November 17, 2014

"Some young people inform me that in our current culture it is not 'cool' to try too hard in many areas, including living strictly in accordance with righteous principles. Please do not fall into this trap."

- Quinton L. Cook

The whole mission life is amazing. I love waking up early in the morning and start the day off by studying the scriptures. I love being able to find new things about the gospel and about the plan of happiness. I’m so glad to read about the mercy of God and how we can return to him. We are here on earth to learn. We are so blessed to be here and have this opportunity here on earth. I can’t even begin to describe all of that is in my heart.

Today, we have had our preparation day, and we went to a restaurant that is called "El Negro." It makes some of the best food that I’ve had in the mission so far. It was a really great time that we had. The food was amazing! The owners have something that they do after you eat. They ask the biggest, strongest guy in the group if they want to arm wrestle. It was really fun to watch one of the other missionaries arm wrestle and lose... twice. And then my group wanted me to go, so I went and arm wrestled him. This guy was HUGE!!! His arm was twice the size of mine, and I almost won except the guy was using his whole body to win. It was pretty fun.

I don’t know what else to really say about this week. It has been so amazing, and I have nothing else to say other than I KNOW this work to be true. I know the church is the true church. I could say why in so many different ways, but I know in the simplest way that it just makes sense. Look at it from any way you want to, test any point of doctrine. it all just makes sense. There is nothing more in it than when your spirit begins to remember the things from the pre-mortal life. Everything here is amazing. I love you all and am so glad to always hear from you all. No big spiritual thought this week other than God lives and listens. Christ lives. I can’t begin to describe my thankfulness for this knowledge. I love you all.

November 10, 2014

"It is my testimony that many of the deepest regrets of tomorrow can be prevented by following the Savior today. If we have sinned or made mistakes--if we have made choices that we now regret--there is the precious gift of Christ's Atonement through which we can be forgiven. We cannot go back in time and change the past, but we can repent."

- Deiter F. Uchtdorf

Here in Chile, there are many things which people would see as difficult . For example, I see people who make promises and don’t keep them and just choose to live a life far below what they could be. I have seen people who have made mistakes in life and don’t know where to turn. I have seen so much since I have come here to Chile. It isn’t just here though; it is all over the world.

So, I wrote a couple weeks ago about Grace. Well, I guess I’ll talk about the Atonement this time.

Recently, I met someone who is having a hard time with a sin; they know that the atonement covers this sin and that Christ paid the price for our sins. That is so, so very true in all aspects. We know from the scriptures that Christ came to the world to pay the price for our sins. He suffered for us that we might return to the presence of the Father. We know this to be true. However, do we know about the other power of the atonement? The power that we receive from his help? We know we can change. We know that we can do this because of his sacrifice for us. But do we comprehend how? We always have a little voice that goes off in our heads saying that we can’t change when we need to change. A little voice that says it is impossible, that you are out of the reach of help from the Lord. This is impossible. The atonement of Christ is INFINITE. We are always able to change.

So, now knowing that we can always change, can we do it on our own? The answer is a definite NO. Unfortunately it is NO; we need to rely on Christ to help us change. There comes a time in every phase of change where it seems like it can go no further. This is the breaking point, where we either go forward even though we have given it all we have, or we give up and return back to where we were. This is where we rely on the atonement. We begin to experience all kinds of new things that are hard, and we don’t have anyone to turn to. In these moments, we can rely on Christ. Not only did he suffer for our sins, but he took upon himself all our pains, afflictions, sicknesses, and everything. That means he knows how I feel about being rejected by people every day. Not just because he too was rejected, but because he knows EXACTLY how we feel. We all experience these moments differently. He knows EXACTLY how you feel, because he felt it too. Because he did the atonement, he can not only show you how to change, but he knows exactly because he has felt it too. ALL of it. 

What does this mean for us? It means that when we feel like we are in the pit of despair and there is no one we can turn to, He is there for us, because He has felt it to. Remember this week that we can change, and that it is only through Him that we can do it.

