and had 3 lessons. It didn't report like that - there's still some work to do to make them absolutely count - but I'm going to think of it that way. We're hoping to pick up most of them on baptism dates this coming week. Fasting works. I was bad at it at home but holy moley :) Now I know what it's like when Nephi says, while working on the boat, that he had no strength but the Spirit controlled his movements. So cool.
(Now please don't take me talking about this to mean to fast precisely. It's actually in the missionary handbook that missionaries can't ask people at home to fast for specific people in the mission. I'm just telling the success it has given hopefully to increase others testimonies on the subject.)
Anyways, I'll give things more specifically once things get rolling.
TTFN, Ta-ta for now,
- Elder Chandler
Spiritual thought for the week: reaction versus execution
This thought actually stems, from all things to stem from, competitive Pokemon battling. Now I know most of this next paragraph won't make sense but I'm going to type it out anyway for my personal blog. Feel free to try and follow along with one of the top Pokemon players in the world :) After that first paragraph it should be followable :P
In fourth gen UU, the mechanic of rain was obscenely overpowered. Many people (enough actually to keep it from getting banned) decided that it wasn't O(ver)P(owered) based on the grounds of "not being used enough to make a substantial hit in the metagame, its setup is too long". The requirements that it took to set up a rain team were too much for most people to see it as OP. As I started playing with rain though, I noticed a massive spike in wins. I wanted to refute the argument, but how? I thought about how, when I played with a rain team, I made the situation always include rain. Every single battle I was in, it was raining because my team that I used 100% of the time had rain. Not only did rain make the situation favorable for me every single time, but it made the other team play on its back foot and have to respond to the moves I made.
So what is the power in this idea that by creating a condition that, only for me, is favorable all the time as opposed to looking at general statistics where, percentage wise, the favorable condition I use isn't that common? I had no idea, but I felt that the idea was an interesting and strong one, so I applied it to my study on the Holy Ghost. As I studied the question harder, I realized the real question was one of keeping the other person on their back foot. It was a question of execution vs reaction. This brought me to a greater understanding of the power that the gift of the Holy Ghost really has.
When we are younger (or for anyone without the gift of the Holy Ghost), we have the light of Christ, we can feel the Holy Ghost from those that have the gift, but we don't have the gift. What does that mean we're doing? We are reacting to situations. We have the influence of something that is really good, really powerful, but it's only being used every once in a while. The light of Christ is reactive. When something happens, we can deem it bad or good, moral or immoral, in alignment with the will of God or not in alignment. It's after the fact. It's great, it helps us learn. I's been the staple of morality (and mortality) for every single person in existence up to the time of Jesus Christ, bar certain prophetical exceptions. It wasn't until after Christ's death even that he actually bestowed the gift of the Holy Ghost upon his disciples and gave them charge to give it to others (John 16, Acts something).
What makes the gift of the Holy Ghost so special then? Why do we need it, why is it such a cool (and I mean cool) blessing? It's because it gives us the power to execute. It gives us the power to have this (bear with me) massively overpowered menace to the great and abominable church metagame. And not just that, but to be able to use it all of the time. It's not something someone else brings upon us through reaction, it's something that we have the knowledge to be able to keep with us at all times. Possibly most important though: The gift of the Holy Ghost lets us be the will of God, and not just react to it.
How is that thought so cool? (I'm honestly kind of shaking, asdg holy moly) The gift of the Holy Ghost is the ability to be perfect. Literally perfect. If we were to follow the Holy Ghost in everything it told us to do, we would be perfect. If we can hone ourselves to the point where the Holy Ghost is our actions, we will be perfect.
"And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked... Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father... giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men"
Here's some scripture math for you, mom. Flesh (Jesus Christ) subjected to the Spirit. will of the Son swallowed up in the will of the Father. Will of the Father = Holy Ghost. Scripture math that into, "the will of the flesh being swallowed up in the Holy Ghost". The key link there is the gift of the Holy Ghost. As we strive to become perfect, "even as our Father in heaven is perfect", we need to have our will swallowed up in the Father's through the Holy Ghost. Because of Christ's "demigod" status, he was flesh and the Father. Through that connection he had power over life and death, and overcame the first part of the fall, spiritual death. The overcoming of the second death, that which is spiritual, though, comes from his perfectness in intent and the ability to have his will swallowed up in the father. Technically with this definition it would be possible for each of us to account for our own sins (not infinitely like the Savior) if we lived our lives directly in line with our wills swallowed up in the Father's. That would not be possible without the gift of the Holy Ghost; the ability to execute as a member of the Godhead as opposed to reacting with the light of Christ.
