Dear Everyone,
I was transferred to Kinston this last week and I have had quite a time here. One of the first thing I did when I got here was go shopping for food. While shopping I warned my companion not to buy Doritos. Well, he did anyways and ended up sick for 4 days. He was feeling better and suggested that we get Mc Griddles in the morning. I made a statement about the unhealthiness thereof and he got one anyways. He relapsed into ill health. Finally, I jokingly warned him about eating french toast.. Well he ate that too and yep, he felt sick again. Through this trial I have learned to heed the advice of my companion, Mc Griddles are downright unhealthy and french toast is not the best food to eat in recovery.
Now for the good part of the week. A sister missionary returned home from her mission this past week and her family put together an amazing homecoming. It was a pretty well thought out program with all sort of acts. The idea for the homecoming was to showcase the different things that the returned missionary had missed out on, ranging from her sister playing her first major role in a play to two of her friends receiving their mission calls and the Steelers winning the Super Bowl again. We had a pretty amazing time attending that and even got to play a pretty sweet role in one of the acts. For those of you who have seen Saturday's Warrior you may remember the song "In Our Humble Way" wherein Greene and Kessler are preparing to descend to earth from the preexistence. Kessler is fired up and ready to go and breaks out in this memorable number. I played the part of Kessler and my companion was Greene. We forced parts in our hair with gel and wore our ties both too long and too short respectively and I definitely played the part XD. The audience and more importantly, since it was her homecoming, the returned missionary loved it.
I did not like that we were not able to do much work this week, but I loved the extra sleep. I continued my study of Mosiah and also in memorizing scriptures this week. In Mosiah I am on chapter five wherein the people of King Benjamin have listened to his discourse and have felt the truthfulness of his words as testified by the Holy Ghost. There has been within them wrought a mighty change of heart and they no longer have any desire to do evil but to do good continually. This ties back into the earlier chapter wherein they were preparing to be taught by King Benjamin. They had hearts open to the reception of the Holy Ghost and because of their open hearts the Holy Ghost was able to influence and change their desires. Because they listened to him their lives where never the same.
The heart is such a key point in the process of conversion. You can try to change your environment all you want, but until you change your core desires you can never be truly converted. We must remember that conversion is a process and not an event though. This is because the person must be open and willing to change and even after a mighty change has been wrought they must continue in faith, repentance, hope and charity, being sure and steadfast always abounding in good works to retain that mighty change. This is done through daily prayer and scripture study, attending church meetings, partaking of the sacrament worthily, frequent temple attendance, faithfully paying tithes, serving faithfully in callings, adhering to the counsel of church leaders and putting these as top priorities in life. By praying daily and reading our scriptures we retain a remembrance of the promises and blessings of the gospel and also an eternal perspective. By praying we recognize our relationship to our Heavenly Father and as His Children our worth. Through scripture study we come to know Him and His Son and how we can best emulate and please them. By partaking of the sacrament worthily we renew not only our covenant but our resolve to follow Christ more perfectly and by serving faithfully in callings we show this desire. By faithfully paying tithing we show our willingness to sacrifice for the building up of His kingdom on the earth and in doing so we are able to distinguish between wants and needs better. In faithfully attending the temple we are reminded our our divine potential and the sacred nature of the family and how crucial it is to remain faithful all our days. By attending church meetings regularly we show our willingness to learn, to grow and to progress in learning and living the gospel. Following the counsel of our leaders augments this process of progression.
I know that as we follow these and many other fundamental principles and applications of the gospel, we will grow closer to our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. We will experience the mighty change of heart and retain it. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church of Jesus Christ. It is His Church. He leads it, guides it and directs it through a modern day Prophet even Thomas S. Monson. These things I know to be true. Just as the people of King Benjamin's time, I have felt the whisperings of the Holy Ghost bear witness to the truthfulness thereof and I know that if you pray with a sincere heart, with real intent having faith in Christ, even with only a desire to believe and act upon it, you will receive a testimony as I have. You will know that it is true. These things I bear witness of, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
With love,
Elder Roberts
I was transferred to Kinston this last week and I have had quite a time here. One of the first thing I did when I got here was go shopping for food. While shopping I warned my companion not to buy Doritos. Well, he did anyways and ended up sick for 4 days. He was feeling better and suggested that we get Mc Griddles in the morning. I made a statement about the unhealthiness thereof and he got one anyways. He relapsed into ill health. Finally, I jokingly warned him about eating french toast.. Well he ate that too and yep, he felt sick again. Through this trial I have learned to heed the advice of my companion, Mc Griddles are downright unhealthy and french toast is not the best food to eat in recovery.
