Halloween is so big around here... I guess I've never really caught the spirit of Halloween much. I think I like Christmas better :) The wards are all doing their Trunk or Treats. It's been really fun to be able to get a little bit of financial help from our ward mission leaders to finance some candy to trunk or treat out of the back of our bikes. The members get a kick out of it as well. It's been a great way to meet and become close with a lot of the people in the ward!
We had the opportunity to listen to a general authority last week, Elder Evans of the 70 (which is why P-day was Monday last week). The missionary ladder goes: President Monson, Elder Holland and Oaks, Elder Evans. It was so awesome to hear a servant of the Lord speak about what the brethren's and the Lord's vision, not only for the new missions in this valley, but for all the missions in the world. Some random notes I wrote down:
- "this isn't doctrine, but I believe mission presidents and missionaries made promises in the preexistence to serve together"
- "you are part of something remarkable"
- Signs of the Times stated: "The Lord is hastening the work", "there will be an increasing pattern of missionaries speaking in their home language"
- thought: missions are enjoyable because you are able to make connections, make a web, talk with people all the time.- thought: being a missionary is just being a person. God created us as social beings who share what is important to us and listen to what is important to others. A missionary is just a person with a something unique that they would like to share. A mission is an extended time to create an eternal web of contacts that will extend into the eternities.
- thought: leadership in the church is weird. Generally leadership is thought of as one person who is in charge of others. A true leader flips that chart upside-down. A leader goes below everyone else and serves them. Jesus Christ is the ultimate leader who descended below all to pick every single person up.
To kind of summarize what he actually talked about (at least as far as I understood): Missionary work all boils down to having positive interactions with everyone that you meet. The greatest missionaries are the ones that weave the largest social web to "catch" all the potential investigators through the referral process. The commitment was to ask for referrals in every single teaching situation (which is any interaction in which a restored truth is brought up).
It was beautiful to gain a glimpse into the vision of what the Lord would have missionary work be. We're created for it. It's pretty cool.
Small world story: We stopped by a members house that lives down the street from us. Turns out she's Josh Hall's sister. We are having dinner with them on Sunday and Josh is coming. I guess he's moved over here now, but I'm sure you'll get updates and pictures from him come the end of this week.
Other than that, we're continuing to work with Kaylee and Caleb. We also were able to meet with a 20-year-old named Alec. He's super cool and has a lot of questions, and accepted a baptism date for the middle of November. Things are picking up and it's really, really exciting to see. Hoorah for Israel.
-Elder Chandler
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Spiritual thought: extended application of the dispensation pattern
I read Alma 12 today. Yesterday I did some Preach My Gospel study on the point "Heavenly Father Reveals His Gospel in Every Dispensation" and drew out a dispensations chart. It was interesting to see exactly what the cause of each apostasy was and apply that to the direction we're headed right now. ex: Adam's dispensation, apostasy caused by Cain, Master Mahan, secret combinations. Whole world "baptized". Noah, apostasy in Sodom and Gomorrah, sodomy, just the cities destroyed. Abraham, apostasy into Egyptian captivity, caused by idolatry. Caused grief but no destruction, and were delivered by Moses later. What kind of apostasy are we headed towards right now? What branch are we heading down? Maybe the gentiles will repent and we'll just all be translated :)
Anyways, that's not really what I wanted to talk about. It was in that line of thinking I read Alma 12 in, and it was really interesting. The Lord's pattern for establishing a dispensation, as stated in Alma 12:27-32:
1) Heavenly Father recognizes man's fallen state and desires to help them (Moses 1:39)
2) He manifests himself unto man through divine intervention, literally giving them physical evidence he is there
3) Man communes with Heavenly Father through prayer, which becomes instinctual after #2 (BD Prayer)
4) Heavenly Father answers prayers and reveals the Plan of Salvation
5) Heavenly Father reveals commandments to help people obey the PoS
6) The Doctrine of Christ is set forth to help people "overcome" the Plan of Salvation
First interesting thing: What's the gospel discussion pattern? Restoration, PoS, DoC.
Second: The pattern for individual conversion is the same as the dispensations pattern is the same as the purpose of earth pattern
garden -> worldliness -> millennium
prophet -> apostasy -> prophet
born -> sin -> repent
Third, to compound on everything else: All patterns and doctrines used in any of these cases can run down or up the line. The scope doesn't matter. It's important to try different scopes on different doctrines to fully understand exactly all the implications stated by one solitary statement.
Added comment kind of in spite: Forget dualism. It's bigger than that, Isaiah.
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