Hopefully I didn't take the implications too far. Take a ruler to my wrist if I'm teaching false doctrine. But this stuff rings true to me.
Email from Brother Prestwich--
Parents,Just want to let you know how awesome your son is! I live in Murray Utah and have been working with a family (Chatwins)for 9 years. I am their home teacher. Their son Bryce, who is twelve this year has finally decided he wants to take the discussions. Your son has really connected with Bryce and was very instrumental in his baptism, he has been just the spark needed for Bryce and his [mother] who happened to be attending the baptism. Her mother (gma) is dying from cancer and when your son shared his powerful testimony during the baptism, prompted by the spirit, we all knew that we could live together forever with our parents and grandparents.
Who knew that this kid who looks like he’s 16yrs old could carry the spirit so strong? He is well read and surprises me at some of his study topics, for example, tomorrow he is going to dive into the difference of “the Light of Christ” and the “Holy Ghost” I love your son and his ease of speech and his discipline. His spontaneous personality makes him fun to be around and easy to talk to. We baptized Bryce two weeks ago, I am glad Elder Chandler was able to have such a profound effect in his and my life. Bryce will forever be linked to Elder Chandler. No doubt, he was called to labor in Utah for this reason and many other that the Lord knows he will positively influence. Kudos to you both for raising a God fearing, humble, strong and faithful son.
Sincerely, John Prestwich
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Letter 9-11-2012
What a big day. The 11th anniversary of 9/11. I still remember seeing those clips in the cafeteria at Rogers Elementary. Came home to more clips. Hopefully the ripples are still felt today a bit as we help people to understand that we, as a human family, can all come together through the one thing we all have in common - that we are sons and daughters of a loving heavenly father.This last week was............ hm. How to put it.
I know I'm not supposed to worry everyone back home, but hey, it's not that bad. On Tuesday after emails last week, we were playing frisbee in the parking lot as a zone. I jumped for a frisbee, got up, knocked it, and came down pretty hard on the side of my foot (I probably shouldn't be wearing size 12s or whatever the size of those Nikes are :) ). I was out for the rest of that day, but I've been working on it since then. The bruising from the sprain (not broken, just a sprain) is really pretty right now. I'll probably be 100% again by a week from today. So we were out of business Tuesday, and had to take sporadic breaks throughout the week until Sunday when I felt all the way up to it again.
Then, on Sunday, Elder Slade was coming down a hill and had his weight shifted weird on his bike, hit a slick patch, and turfed it. Because of his positioning he nailed his wrist pretty hard and we were out for the rest of Sunday. We're quite the sad and sorry pair this week! What's been cool, though, is that the Lord's work goes on even when things don't look too great. We had both our baptisms happen without a flaw this Saturday. Bryce seriously had the greatest showing from the ward at his baptism. They had people standing in the back of the Relief Society Room. If we got the help from the ward that we got with Bryce all the time, we will be able to hit mission standards, if not exceed them, every week. The problem is getting the wards to realize that it can happen...
I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting today on my mission. My farewell talk was 5-7 minutes long. I think my talk here was 20 minutes easy. It was more or less the member lesson we deliver. I talked about the new mission and the excitement it should bring to them. I also talked about the tree of life. The tree is the love of God, or more specifically stated in relation with John 3:16 is Jesus Christ. The fruits that we partake are the blessings we receive from obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. I emphasized the need of understanding the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives before thinking about the blessings. Too much people focus on the path and the Iron Rod when in reality you need to first realize why in the world you're even on the path. Its for the blessings of the priesthood, the Book of Mormon, prophets, the ability to correctly access the Atonement through baptism and the sacrament, the keys of the dispensation of the fulness of times (all the keys are restored for the first time ever!) through Elijah, Elias, and Moses. I then segwayed using the keys Moses gave (the gathering of Israel) to showing how we are called and commanded to do missionary work. It comes naturally when you understand the blessings the gospel gives you (See Lehi after partaking of the fruit in 1 Ne 8, see Peter after showing his love for God in John 21). And to sum it up I quoted Alma the Younger, "I speak by way of command unto you that belong to the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life." I think it's because of the nametag. It has special powers or something.
