So on Tuesday night, Elder Malm spoke to us. He was in the last conference. He's pretty awesome. Look him up. He basically talked about how everyone who's here in the world now said yes to the plan before, and how we're doing God's work, so where ae the limit's? It was pretty awesome.
On Thanksgiving, Elder Holland came with his family to speak to us. It was pretty awesome. Elder Holland is probably my most favorite apostle ever. Anyways, he said that this Thanksgiving his family would be our family and had all his grandchildren sing for us and his wife talk and he kept the last twenty minutes or so to talk to us. He also, at the beginning, had four missionaries who had really intense stories of family struggles, or political issues in their home country trying to get on their mission, and one who has cystic fibrosis serving now in the referral center here get up and bear their testimonies. It was pretty sweet. He also had us think about how there are so many young children who look at missionaries and cannot fathom that they are anything less than perfect, that they are anything less than all the great missionaries in the scriptures wrapped up into one. He told us to think of them whenever we are tempted to be anything less than the very best we can possibly be, to live worthy of that trust.
He told us three things that he was grateful for this thanksgiving: He is grateful that the Godhead knows us each individually and personally, by our first names. They know our likes and dislikes, and our needs and our wants. Pretty awesome stuff. Look it up haha. He also is grateful for the compassion that the Godhead has always had on the poor. You gain a remission of your sins by being obedient to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, and you retain it by imparting of your bounty to those less fortunate (see king benjamin's sermon, alma 34, and like a bajillion other scriptures. I just stopped looking because there were so many. Also an apostle said it, so that's already scripture.). He also said he is grateful that God was able to offer his son to atone for our sins and pains alone. As alone as we ever feel, and as hard as it ever gets, we always have someone, even if it's just one friend, but Christ did it alone. Follow the patten of His life as everyone falls away from Him, his family, Jews and gentiles (as symbolized by the leaders who condemn him), his apostles (one of whom betrays Him, and the chief one even denies knowing Him), and eventually even the common man on the street who does not know Him, but cries out for Him to be crucified.Throughout His life he said the Father would always be with Him because He always did that which pleased the Father. Then, at the end, as He hangs on the cross, even His father has to let him hold the weight alone, hence his cry, which was so important that it was put in the bible in the original aramaic. We can't understand it without the translation that was put with it, but the translators left it there... It was probably the single most pained cry in the history of the world. It doesn't mean the Father was gone, rather He was probably right there, but he had to let Christ do it alone so that we wouldn''t have to. And that is intense. Thinking about that, look at D+C 133. Changed my life.
So yeah, gotta go now. I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving. I know mine was good. If there's anybody who is hesitating to use dear elder because they'd rather send it by hand, it's okay to use it now because I'll only have it for another week, then I'm pretty sure dear elder charges a stamp and mails it to me, so it'd be the same. Use dearelder before that. In a week and a day I'll be in Texas. I forgot my address so I'll send it by hand.
Love y'all
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