Date
November 27, 2017
Area
St. Augustine, FL
Companion
Elder Martin
Learning Line upon line, staying determined
Alola! This week was interesting. Allow me to say what I learned!
So first off, it's never a bad idea to question how effective you are being. If you see a lack of progress, then by all means examine your actions under the light of your goals and see if you are actually accomplishing your goals through your actions. So, for example, we've been having some district meetings for a while, and we could just be content to let them continue on in the way that they have been. But then we realized, "Wait are we actually being better missionaries as a result of our district meetings? Are we actually doing things that make us better, teach better, help people more, increase our testimonies, improve our personal lives... Is district meeting doing any of that? Is it actually helping us be better?" And we came to the conclusion that it kind of wasn't. So then we started counciling with the rest of the district, with the rest of the zone, and kind of the rest of the mission. Just a bunch of leaders and experience all over the place and we are reevaluating on our own accord and saying, "How can we make this better? How can we make this spiritual and improve ourselves as missionaries and people?" And so now we are focusing more on the scriptures and people's needs more than before. We are trying to no longer just run through the motions, but rather, to be far more helpful than before. Trying to remove useless fluff and "traditions of our fathers" and focus more on Christ and the gospel, the scriptures, and Preach My Gospel in everything that we do. To make our work much better and effective!
The other thing I learned is that humility in prayer and fasting can give you remarkable strength and guidance by the spirit. Any trial you have you can be overcome through Christ. How do we come to Christ? Pray, go to church to renew covenants to follow Christ, and feast upon the words of Christ. Don't just READ the scriptures, STUDY and ABSORB and FEAST! Read them and say, "huh. Why is this in here in the first place? If this was inspired to be in here, why? How can I apply this to MY life? What should I learn from this?" And if you do that, and especially if you take notes, you'll gain so much more. Just ponder the lessons within. Once you know the scriptures are true from reading and pondering, you can learn and learn and never stop. It will bless you so much!
Yep. Those are the big things I learned. Revelation comes as you reevaluate and try to improve, and apply Christ to everything we do.
And you know what? That's not a crazy hard or weird thing to do! Even just with Thanksgiving, it's very easy to be Christlike. Literally the whole holiday is surrounded in being thankful, which Christ taught us to do in all things. Talking to people and sharing time with family? Uplifting each other through remembrance of blessings? And then moving forward to serve and bless other people in the Christmas season? Thankfulness followed by actions of service is a very Christlike way to live. Which is why I'm pretty excited for #LighttheWorld happening in just a few days! If we want the world to be a better place, then we have to start from where we are. "Stand where you are and lift where you stand!" Christlike service is the best way to life where we each stand. Regardless of time, place, and circumstance, there's always something we can be thankful for. And even if we feel as low as Job, then we can always be thankful that there is always hope. Christ overcame death and will allow us to recieve a better life. Plus, if we ask for his help then we can overcome our trials that we're in right now! Just believe in Christ. Believe in yourself. You can DO it! Even when your strength is gone, His strength never fails!
NEVER GIVE UP
Yeah!Elder Gibby