This has become an even larger problem at this point because, with those two baptisms, our teaching pool is now completely dry. Zero people on-date. Zero progressing investigators. Zero INVESTIGATORS. Which should never happen. So we're working on finding finding finding. There are a couple names in particular I'm looking forward to (praying to be) working with very shortly. One of them is a 13 year old boy named Skylar. His mom is a single mother that's LA, and he's never been baptized. From what I've gotten from him he's a great kid and should be a pleasure to work with him, if we can get in his home.
I finished Jesus the Christ this week. I wonder if any missionary has ever finished JtC and the BoM in their first two transfers. I'm pretty well on my way to doing that. Four weeks to get through the war chapters and the rest of the BoM. Is it possible? We'll see :) I'm not going to rush read at the expense of losing doctrinal learning.
Hope all is well--
Elder Chandler
Spiritual thought: The universality and sameness of (the) God(head) over time
We were challenged in a zone conference that occurred this last Thursday to re-read the Book of Mormon, and underline every time Jesus Christ is mentioned. To me it seems super cliche, so I decided to not only underline all mentions of Jesus Christ, but also highlight each of the principles of His gospel to better understand everything he teaches. Green for faith (seed), red for repentence (blood), blue for commandments (baptism), yellow for the Holy Ghost (spirit/light), and purple for endure to the end (receive royalty in heaven). We're to do it as a mission, so I'm on 1 Ne 12 with this challenge. As I was re-reading 1 Ne 10, I came across, again, those last 5 or 6 verses where he speaks preliminarily about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and goes more in depth in 2 Ne 31. What I came across was an epiphany about how the Godhead interacts with mankind.
The main question that is trying to be answered here is: Why, if God is the same at all times, do His directions for the children of men sometimes change? aka: blacks and priesthood, polygamy.
We know that God interacts with us the same yesterday, today, and forever, as it states multiple times in the scriptures, more specifically though in 1 Ne 10:18. But then I read this part without the verse markings again. Check it out.
"I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in times of old as in the time that he should manifest himself unto the children of men. For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him."
Perhaps a clearer statement comes in 1 Ne 12:18:
"A great and terrible gulf devideth them [those in the great and spacious building and those at the tree of life], yea even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever."
Clear statement of the purposes of each of the member of the Godhead as they relate to us. Justice, mercy, and bearing record. The Holy Ghost bears record henceforth and forever. It is the same way God speaks to us yesterday, today, and forever. Not that His word is always the same, but that His Word is always the same. His Word testifies of truth, whatever that may be at that time. "Truth" is arbitrary based on the world that is created around it. Does truth change? Yes. Does the "getter" method we use to receive truth change? No. Do we always know how the "getter" method gets its values? No, it's a programming concept called encapsulation, and it's a common, smart, and good practice.
A lot goes on in the program called earth, but the Lord has given us the method we need to divine what His will is for us at this time. We have no need to access all the methods that lead up to the final declaration of true or false - all that matters is what we get from the method that we've been given.
PS: McKay, have you learned any of this in your programming class yet? Encapsulation, "getter" and "setter" methods? It's got universal application :)
And so, from there can we understand that the doctrines do not conflict. They support one another and give us greater understanding of how the Godhead words. And with that, adios, amigos.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Letter 9-04-2012
So...
This last week was pretty insane. (Maybe every week in SLC is insane?) Transfers are crazy around here, and I'm not sure when they'll settle down. There are so many new missionaries coming in that there's really no way for the mission president to keep people with the same companion for any substantial amount of time. Almost everyone got swapped around. My new companion is... dun dun dun dun, Elder Slade.
