The Trio Has Ended
Hello All!
So, the trio has come to an end. Elder Stewart now has a companion because a missionary came back into the mission thus evening out the number of missionaries in the mission. This week we had a pretty slow few days but the days we had busy were very busy because Elder Stewart had things scheduled around the same time we had things scheduled as well meaning we had a very busy week. We watched General Conference this weekend and I got so much out of it. I am going to go back and listen to all the talks again they were so powerful!
So there is one family I would like to talk about that we are working with. For their safety it will be the Smith family. The Smith family consists of a father, mother and a 16 year old daughter. The mother and the daughter are both baptized members of the church and the father is not a member. The mother was less active in her youth and went through a phase when she was about 19 where she would drink and smoke and party and all that. She quickly grew out of that and started going to church again. This family just recently moved into our area and we began visiting them. The father has been taught the discussions 6 times or so now. He loves having us over and respect Elder Johnson and I as they have had bad experiences with missionaries in the past. They allow us to share a spiritual thought and every one of them are active in the lesson and provide meaningful input. The father now has a calling to help out with the Youth weekend event that is coming up soon. He was confused and made sure the Bishop knew that he was not a member of the church. He said he knew and still extended the calling. I love this family so much and they thank us every time we go over for bringing the spirit into their home. I have seen a difference in them and they have a desire to do better. We are still going over there helping the whole family come closer to Christ as well as to help the father have a desire to know the fullness of the gospel and hopefully join his family in the faith.
My spiritual thought this week is rather brief. It comes from a magazine the church produces monthly called The Ensign. Each month, a member from the First Presidency of the church gives a short spiritual thought and I was reading the one from January of this year entitled, "Happiness For Those We Love" by President Eyring.
"Any choice not to keep the Lord's commandments can cause the Spirit to withdraw from our hearts. With that loss, happiness diminishes."
He's saying here that any choice that we make that causes us to move further away from Christ is causing our happiness to diminish.
He goes on to say that "The happiness we want for our loved ones depends on their choices... we cannot force them to keep the commandments so that they can qualify for the Holy ghost to touch and change their hearts. So the best help we can give is whatever leads those we love to watch over their OWN choices."
We can't force anyone else to be happy. We can however help them to watch over their own choices and help them to better understand which ones will lead them to happiness and which ones will lead to their diminishing happiness. Going back to one of my previous thoughts (Look Up and Act Now!), we must focus on others.
President Eyring goes on to talk about how we need to "humble ourselves... that [we] may not be tempted above that which [we] can bear."
I started thinking about this thought a lot and turned to 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says, "13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
God will provide a way for us to escape every temptation that we have. However, we will have our moral agency, we can still choose whether we want to use the way he has provided for us or to try to find a better way on our own. (We won't be able to) We need to humble ourselves and align our will with His so that we don't make it something we can't handle. 1 Corinthians 10:13 states that we won't be tempted above that which we are able. He will provide a way for us to escape, BUT we still have our agency to choose the way HE prepared for us or our own way. To escape the temptation, we can rely on Him to help make it easier, OR we can try to do it on our own and it will be much more difficult .
So how can you apply this to your own life? We can choose to do things that will lead us to the path of happiness such as praying, working, exercising faith, and committing ourselves with real intent.
I invite each of you to write down two or three actions you would like to take that can better direct you to "the path to lasting happiness." These can be simple and short or they can be long-term things that you will continually work on. As I said before, Act Now! Don't procrastinate your goals and actions. You can do it and the Lord will help you. Your Heavenly Father wants you to be happy and I testify that as you try your best to take steps towards true joy, He will help you!
I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful week.
Till next time,
Elder Soller
This picture is my favorite quote from Conference.
Blog: www.levisoller.wix.com/mission
E-mail: levi.soller@myldsmail.net
Feel free to e-mail me back or comment with any questions or comments you have. I love hearing from you all!