Elder L says "Hi" -- 26 November 2012

Elder L is my zone leader, and he wanted me to tell you all "Hi" for him.

Anywho. This week has been amazing. We picked two (2) new investigators (better known as "L" and "M". L is searching for the social aspect of the church, but is readily accepting all we teach her, she'll definitely be baptized. M is the girlfriend of a boy in the ward who has been attending church and seminary all year. Plus she's read the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Is there such a thing of a purer pearl of great price? We're also teaching an agnostic (m) (she'll come around) and T (who we may or may not turn over to the ward this week...)

On top of all that, we set baptisimal dates. 3 of them. For before the end of the transfer. This is going to be great.

Elder C and I have been getting along very very well. We laugh a lot, and we also get a TON done. We'll definitely have an excellent transfer together.

I apologize for really stinking at emails. I don't ever really know what to say.

Oh! Temple covenants. Always uphold them. Just do it. If you don't, you'll regret it. Big time. Seriously big time. So, just do it. The Lord doesn't ask much, and all he asks, we can do. I know that's true.

Remember the quote from Elder Holland from general conference:

My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”¹³ And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,”¹⁴ Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword”¹⁵ to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live.

I testify from the bottom of my heart, with the intensity of my soul, to all who can hear my voice that those apostolic keys have been restored to the earth, and they are found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To those who have not yet joined with us in this great final cause of Christ, we say, “Please come.” To those who were once with us but have retreated, preferring to pick and choose a few cultural hors d’oeuvres from the smorgasbord of the Restoration and leave the rest of the feast, I say that I fear you face a lot of long nights and empty nets. The call is to come back, to stay true, to love God, and to lend a hand. I include in that call to fixed faithfulness every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.”¹⁶ That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but it was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well. To the youth of the Church rising up to missions and temples and marriage, we say: “Love God and remain clean from the blood and sins of this generation. You have a monumental work to do, underscored by that marvelous announcement President Thomas S. Monson made yesterday morning. Your Father in Heaven expects your loyalty and your love at every stage of your life.”

To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having set our “hand to the plough,”¹⁷ we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

If you love HIM keep His commandments.

Don't ever pay anything less than what you owe, which is your loyalty.

I love you all so much. Thank you all for writing me. Thank you for your love. I love you.