He's from Mesa. He's 21 years old. He's been out for NINE WEEKS. So basically we're just two greenies running around trying to do the best we can. To make things just a bit harder, his trainer was a trunky 22-monther so he kinda didn't learn much. The good thing that I realized, though, is how much I really did learn from Elder Davidson. Teaching isn't something that I really have much of a problem with, so my prep from the MTC in that department was pretty much enough. Learning to work with the Ward Mission Leaders, the Bishops, the members of the wards, though, all came from E Davidson. What I've applied so far (the member lesson, a member worksheet, updating records in the area book) I feel has vastly improved the relationships we have and the confidence levels of the leadership in the area. Hopefully this will lead to trust in us as missionaries to hand out the referrals they've been waiting to hand out.
We have two baptisms set up this coming Saturday. Alyssa Miller is a nine year old who, at eight, wasn't baptized because the water was too cold and she didn't want to go under. Her eight year old sister will be baptized first so hopefully this time it'll work out! The other one is Bryce. He's in seventh grade and is super cool. His mom was super less active so he never got baptized, but now he's set and his mom is looking better too. I could probably talk to Bryce for hours just because our interests line up so nicely :) In any case, it's exciting. At the end of this Saturday I'll have been in the field for seven weeks, and I'll have had six baptisms. If we can line up one extra some week, I'll have kept mission standard from day one. That's my eventual goal - which would put me at 101 baptisms over my mission! I think it's a worthy goal.
Working hard at making things work--
Elder Chandler
Doctrinal Study: The Will and Word of God
I think I've stated a billion times already what qualifies us, justifies us, brings us to the celestial kingdom. Faith, and submitting our will to God. The first part is pretty clear cut - you have it, or you don't. I guess you could talk about "do I have sufficient faith?" but I really don't find that very interesting (which is part of why I don't get people's absolute obsession over Alma 32? Great, it sets forth solid doctrine that gives no room for further discussion!). The part that I feel really needs a solid definition is the second one - defining the will of God.
I've already defined it from a justification standpoint through the Doctrine of Christ. The acts of repenting and keeping the commandments allow us to feel the justification power of the Holy Ghost. I'm going to try defining it from a different standpoint now, based off of Mosiah 15 and the seed of Christ.
This week I went back and read the vision of the tree of life. Aside from a few personal things that it set me straight on (mostly the pattern shown on how to receive revelation as shown by Nephi following Lehi's account of the vision), I found great insights into the will of God. I'm sure we're all familiar with the tree representing Jesus Christ, the center of the vision. The fruit represents the Atonement, and the partaking of it is in similitude of us accessing the Atonement. The part here that hit me is the duality of the word "seed", as used in a plant and as a term meaning future generations. Jesus is our Father, the Tree. We can become the "fruit of his loins" by accessing the Atonement. Get it? ha. It's more of a play on the english language than anything else, but it still works as a clear analogy to combine the two principles, to clarify the extended metaphor with the set-forth doctrine. (Also, the "seed" of the tree of each of our lives is faith, and the "fruit" that faith brings forth is repentance and keeping the commandments).
Next, you have the Iron Rod and the strait and narrow path. "The Iron Rod is the word of God". Now in 2 Ne 32:3 it talks about the word of God. If you read versus 3 and 5 carefully I think it's pretty apparent that the word of God is the Holy Ghost; it will tell you all things you should do. So the Iron Rod is the Holy Ghost. The path which we must stay on is the will of God as it pertains to us. This is why it's hard to define the will of God. It's different for everyone.
Example: Brigham Young said, of the young men who helped the Martin and Willy pioneers across the last river and later died from the exposure, that that one act alone gave them sure entrance into the Celestial Kingdom. Don't misinterpret this to say that through our own arbitrary works we are qualified for the CK. That's false doctrine. What is does show, though, is that those young men were so in-tune with the will of God that they fulfilled what God wanted of them to the T, and therefore inherited the CK. Same story with JC - if he hadn't fulfilled the Atonement, he wouldn't have followed the will of God for himself. Of course, being perfectly One with the will of God, he did fulfill every last morsel of what Heavenly Father wanted him to do and thereby granted himself entrance into the CK, as well as qualifying himself to make the eternal and infinite sacrifice that is the Atonement.
