I've
been reading that book by Bruce C Hafen. I like to listen to Brad Wilcox
so I've listened to a lot of his talks and he always quotes Bruce C Hafen and
I've been reading a lot of the things he quoted in that book. It's opened my
mind on a few things so it's been an awesome book to read.
One
of my favorite things about my companion is that he loves doctrine. I
don't like it when people say they love deep doctrine, because that usually
means in my opinion that they like deep opinions. Or deep hypothetical
ideas that no prophet has spoken about. They're part of the goose pimple
gang. But my companion really likes true doctrine and so we've been
listening to a lot of sweet talks and he's been reading my books. It's
been sweet.
We
were listening to a talk the other day and there was an insight from Stephen E
Robinson that was shared. That guy is so powerful. Maybe you've
already heard this but I want to type it out because it was sweet.
He
interpreted the parable of the good Samaritan. He said every part of the
parable has significance.
A
certain man fell among thieves. Who is the certain man? us. who are the
thieves? the world and the wickedness in the world. The man was going
from Jerusalem to Jericho. He said Jerusalem is the holy city and is set
high above sea level. Jericho is below sea level and is not holy.
We came from heaven in a celestial world living with God and descended all the
way to this telestial world.
So a
certain man who is us went from heaven down to earth and fell among
thieves.
The
priest came by. Who does the priest represent? The Aaronic
priesthood. Can we be saved by the Aaronic priesthood? No we
can't. A Levite came by. What do Levites do? They administer
the law of Moses. Can the law of Moses save us? No it can't.
Then
a certain Samaritan came by. Samaritans were hated by the jews because
they were half jew and half gentile. Half holy and half not. The
jews focused on the half unholy part of them and hated them for it. Who
was the certain Samaritan. Jesus Christ. He was half God and half
human. The jews focused on the half human part of him and hated him for
it. Can Jesus save us? Yes and only he can.
So
in the end Jesus said that the perfect example of being a neighbor was Jesus
himself, and when he said go and do thou likewise, he was saying go and be like
me.
I
had never thought of it that way but it makes so much sense and I just love it
a lot. Super awesome.
Anyway
Dad things are going great. We're not allowed to play sports on P day
anymore so that's going to be hard for the last part of my mission. Oh
well.
To Mom:
I forgot to tell you that last week was stake
conference. It was sweet to go to another stake conference and see all
the people I used to know. A couple of my recent converts moved to Joburg
to go to College so I didn't see them and I'm really praying they can stay
strong and active in the church over there. The church is strong in
Joburg though so I have hope.
This week the stake presidency was at our ward even though
our ward conference was the week before stake conference. So they were
here again and I knew immediately we were getting a new bishop. And we
did. They released the old bishop who has been the bishop for 11
years. The new bishop is a sweet guy he's 31 and he's just had his first
baby about 3 weeks ago. He's really visionary and inspired and he's also
willing to meet with us so that's a great blessing. We already talked on
Sunday for quite a while and made some great plans to get missionary work
rolling. I'm so excited to be here all of the sudden and I just have a perfect
brightness of hope for this area in the future. It rained on Sunday and
we had 11 investigators at church, so I'm excited so see how many come when it
doesn't rain. Everything looks exciting right now.
My companion is awesome. I love the way we're teaching
the lessons. We have so much unity. I've never enjoyed teaching
more than I do right now. And I'm learning a lot from him which is just
super sweet. I hope I don't get transferred but we'll see what
happens.
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