Wednesday we had a really crazy day. In the morning we had gone out to the car to get some supplies to give to a recent convert to take to Cuba. Then after we finished our studies and were waiting for the STL's (Sister training leaders) to come to do a fire exchange (a one hour exchange as opposed to a 24 hr exchange). They get to our house an hour late because of traffic, and I then realized the car keys were no where to be found. Yep. They were locked in the trunk of our car. So we put our bikes on the STL's car, and drove to where we are going to harvest. Right when we got there I realize I forgot my helmet. So we turned around when went back to get the helmet. Right when we get there the STL's have to leave to do another exchange, so they just ended up dropping us off. We start biking and then Sister Mckays tire went flat. We were able to make it to a recent converts house and tried to pump it up with something that wasn't a bike pump. It kind of worked, for awhile anyways until we started riding when it went flat again. We made it to a gas station where we were able to pump it up and then we went to try to follow up with some investigators, No luck.
By this time its 4:30 and we are starving. After eating we decided to head to the chapel and get some mormon.org time done while we killed time for our next appt. On the way to the chapel S. Mckays bike chain kept falling off, but we made it. Then on the way to the appointment the chain broke, so we end up walking to the appointment. Thankfully after the appt. the sisters that live with us picked us up that night. Good thing we laughed the whole time. We realized Satan will do anything to get us to think its too hard to get to the people we are supposed to see. Good thing we have the Lord on our side :)
This week while harvesting we met Dade. We prayed with him and he invited us inside. He said his mom was in the house so we went in. We were talking to him and he mentioned that he wanted to come to church. Then he walked over to me stuck out his hand and says "pray for me again" and I say "again?" Yes, he says, "sometimes the devil takes over my body. I need you to pray for me." I say okay, you want me to hold your hand? yes he says, so I lightly grip his hand and pray, and as I am praying he is shaking and flinching, and when I finish he is completely normal....I was in shock. After as we are talking to him we tell him about mormon.org. He asks us to find it for him on his computer and as I am typing, he rubs my arm looks and says "do you have the holy spirit?" I said yes and then we got out of there as fast as we could...it was crazy.
This week we met a college aged boy who was really interested in our beliefs. He then told us that in fact it doesn't matter what we do on this earth because we will be saved because of the grace of Jesus Christ, that our works essentially mean nothing here because we can not ever do enough to thank Christ for what he did. Essentially all we have to do to get to heaven is to believe. He expressed to us that the world really doesn't understand how to get to heaven and that we are all working to hard to get there, when all we really have to do is believe.
I am not saying the things he said were right or wrong but when I walked away from him all I could think was poor boy. What the world really doesn't understand is the majesty of the atonement.
It made me think about when someone once told me "I just don't think 'our Christ' is as loving as the Christ in other christian churches"
But our comprehensive view of the atonement is so much more then what so many churches know. We are saved by grace after all we can do. Why is it after all we can do? Because we aren't here to be a stagnate society, we are here to be a changing, growing, and evolving society. We are here to draw closer to Christ by becoming more like Him. Maybe sometimes we as Mormons might see repentance and all the things we 'must' do as hard work. It is! because we get to become better from it! We get to repentant so we can change and learn! We are here to be refined. Its hard but its a beautiful feeling to feel your heart changed for the better after passing through difficulties, sorrow, the repentance process and obedience! all of it!
When I think about this I often think of my parents who always wanted me to be better. They pushed me, and helped me grow. They are the reason I am here in Fort Lauderdale today. So why wouldn't our very loving Heavenly Father want the same for us?
My favorite quote and talk from this past conference was by Elder Holland:
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.11
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.12 “I came not to [bring] peace, but a sword,”13 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.”14 No wonder, miracle after miracle, His power was attributed not to God but to the devil.15 It is obvious that the bumper sticker question “What would Jesus do?” will not always bring a popular response.
At the zenith of His mortal ministry, Jesus said, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”16 To make certain they understood exactly what kind of love that was, He said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”17 and “whosoever … shall break one of [the] least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be … the least in the kingdom of heaven.”18Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it. So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others. Jesus clearly understood what many in our modern culture seem to forget: that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive sin (which He had an infinite capacity to do) and the warning against condoning it (which He never ever did even once).
Remember believe and faith ARE action words.
I know that Jesus Christ Lives.
So much love being sent your way...always.
Love always,
Sister Koutz
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