Now for the good part of the week. A sister missionary returned home from her mission this past week and her family put together an amazing homecoming. It was a pretty well thought out program with all sort of acts. The idea for the homecoming was to showcase the different things that the returned missionary had missed out on, ranging from her sister playing her first major role in a play to two of her friends receiving their mission calls and the Steelers winning the Super Bowl again. We had a pretty amazing time attending that and even got to play a pretty sweet role in one of the acts. For those of you who have seen Saturday's Warrior you may remember the song "In Our Humble Way" wherein Greene and Kessler are preparing to descend to earth from the preexistence. Kessler is fired up and ready to go and breaks out in this memorable number. I played the part of Kessler and my companion was Greene. We forced parts in our hair with gel and wore our ties both too long and too short respectively and I definitely played the part XD. The audience and more importantly, since it was her homecoming, the returned missionary loved it.
I did not like that we were not able to do much work this week, but I loved the extra sleep. I continued my study of Mosiah and also in memorizing scriptures this week. In Mosiah I am on chapter five wherein the people of King Benjamin have listened to his discourse and have felt the truthfulness of his words as testified by the Holy Ghost. There has been within them wrought a mighty change of heart and they no longer have any desire to do evil but to do good continually. This ties back into the earlier chapter wherein they were preparing to be taught by King Benjamin. They had hearts open to the reception of the Holy Ghost and because of their open hearts the Holy Ghost was able to influence and change their desires. Because they listened to him their lives where never the same.
The heart is such a key point in the process of conversion. You can try to change your environment all you want, but until you change your core desires you can never be truly converted. We must remember that conversion is a process and not an event though. This is because the person must be open and willing to change and even after a mighty change has been wrought they must continue in faith, repentance, hope and charity, being sure and steadfast always abounding in good works to retain that mighty change. This is done through daily prayer and scripture study, attending church meetings, partaking of the sacrament worthily, frequent temple attendance, faithfully paying tithes, serving faithfully in callings, adhering to the counsel of church leaders and putting these as top priorities in life. By praying daily and reading our scriptures we retain a remembrance of the promises and blessings of the gospel and also an eternal perspective. By praying we recognize our relationship to our Heavenly Father and as His Children our worth. Through scripture study we come to know Him and His Son and how we can best emulate and please them. By partaking of the sacrament worthily we renew not only our covenant but our resolve to follow Christ more perfectly and by serving faithfully in callings we show this desire. By faithfully paying tithing we show our willingness to sacrifice for the building up of His kingdom on the earth and in doing so we are able to distinguish between wants and needs better. In faithfully attending the temple we are reminded our our divine potential and the sacred nature of the family and how crucial it is to remain faithful all our days. By attending church meetings regularly we show our willingness to learn, to grow and to progress in learning and living the gospel. Following the counsel of our leaders augments this process of progression.
I know that as we follow these and many other fundamental principles and applications of the gospel, we will grow closer to our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. We will experience the mighty change of heart and retain it. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church of Jesus Christ. It is His Church. He leads it, guides it and directs it through a modern day Prophet even Thomas S. Monson. These things I know to be true. Just as the people of King Benjamin's time, I have felt the whisperings of the Holy Ghost bear witness to the truthfulness thereof and I know that if you pray with a sincere heart, with real intent having faith in Christ, even with only a desire to believe and act upon it, you will receive a testimony as I have. You will know that it is true. These things I bear witness of, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
With love,
Elder Roberts