So what tools then do we have to discern the will of God as it applies to us personally? There's a direct and personal way, and that's through our patriarchal blessings. God's will is stated there, right in front of us, as clear as day. The blessings stated therein are not guaranteed, but are a direct manifestation of God's will to you through your patriarch. You might as well call your patriarchal blessing your ticket into the celestial kingdom. By not fulfilling anything shown in the blessing, you are showing direct disobedience to the will of God in your life. (Not to say there can't be some things done after death and such, I don't mean to condemn anyone...)
(I thought God was the same yesterday, today, and forever though? How can His will be different for every person ever? You have to understand the perspective God has. He knows everything. He knows every single factor that leads into decisions, and through pattern recognition and such there is no question as to what will happen. What would the word "change" mean to God, then? Did he "change" His position on polygamy, on blacks having the priesthood? Absolutely not. His will has already been set. This is kind of a confusing concept to put on paper. Maybe I'll try again another next week with the same thought stated more clearly.)
So we have now two manifestations of God's will - patriarchal blessings and the Holy Ghost. These kind of mesh though into one thing (as do most things in the gospel...), and as stated by Christ is the rock on which the church is founded on. This rock is revelation. Through prophets. Personal revelation. Direct manifestation of will of God.
Anyways, food for thought. If anyone has a good, clarifying insight here I'd appreciate it.
(I should probably do pre-writes before I start writing some of these. They go all over the place. It's kind of the nature of gospel doctrine to go deep, then simplify itself back to the DoC, and again, and again, and again. It's pretty disorienting. I mean it's cool and all but sometimes when you're trying to dig deep, you'll make a connection back up top with Christ and it throws you off of the topic you're really trying to get at. Not like science where there's not Doctrine of Christ to always refer back to. You don't make new connections about base-level postulations because of new material unless they flat-out contradict the base, which then would shake all of science so it's kind of a no-no, whereas the DoC is already perfect and so everything ties back to it.)
This last week was pretty insane. (Maybe every week in SLC is insane?) Transfers are crazy around here, and I'm not sure when they'll settle down. There are so many new missionaries coming in that there's really no way for the mission president to keep people with the same companion for any substantial amount of time. Almost everyone got swapped around. My new companion is... dun dun dun dun, Elder Slade.
He's from Mesa. He's 21 years old. He's been out for NINE WEEKS. So basically we're just two greenies running around trying to do the best we can. To make things just a bit harder, his trainer was a trunky 22-monther so he kinda didn't learn much. The good thing that I realized, though, is how much I really did learn from Elder Davidson. Teaching isn't something that I really have much of a problem with, so my prep from the MTC in that department was pretty much enough. Learning to work with the Ward Mission Leaders, the Bishops, the members of the wards, though, all came from E Davidson. What I've applied so far (the member lesson, a member worksheet, updating records in the area book) I feel has vastly improved the relationships we have and the confidence levels of the leadership in the area. Hopefully this will lead to trust in us as missionaries to hand out the referrals they've been waiting to hand out.
We have two baptisms set up this coming Saturday. Alyssa Miller is a nine year old who, at eight, wasn't baptized because the water was too cold and she didn't want to go under. Her eight year old sister will be baptized first so hopefully this time it'll work out! The other one is Bryce. He's in seventh grade and is super cool. His mom was super less active so he never got baptized, but now he's set and his mom is looking better too. I could probably talk to Bryce for hours just because our interests line up so nicely :) In any case, it's exciting. At the end of this Saturday I'll have been in the field for seven weeks, and I'll have had six baptisms. If we can line up one extra some week, I'll have kept mission standard from day one. That's my eventual goal - which would put me at 101 baptisms over my mission! I think it's a worthy goal.Working hard at making things work--
Elder Chandler
Doctrinal Study: The Will and Word of God
I think I've stated a billion times already what qualifies us, justifies us, brings us to the celestial kingdom. Faith, and submitting our will to God. The first part is pretty clear cut - you have it, or you don't. I guess you could talk about "do I have sufficient faith?" but I really don't find that very interesting (which is part of why I don't get people's absolute obsession over Alma 32? Great, it sets forth solid doctrine that gives no room for further discussion!). The part that I feel really needs a solid definition is the second one - defining the will of God.
