January 12, 2016

"Coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him places perfection within the eternal journey of our spirit and body--in essence, the eternal journey of our soul. Becoming perfect results from our journey through physical life, death, and resurrection, when all things are restored 'to their proper and perfect frame.'"

- Gerrit W. Gong

This week sure was a great one. I was so happy to have been here in Nuevo Amanacer because I found out today at 1:00 AM that I am getting changed to a different area. I'm really sad, as always, since I have to leave an area that I've come to love. This sector has been my shortest lived one, but it's one that I've put a lot of love and countless amounts of prayers into trying to serve. 

I had the wonderful opportunity during the week to have a spiritual lesson where I didn't even feel like it was my words that came from my mouth. I was doing exchanges with an elder who I live with who actually came out with me. We had a great moment of teaching a family that hasn't gone to church in a long time because of simply being a little lazy. As we were talking with them, it became very apparent that one wanted to go back to church, and the other not too much. We asked as to why, and they told us that they always try, go for a few weeks, but then they stop. Then they go again.... and then they stop. And it just seems to be a never-ending cycle for them. We ended up talking about the temple. Both of these people have gone through the temple before. As we talked about it, they started saying the same things (we tried to go back... but it didn't work...), so we shared with them a scripture which is my favorite scripture in the whole world. It is found in Moroni 10:32 and reads as such: "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

As we were sharing this, a few things came into my mind to share with them concerning this scripture. The first thing was come unto Christ. This is an invitation. To sum it all up, it is an invitation that does not have any parameters concerning the distance to which you may be from Christ, but the direction in which you head to him. Christ wants ALL to come unto him, so it matters not if we are near, or far. All He wants is for us to come. The second thing I thought was for us to strive to be perfected in Him. This is a process. Becoming perfect is a long process, but He is always there, willing and ready, and He is able to help us as we try to come to Him. He always wants us, so it doesn't matter how many times we fall but how many times we continue to try.

I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week!! Until next time! 

Elder Gale