I like to leave you with my testimony that God lives and speaks to us today through the means of a living prophet and through personal revelation. I know this because I have prayed about it and received my own personal witness. I encourage you all to seek for your own witness and try to strengthen it if you already have it. I know that we can change because I have experienced this power of the Atonement for myself, and because of this, I can teach it to people. I know this is the true church of God with no doubt in my mind. I know that God and Christ are with us in our trials because I have seen it. 

I know this for myself because I have experienced it this week. Especially how he is always there for us to aid us. We have been without water for this week in my apartment building. We talked to the landlord, and it is supposedly us going to go on for another 2 weeks. I know that I have God aiding me and my companion in our trial because I don’t feel the pain of not being able to cook or clean or have many of the luxuries of life. It sure is difficult here in Chile, but I love it. I could never have traded this period of my life for anything else.

I love you all. Here in Chile, it is nothing but an adventure. Continue to strengthen your relationship with God; it will do nothing but help you because you will know that He is always with you. 

To finish up, I have a favorite story about a man who was walking down the beach with Christ. After awhile, he looked back, and in areas on the sand (his life) the man saw only one pair of footprints. He turned and asked Christ, "Why did you abandon me in these points of my life? Why did you leave me all alone?" Christ turned to him and said simply with a smile, "My brother, those were the times in your life when I carried you." 

Keep smiling, in this life, we are meant to have joy. (2 Nephi 2:25)

Elder Gale

November 11, 2014

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

- Isaiah 40:31

Well, I decided to start off with a question this week because it is a question that I get to see the effects of everyday. So, where do you put your faith? If you first answered with “God” or “Christ” or anything like that, I want you to pause, think about your answer, and then ponder if your faith truly is in God. Here, I get to see people who said the same thing as you. But when the going got rough and they tried to get going, they put their faith in one of two places. Either in 1- the wrong place, or 2- with God, but did not wait for HIS time to come. I don’t know if that made sense. Basically, did they (or you in this case) put your faith in God, but left when it seemed to not be working?

I watched a video today about when a promise was given to the saints that if they paid their tithing, that it would rain and their crops would grow strong. Well, the first thing some people did was doubt, and they didn’t believe. They did not put their faith in God. The other group went and planted, paid their tithing, AND hand-watered their crops for a time. Summer began. Summer comes, and it begins to take a lot of water from the ground really fast. (All Arizonians know this.) They had moments where it looked bleak, like the promise of God wouldn´t come true, but still they had faith. And then, after a little time, it rained, and rained, and rained until the crops were ready. And they were good crops. It was all because of their faith. I learned that when we put our faith in God and wait for his timing while doing all that we can, He will bless more abundantly than we can even imagine.

Think about that. We have to wait, and we wait until God is ready to bless us. Not when we want the blessings to come. I have seen many people here in Chile think that they do their part, and then wait for a little... I would like to correct a statement I made earlier. There are actually three groups"

1- Those that don’t even begin to believe, or put their faith in God
2- Those that begin strong, but once the pressure and heat get turned up a bit, they fail.
And 3- those who begin strong, hold out strong TO THE END, and then receive the blessings.

Anyways, this is just something that I have seen as I have been here, and I just wanted to share with you all that I felt and have learned about it.

On a lighter note, there was a baptism this week! Not ours, but the young man who was baptized is a good friend that I have made since I have been here. It was really, really great to see him enter into this covenant with God and begin his path towards eternal life. I was so happy to see this happen. One thing that happens on the mission is that you begin to learn what it TRULY means to love someone. I can’t even begin to describe it. It is much, much more than a feeling, and much more than a thought. When you think about someone all day and you worry about them and you pray for them with all your soul that they can find their way in this hard world, then you have the beginnings of love. That is what I believe. And then, it develops into charity, which is basically when you can see someone like how God sees them. It is so much more than love. I can’t even explain it.