I've already defined it from a justification standpoint through the Doctrine of Christ. The acts of repenting and keeping the commandments allow us to feel the justification power of the Holy Ghost. I'm going to try defining it from a different standpoint now, based off of Mosiah 15 and the seed of Christ.
This week I went back and read the vision of the tree of life. Aside from a few personal things that it set me straight on (mostly the pattern shown on how to receive revelation as shown by Nephi following Lehi's account of the vision), I found great insights into the will of God. I'm sure we're all familiar with the tree representing Jesus Christ, the center of the vision. The fruit represents the Atonement, and the partaking of it is in similitude of us accessing the Atonement. The part here that hit me is the duality of the word "seed", as used in a plant and as a term meaning future generations. Jesus is our Father, the Tree. We can become the "fruit of his loins" by accessing the Atonement. Get it? ha. It's more of a play on the english language than anything else, but it still works as a clear analogy to combine the two principles, to clarify the extended metaphor with the set-forth doctrine. (Also, the "seed" of the tree of each of our lives is faith, and the "fruit" that faith brings forth is repentance and keeping the commandments).
Next, you have the Iron Rod and the strait and narrow path. "The Iron Rod is the word of God". Now in 2 Ne 32:3 it talks about the word of God. If you read versus 3 and 5 carefully I think it's pretty apparent that the word of God is the Holy Ghost; it will tell you all things you should do. So the Iron Rod is the Holy Ghost. The path which we must stay on is the will of God as it pertains to us. This is why it's hard to define the will of God. It's different for everyone.
Example: Brigham Young said, of the young men who helped the Martin and Willy pioneers across the last river and later died from the exposure, that that one act alone gave them sure entrance into the Celestial Kingdom. Don't misinterpret this to say that through our own arbitrary works we are qualified for the CK. That's false doctrine. What is does show, though, is that those young men were so in-tune with the will of God that they fulfilled what God wanted of them to the T, and therefore inherited the CK. Same story with JC - if he hadn't fulfilled the Atonement, he wouldn't have followed the will of God for himself. Of course, being perfectly One with the will of God, he did fulfill every last morsel of what Heavenly Father wanted him to do and thereby granted himself entrance into the CK, as well as qualifying himself to make the eternal and infinite sacrifice that is the Atonement.
So what tools then do we have to discern the will of God as it applies to us personally? There's a direct and personal way, and that's through our patriarchal blessings. God's will is stated there, right in front of us, as clear as day. The blessings stated therein are not guaranteed, but are a direct manifestation of God's will to you through your patriarch. You might as well call your patriarchal blessing your ticket into the celestial kingdom. By not fulfilling anything shown in the blessing, you are showing direct disobedience to the will of God in your life. (Not to say there can't be some things done after death and such, I don't mean to condemn anyone...)
(I thought God was the same yesterday, today, and forever though? How can His will be different for every person ever? You have to understand the perspective God has. He knows everything. He knows every single factor that leads into decisions, and through pattern recognition and such there is no question as to what will happen. What would the word "change" mean to God, then? Did he "change" His position on polygamy, on blacks having the priesthood? Absolutely not. His will has already been set. This is kind of a confusing concept to put on paper. Maybe I'll try again another next week with the same thought stated more clearly.)
So we have now two manifestations of God's will - patriarchal blessings and the Holy Ghost. These kind of mesh though into one thing (as do most things in the gospel...), and as stated by Christ is the rock on which the church is founded on. This rock is revelation. Through prophets. Personal revelation. Direct manifestation of will of God.
Anyways, food for thought. If anyone has a good, clarifying insight here I'd appreciate it.
(I should probably do pre-writes before I start writing some of these. They go all over the place. It's kind of the nature of gospel doctrine to go deep, then simplify itself back to the DoC, and again, and again, and again. It's pretty disorienting. I mean it's cool and all but sometimes when you're trying to dig deep, you'll make a connection back up top with Christ and it throws you off of the topic you're really trying to get at. Not like science where there's not Doctrine of Christ to always refer back to. You don't make new connections about base-level postulations because of new material unless they flat-out contradict the base, which then would shake all of science so it's kind of a no-no, whereas the DoC is already perfect and so everything ties back to it.)
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