This week a literal prophet of God commanded the entire world to repent and bore the most powerful witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ imaginable, whilst losing strength in his own body and regardless gave his all to the cause of Christ. Let's take a step back and realize how blessed we are.
Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He sent His servants, the prophets, seers, and revelators of our day, to counsel us and deliver His will unto us. Blessed are we if we hearken to this counsel! I loved basically all of the talks that were given over this weekend of conference, especially the one given by Koichi Aoyagi...and partly because the beginning of this man's epic talk sounded like the plot to the next kaiju movie...
I loved the analogy of the surfers and the barrier of the bay, and that takes a lot because I can't tell you how many analogies I have heard of commandments being fences keeping evil away, but this one was just terrific...probably because it mentioned evil-looking sharks...
Elder Holland's talk about mothers was stunning. I'd like to give a small shout-out to the best mother in the world (mine, of course):
Everything that Elder Holland testified of in his talk about mothers is true of you, mom. You are seriously amazing.
Shout-out ended.
I loved, loved, loved the counsel given to us to teach more simply and with clarity. That is something I strive to develop every day, and it is so rewarding to be able to learn from the Lord how to simplify His gospel message.
Ponderizing is now one of my favorite words.
Scripture to PONDERIZE this week: Alma 36:27--> God will still deliver us as we continue to put our trust in Him!!! (Good ol' Alma...he's inspiring)...
Oh, and Elder Christofferson's throw-down on why we have a church in the first place was perfect in every sense of the word. Such good timing, too. I can't tell you how many people in this world are all like, "I don't need a building to worship God!" We need the church. We can't fully live the gospel of Jesus Christ in isolation.
I could go on for days about the raw awesome that was general conference, but I will just ask all of you: will you go and restudy your notes/re-watch the talks from this general conference?
*Pauses for a "yes"*
Thank you! So, anyways, this week was awesome. I mean, anytime you do missionary work, life just gets more and more awesome, but this week in particular was awesome.
We got creative with our food choices because we were out of money, and so...that was interesting. By the grace of God, last night we were able to scrounge up some stuff hiding in the cupboards and the fridge for a Mexican food night! Now I know for myself that the story of the loaves and the fishes was possible.... (I'm kidding...the Spirit already bore witness of it a long time ago...)
This week, I learned a valuable lesson of repentance and procrastination. Before everyone freaks out, the lesson came through an analogy...
I have been walking around for the past two transfers with an intense ingrown toenail. Unwilling to fix it due to either pride or fear of needles (probably a mixture of both), I let it fester and grow for months. Walking, which used to bring me so much joy and loss of weight, now became a task that required my constant vigilance and brought increasing pain. Finally, I decided to change it all. When the pain became so rough to bear, I reached out to the fabulous Elder Croshaw, a podiatrist-senior-missionary-undercover-superhero in our mission. He called me up on his way back from Chilliwhack as they were passing through Langley. Luckily, we were heading back from Abbotsford at the same time, and so it worked out perfectly. We pulled in to the Fraser Valley YSA chapel and he unveiled the tools for the job: needles, clippers, science-fiction-toenail-root-killing-chemicals, etc. And the games began.
Sitting on the couch in the foyer of the church meetinghouse, with my foot propped up on a chair for the black market operation, I felt like I was in one of those sketchy movie scenes where the guys end up having to get a surgery done in, like, a back alleyway or something...except this time it was in the Lord's perfect, true and living Church, so...it was kind of different...
Anyways, after agonizing moments of numbing fluid being pumped into my veins by needles, I realized as soon as he started clipping that it hadn't taken effect! Don't worry...I won't go into details, but....everything ended well. My toe feels great.
Let that be a lesson. If we procrastinate the day of our repentance, all that it means is that it's going to hurt even more...by the day...
We had our zone meeting this week, and I loved it. Such an amazing meeting! I got to train on how to have greater faith in the Work, and how to find people... It was pretty funny. I did a punk move on the zone. To get everyone to get the point of bashing is bad, I told them to open up to Chapter 9 in Preach My Gospel about finding and told them to find the section called, "Bashing with People"...they got the humor... I told them it was right next to "Sleeping In" and "Being Apostate"! Oh, I make myself laugh sometimes...
We got to watch a hilariously cheesy video about car safety, and learn how to plan better and how to use our time more effectively in the Lord's service. We also got to take a group picture as a zone! I love it. I love being in Langley, and the Work that the Lord is leading here.
We are teaching so many awesome YSA people, and the work is definitely hastening. I am grateful to be here and honored to be a part of this great and marvelous work. I love this gospel. It is so true. And it has been restored through a modern prophet. The Book of Mormon is undoubtedly true. By the power of the Holy Ghost, I know this to be true. And that is all that matters. And I know that as we build our faith, we will be strengthened for the storms ahead of us, because with and through Christ, we can do all things.
With awe and respect,
Elder Stock
The Langley Zone!
From left to right: Top row: Elder Gawrys, Elder Mattingley, Elder Slack, Elder Haase, Elder Swallow, Elder Sigrest, Elder Stirland, Elder Frei, Elder Jorgensen, Elder Nielsen, Elder Stock, and Elder Samis. Bottom row: Sister Christensen, Sister Cendreda, Sister Mumford, Sister Bernard, Sister Miller, and Sister Shroeder.
The Vancouver British Columbia Temple here in Langley.
BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
That moment when you find yourself in this situation...
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