I went on splits this week, which is when you go with another missionary who is not your companion, and you go teach in their area. So, we went to his area and went to go and talk to an investigator, and it was really great! He is a man who wants to quit smoking with all his heart, and he wants more than anything to get baptized. He really wants this, but he is afraid that he will mess up and will break his promise to God. I told him about me before I left on my mission. About two nights before, I felt so afraid. I was leaving my family and friends and my everything behind. I was going on the other side of the world!!! And I was terribly afraid. I felt so inadequate, but my parents taught me that I needed to recognize where this fear was coming from. I knew my whole life that I should leave on a mission, and I knew it was the right thing to do. Now I definitely know it. I told him that my parents taught me that this fear was from Satan. He doesn’t want us to be closer to God, so he strikes us with this fear and it seems as if we are encircled with darkness. I told him that I knew that if we take that step into the darkness and put our faith in God, that he will light the way. And I KNOW that with all my heart. If I didn’t, I never would have taken this “first step” and come on my mission.

Basically, I have put my faith in God, and I will wait for the time it takes for him to bless me. And I know that it is going to be hard because if I wasn’t doing the right thing, it would be easy. I KNOW I am here for the right reason and that I can do all things through Christ. I know this church is true. And I will write you all again next week to share with you a little bit more of my testimony. I sure love you all!

Elder Gale

October 27, 2014

"Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times."

- Martin Luther

Well, this week was really rough. We did not get many people to listen to us, but the people who did were really kind and listened. It was definitely a hard week because I started to really feel homesick for the first time really. I mean, I miss all of you and I love it out here, but I got asked a lot from people about what I am going to do after the mission... so it was really hard to say that I will be here for two years and all that. I sure do love it out here. I love everyday how I get to wake up and help someone grow closer to Christ. I love that I get to bring myself closer to Him everyday too. I have grown to truly love reading the scriptures. I get to read them for hours every day, and I get to share what I learned in them with others.

The big thing that I learned this week was about grace, meaning the grace of God. It started when my companion got a talk about grace. So we started to study that this week. The big thing about grace is that “by grace we are saved.” This is because Christ paid the price for our sins. ALL of us. This means that we can all return to the presence of God. However, there is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that really explains this. 2 Nephi 25:23 – “It is by grace that we are saved, AFTER all we can do” (emphasis added). This does not mean that God is standing there saying, “Two more steps, and you´ve made it to my kingdom.” This means that we will be feeling clean enough to enter, meaning we will all be given the opportunity to accept to enter into the Kingdom of God because we are clean through the atonement of Christ. However, it will be our decision if we will want to STAY in His presence. I never really thought about grace before; but I really studied it this week, and I arrived to this conclusion. We are clean. We can enter. But do we feel comfortable?

I went to EFY twice. (EFY is like a place where people can go to learn more about the gospel of Christ and be apart from the world to truly embrace the gospel and not worry about normal life.) And I got to witness people who were there because they wanted to and others who were simply there because their parents wanted them to be there to try and grow closer to God. I was blessed to witness people grow closer, and people who seemed like they were about to die because they did not feel comfortable being this close to the Spirit of God. I was able to witness people who, after the first day, called home saying that they don’t like it because it is too spiritual. This is what I mean by not wanting to be in His presence.

I am going to pose a question that I heard in general conference that struck me. How would you feel if, in a minute from now, you had a personal interview with Christ? How would you feel? This is what grace is all about. The atonement was made so we can return back to Christ. EVERYONE will receive the resurrection and immortality, but not everyone will receive eternal life. This means for us to LIVE as we once did with our Father in heaven and together as a family... forever.

I have also been studying like a madman about recognizing the Spirit. I found it interesting that it does not say "learning how the spirit speaks to you" or "finding how God speaks to you," but instead it says to recognize the spirit. I have found that we have ALL had a moment in our lives, where God has been speaking to us. But did we recognize it? That is the true question. We have all felt the need to acercarnos (I don’t know how to say that in English anymore!!!) (Note from Lauren: this means to approach) to God. Think; was there a time in your life that you felt the need to make a change in your life for the better? Where did this think come from? I know that it came from the Spirit of God. We must remember how that felt. That is how God speaks to us.

I just wanted to tell you all about what I have learned this week. And of course, as always, work work work, and a bit more work to keep the bad thoughts away.

Fique Firme, Kia Kaha
Stay Strong, Forever Strong

Elder Gale