Hey, everyone!
Happy days to celebrate (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.,)
Anyways, I have few minutes to speak, so some English may get rough in this email, stay on toes to keep up. ;)
We had the "Day with the Lord" yesterday and Sunday night, it was awesome! We didn't spend the whole day reading the Book of Mormon, like last year, but this year was a lot more powerful to me! We received a lot of envelopes and instructions in each one-telling us to read this general conference talk, ponder these questions and write down what we learn and things like that. It was a really cool experience, I'll keep the envelopes and such so I can do it again later on throughout my life!
Also, on Sunday we had our most solid investigator come to church again, but he stayed for the full 3 hours this time! His name is Anton, and when he came to Gospel Principles class it was sweet... until the teacher started to teach some slightly-not-correct doctrine. The lesson was on the Millenium (perfect for someone new, right?) and this teacher somehow got talking about the pre-earth life. Long story short he said that there was a lady he knew who said, "If I knew how hard this life would be I would never have chosen to come here." Then he said that we were all shortsighted in making that decision to come earth. Multiple things about this have been bothering me:
1) that lady was focused on the wrong thing. "Adam fell that men may be, and men are that they might have joy." You are here to be joyful, and it's hard to be joyful if you're focused on how difficult your life is. If you find it hard to be joyful, "Count your many blessings, see what God hath done." That helps!
2) You and I knew full well it would be hard in this life. We didn't fully understand how difficult, but you and I knew that it would require us to stretch, work hard, and, essentially, give our whole being to God to succeed in this life. We knew what our final goal was when we left, and we knew what we would have to do to get there, so no, we were definitely not shortsighted.
3) Teach out of love! That was something this teacher did not do. He was trying to teach a concept, but no one really tried to pay attention because he didn't show love. With this new "Come Follow Me" program coming out for you adults it is all love based! If you love people, you will provide a discussion-oriented environment for the people you teach will come to know that you love them. You love them by listening to their input, by asking them what they learn, and inviting them to share! You show your love for them and for Heavenly Father by providing them an opportunity for the Spirit to speak through them-which will also help them to be truly converted to the gospel that you would've tried to lecture to them anyways. Some of the most loving words Christ said to the people in the Book of Mormon were in 3 Nephi 11:14- His invitation for them to know who He is for themselves. By having a discussion based lesson in your classes and quorums, you will be saying that same thing to the people you teach- "Arise, and come [and know for yourself]"!
1) that lady was focused on the wrong thing. "Adam fell that men may be, and men are that they might have joy." You are here to be joyful, and it's hard to be joyful if you're focused on how difficult your life is. If you find it hard to be joyful, "Count your many blessings, see what God hath done." That helps!
2) You and I knew full well it would be hard in this life. We didn't fully understand how difficult, but you and I knew that it would require us to stretch, work hard, and, essentially, give our whole being to God to succeed in this life. We knew what our final goal was when we left, and we knew what we would have to do to get there, so no, we were definitely not shortsighted.
3) Teach out of love! That was something this teacher did not do. He was trying to teach a concept, but no one really tried to pay attention because he didn't show love. With this new "Come Follow Me" program coming out for you adults it is all love based! If you love people, you will provide a discussion-oriented environment for the people you teach will come to know that you love them. You love them by listening to their input, by asking them what they learn, and inviting them to share! You show your love for them and for Heavenly Father by providing them an opportunity for the Spirit to speak through them-which will also help them to be truly converted to the gospel that you would've tried to lecture to them anyways. Some of the most loving words Christ said to the people in the Book of Mormon were in 3 Nephi 11:14- His invitation for them to know who He is for themselves. By having a discussion based lesson in your classes and quorums, you will be saying that same thing to the people you teach- "Arise, and come [and know for yourself]"!
Te whanaunga mo ake tonu! I love you all! Start the New Year off with your lightsaber in your dominant hand! :)
Elder Eli James Dial
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