More Meetings and the Sin of Convenience
Howdy!!!
It's been a pretty positive week here in Oklahoma.
We had to drive down to Texas twice this past week to attend some special specialized meetings. We had Brother Packer and Brother Nelson come and train us on becoming better planners. They came to the mission a couple months ago and reviewed the mission, what we did great, what we could do better, stuff like that. They showed us in a powerpoint our weekness' and strengths as a mission. It was great to hear some constructive feedback on how to improve. We then learned how to plan better and went back to our areas that night to implement what we learned that day and the following day we return and reported what we had done and learned how to improve again. The goal is for us to teach the rest of the mission how to do it until it becomes mission culture! All in all they were some great meetings!
On the spiritual side of things I learned a pretty great lesson last night.
Last Sunday we got a text from a member in the McKinney, Texas YSA. He had a record of someone who was in their YSA but lived in Durant so he asked us if we could swing by the provided address to see if she was still living there or if she wanted to come to church. Well the week went on and we forgot that we were supposed to visit her. The YSA member texted us asking if we had found out anything so that reminded us to get on it. It was getting late but we found the home. Nearly all the lights in the home were off but we decided to walk up to her house anyways. We started to open her gate but we noticed a "Beware of dog" sign just about the same time we heard a big dog start barking. Finally a guy walks out of the house to see what his dogs were barking at. We said "Hi" and introduced ourselves and asked if "so & so" lived there. He said yes but was very cautious with telling us that. Right about that time a girl walks out of the house and immediately recognizes us. The husband at this point wasn't at all very pleased and asked what we wanted. We told them we just wanted to make sure our records were accurate and to see if they wanted to come to church sometime. The husband then more or less exploded and told his wife "Well, tell them you're not a Mormon anymore!". Timidly, almost grudgingly the young lady said "I go to a different church here in Durant...It fits my lifestyle better.".
When she said that I almost laughed. It sounded like she knew it was a bad excuse and by the end of her speaking that sentence she had even realized to a certain degree the reality of what she was saying. She wasn't going to a different church because she was offended, or didn't believe in the restoration, or some other reason other than she wanted to live a lifestyle that didn't include the gospel standards of members of Christ's church.
I understand people have their agency and I respect people's belief's even if I don't agree with them but this was coming from a girl who had been born and raised in the church.
This experience reminded me of a really great talk by Elder Holland called "the Inconvenient Messiah". If you haven't read it I suggest you should. At one point he said "There is no guarantee of convenience written into our Christian covenant. We must work hard and do right. The cost is very high. It was for Christ,” and it is for each of us, but well worth every effort.
Years later Elder Holland gave a talk called "The Costs-and Blessings-of Discipleship". He said "Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds. Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes—and this seems the greatest irony of all—these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of “comfortable” God. Really? He who said not only should we not break commandments, but we should not even think about breaking them. And if we do think about breaking them, we have already broken them in our heart. Does that sound like “comfortable” doctrine, easy on the ear and popular down at the village love-in? And what of those who just want to look at sin or touch it from a distance? Jesus said with a flash, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. If your hand offends you, cut it off. “I came not to [bring] peace, but a sword,” He warned those who thought He spoke only soothing platitudes. No wonder that, sermon after sermon, the local communities “pray[ed] him to depart out of their coasts.” No wonder, miracle after miracle, His power was attributed not to God but to the devil. It is obvious that the bumper sticker question “What would Jesus do?” will not always bring a popular response."
My invitation to y'all is to not sacrifice your standards to conform to what the world has to offer. Simply put, the world has nothing too give. True joy & happiness is only found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and no where else. If you don't believe me then try it out for yourself, let go of the iron rod and try to honestly tell me you've found happiness elsewhere. You can try, but know it's impossible. The ways of the world always leave you with a thirst that can never be quenched. Christ taught "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst". We have an "Inconvenient Messiah" and He wants us to rise above the Adversary's subtle temptation of convenience.
I hope what I said made sense! It had me thinking a lot if you couldn't already tell.
Anyways I hope y'all have great weeks! Love each of you!
