A Rat and a Baptism (March 28, 2016)

A Rat and a Baptism

Package, nothing, although I can't possibly have information until I go up there (to the mission home) or someone else does. This means that I will get news, or lack of it, on Thursday, when we have our zone conference. However, I had been under the impression that you were going to call the office to confirm the details concerning the address and the change which may or may not have happened.

Baptisms, yes. 
Sister Maria Teresa Guzman has entered the waters of baptism and become a member of the church. I participated in the confirmation the following day. Not as the one doing it, but one of those lending authority. As a result, she seems happy, and I have had my first baptism of the mission. It is without doubt that I am happy. 

This is specifically for Mama: She would like you to try to friend her on Facebook. 
Give it a try. You may find you have more in common than you expect. If for no other reason, do so such that after my mission, when I decide to make a Facebook account, which I have already resolved upon, I can add her and keep contact. 
Back to speaking to everyone:

Extraordinary experiences? Other than a baptism?

Just that I stepped on a rat by accident. You know, one of those rats as big a hamburger. Yeah, that was a frightening experience, though not dangerous in the slightest. 
We also bought mussels from the market. Probably the shiftiest thing we've done. But it turned out to be tasty and I'm not sick yet, sooooo....

My companion does have a camera, I'll see if he can send some stuff, since he's not allowed to email me...

No security change, but you don't know how hard every terrorist attack hits me. Something about me just...
I don't know, but I'm certainly affected.

Don't need anything, except to find out about my package. That being said, I have found out about the opportunity to get carvings called temple plates, and yes, they are pretty wicked looking. If you would like one, let me know. They are 2800 peso each, I believe, and the artist will do it on any temple. It is a pop out kind of thing, not a full 3d temple, but the kind where you take a single plane and make everything as it would be if it were 3d. I don't know how to explain, but it's cool.


Weather is...
HOT
Very
And now, though it's still humid, it's dry. As in, no rain...
So I've gotten sunburned for the first time. 
But that's all right. 
Companions are still the same. They are doing fine. Elder Eteaki hates being district leader, but I have it on good faith that everyone who loves being a missionary finds being a district leader to be hard. Elder Calixto continues to be a fun loving Filipino with nearly a mission worth of experience. 
Transfers, which will likely occur to me, will be happening the second Wednesday of April, because this particular transfer was long. 
I will very likely transfer, because (1) I'm in a threesome, which is never meant to be a permanent situation, and (2) I will have been in this area for 6 months now. 
That being said, anything, and I mean anything, could happen.

Just ‘cause I'd like to share one of my spiritual insights, here you go:

That being said, the time I have spent not working, I do not feel I wasted. I have devoured Jesus the Christ (by Talmage) over the last week, and spiritual doors and revelation have opened beyond belief. I have been immensely strengthened by my increasing understanding of The Son of The Father. One particular revelation has stuck out in amazing contrast. A vital error has been corrected in my mind.

How easy it is to choose the right.
Now I do not say this to disparage all those who struggle with temptation, addictions, old habits, and so forth. I know that struggles are very real, and have had some myself.
But I realized in my studies this week a vital deception, a perilous error in my thoughts.

I had always felt quite fully, that choosing the wrong was the easier way. Otherwise, as my mind put it, so many more people would choose the right. Choosing the right requires action, whereas choosing the wrong is as easy as simply deciding not to act. Not to leave a sinful situation, not to get up in the morning, not to OYM that person. 

When we think about how much choosing the right is termed as progression, and life is like a slippery slope, we think about how simply not working is a sinful act. How not trying is a sin. Deciding not to observe all rules with exactitude, by being more comfortable, and requiring little effort, simply seems easier. 

Now of course, we've all heard the rebukes made before: in the end it's the harder way. Serving two masters leads to disgust in one or the other, and being burnt out on top of it. Choosing the right brings blessings which make it easier, etc. etc. 

But even in the scriptures it says that the curse that came upon man was that by the sweat of his brow would he eat bread. 
Hard work is called hard work for a reason, right?

But I learned recently that this is the central lie: Giving in to sin is easier than choosing the right.

And why is that a deception? What clever truth is being hidden by it?

By logic we determine that my statement that “bad is easier than good” is a lie, means I claim that it is not. But why would I say that?

Because it denies a very important truth, and one that pervades an understanding of all doctrine:
God loves us. 

To say that sinning is the easy way, is to say that Satan fights harder to obtain our misery than God fights to obtain our happiness, and that would be in direct opposition to eternal truth. 

I have yet to understand how this can be true while it still feels and seems easier to choose the wrong, but it has given me strength. God loves us, and by this we know that he has to fight at least as hard as Satan, if not harder.




From,
Elder Streeter