Week 19: He's Already Read the Book

This week I tried to contact someone on the street, and he actually seemed fairly interested. I wanted to get his number, only his grandson, the little rascal, started throwing rocks at us, with quite the arm too. So sadly one fewer person this week had the opportunity to hear the good news message.

Christmas Conference -- On Wednesday, we had our mission's Christmas conference, with the whole world there, even the Palmas people, having taken a 12 hour bus ride to get there. The highlight was the massive game of white elephant, with an amazing variety of gifts, including a picture of our mission president put on just about anything possible. Now, I was incredibly lucky: I ended up with a bottle of anti-fungal foot powder, which I was told is good to get started using early on the mission.

And it was just so much to see all of the friends I've already made on the mission and to make more, including Elder Port's new trainee, who I got to laugh with about our first transfers with Port.

He's Already Read the Book -- I made a random street contact last week, one with a family of a young woman and her parents, and now we met with them again. The father, Edivaldo, let us in, and while he sat us down, he pulled a Bible from off his shelf (to be expected) and a Book of Mormon (huh?). He let us take a look, and we saw the print year -- 2006 -- along with each occurance of the words God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit highlighted in red crayon on every single page. He said he's read the whole book, and after asking which part is his favorite, he said Alma! We looked at each other and asked, "What do we teach him first? He's already read the whole book!" We eventually decided to teach the gospel of Christ, and by the end of the lesson, he confirmed "yeah, that's what the book teaches." 

And if I had a nickle for every time that happened this week, I would actually have two nickles. 

Late in the evening one night, while knocking the houses of old media references who hadn't been taught, a disheveled husband and wife opened the door, both drunk genuinely out of their minds. They came out and shortly after started crying, explaining they had been taught before, but that he hadn't been able to be baptized because of an unrepented crime he commited. That was about a year ago, and since then, he said he's read the Book of Mormon every day, finishing it two times, and praying as well. We told him he can be baptized one day, but that he needs to come to church with us to start that process. Sadly, they were not there on Sunday, but we'll be visiting them again on Tuesday, so vamos ver. And hopefully he'll be wearing a shirt this next time.

Favorite Hymn -- Sorry, the opposite of last week, I only have about ten minutes to write this thought, but this morning I was listening to a general conference talk by the past prophet of the church, Thomas S. Monson, about choices. In it, he quoted the children's hymn, Choose the Right. 

"Choosing the Right" has always been an interesting idea to me. Many philosphies say that the "right" does not exist, that some choices can be compared but that there is no "right," and some say there are no even better or worse choices. And yet, we have the answer. There is a "right." Let me explain.

This week I studied Christ's ministry to the Nephites in 3 Nephi after His resurrection. He's teaches much to the people, including the whole sermon on the mount, word for word.. almost. A few things are different, and it's very interesting to find what is and why. One difference is when in Matthew 7:48, He commands the people to

Now, being perfect seems impossible. It seems like a "right" that really is unobtainable and so doesn't really exist, like many philosphies claim. But, in the Book of Mormon, it's slightly different; he says:

Now why is it different? Because Christ has been resurrected, He is now perfected. And we learned something from this, because as has been promised by many other prophets, we will all be resurrected one day. We will receive perfect bodies like Christ, and this is possible only because of and through Jesus Christ. So, this is the "right," to choose Christ. Like, again, Brad Wilcox says in his devotional, "His Grace is Sufficient," after all we can do, we will never be this "right," perfect person. But that's why we have grace. Christ's Atonement doesn't just fill the gap of what we weren't able to do, He did it all for us. We define the direction we face through our actions, through choosing the right, and He actually draws the line to eternal life one day.

That's all I have for this week,

Till next time,

Elder Haroldsen

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