It's been a pretty positive week here in Oklahoma.
We had to drive down to Texas twice this past week to attend some special specialized meetings. We had Brother Packer and Brother Nelson come and train us on becoming better planners. They came to the mission a couple months ago and reviewed the mission, what we did great, what we could do better, stuff like that. They showed us in a powerpoint our weekness' and strengths as a mission. It was great to hear some constructive feedback on how to improve. We then learned how to plan better and went back to our areas that night to implement what we learned that day and the following day we return and reported what we had done and learned how to improve again. The goal is for us to teach the rest of the mission how to do it until it becomes mission culture! All in all they were some great meetings!
On the spiritual side of things I learned a pretty great lesson last night.
Last Sunday we got a text from a member in the McKinney, Texas YSA. He had a record of someone who was in their YSA but lived in Durant so he asked us if we could swing by the provided address to see if she was still living there or if she wanted to come to church. Well the week went on and we forgot that we were supposed to visit her. The YSA member texted us asking if we had found out anything so that reminded us to get on it. It was getting late but we found the home. Nearly all the lights in the home were off but we decided to walk up to her house anyways. We started to open her gate but we noticed a "Beware of dog" sign just about the same time we heard a big dog start barking. Finally a guy walks out of the house to see what his dogs were barking at. We said "Hi" and introduced ourselves and asked if "so & so" lived there. He said yes but was very cautious with telling us that. Right about that time a girl walks out of the house and immediately recognizes us. The husband at this point wasn't at all very pleased and asked what we wanted. We told them we just wanted to make sure our records were accurate and to see if they wanted to come to church sometime. The husband then more or less exploded and told his wife "Well, tell them you're not a Mormon anymore!". Timidly, almost grudgingly the young lady said "I go to a different church here in Durant...It fits my lifestyle better.".
When she said that I almost laughed. It sounded like she knew it was a bad excuse and by the end of her speaking that sentence she had even realized to a certain degree the reality of what she was saying. She wasn't going to a different church because she was offended, or didn't believe in the restoration, or some other reason other than she wanted to live a lifestyle that didn't include the gospel standards of members of Christ's church.
I understand people have their agency and I respect people's belief's even if I don't agree with them but this was coming from a girl who had been born and raised in the church.
This experience reminded me of a really great talk by Elder Holland called "the Inconvenient Messiah". If you haven't read it I suggest you should. At one point he said "There is no guarantee of convenience written into our Christian covenant. We must work hard and do right. The cost is very high. It was for Christ,” and it is for each of us, but well worth every effort.
Years later Elder Holland gave a talk called "The Costs-and Blessings-of Discipleship". He said "Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds. Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes—and this seems the greatest irony of all—these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of “comfortable” God. Really? He who said not only should we not break commandments, but we should not even think about breaking them. And if we do think about breaking them, we have already broken them in our heart. Does that sound like “comfortable” doctrine, easy on the ear and popular down at the village love-in? And what of those who just want to look at sin or touch it from a distance? Jesus said with a flash, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. If your hand offends you, cut it off. “I came not to [bring] peace, but a sword,” He warned those who thought He spoke only soothing platitudes. No wonder that, sermon after sermon, the local communities “pray[ed] him to depart out of their coasts.” No wonder, miracle after miracle, His power was attributed not to God but to the devil. It is obvious that the bumper sticker question “What would Jesus do?” will not always bring a popular response."
My invitation to y'all is to not sacrifice your standards to conform to what the world has to offer. Simply put, the world has nothing too give. True joy & happiness is only found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and no where else. If you don't believe me then try it out for yourself, let go of the iron rod and try to honestly tell me you've found happiness elsewhere. You can try, but know it's impossible. The ways of the world always leave you with a thirst that can never be quenched. Christ taught "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst". We have an "Inconvenient Messiah" and He wants us to rise above the Adversary's subtle temptation of convenience.
I hope what I said made sense! It had me thinking a lot if you couldn't already tell.
Anyways I hope y'all have great weeks! Love each of you!
Links;
Elder Hyatt
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| Sketchy church bathroom bro-pic
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