Week 28: God is Good, All the Time

This week was pretty good because God is good! Four weeks ago, we made a goal: we were going to baptize 6 people this transfer. Very luckily, we already had three that had been taught for a bit already, and we made an even more specific goal for the next three: that they will be one reference from social media, one reference from a member, and one contact in public, all that we haven't met yet. 

That's a big goal! How is that possible? I'll explain in my spiritual thought at the end. :)

And how is it going for us? Well, God is good.

Weekly Goals -- We made an even more specific goal this week to have three people (that fit the criteria of our transfer goal) come to church -- Michelle, Kauam, and Micherleine. We did the best we could to help them, but when the day came, none of them came to church! We were really discouraged right before the meeting started because of this. But, the Lord always has larger plans for us. Instead of them, *four* **new** people came to church! We had Dilma, a contact in public we only taught two times; Antonio, a reference from social media who brought his daughter too; and (out of left field) the friend of a recent convert who we had never met before! We had four people at church, and no one we knew last week! You'll hear in the coming weeks if they choose to be baptized and if we meet our goal of 6 baptisms.

Um Outro Milagrão -- If you remember, recently, we baptized Ana and her daughter Emily. But, their younger son, João Gabriel, wasn't allowed by their dad to be baptized because he thought he wasn't old enough (even though he's 10). So we went there a bit ago to try and see if we can make the dad comfortable with his son being baptized sooner. We were pretty intimidated about talking with the dad, but when we got there, he wasn't even there, and after a scripture we read, João Gabriel spoke to us about his fears about being baptized. We realized he really didn't feel ready; it wasn't his dad just blocking him; so after helping him out, we were able to mark his baptism date for March 1st! Then, while calling them yesterday, he said he had a feeling that he should be baptized this Sunday!! (His mom, Ana, is also incredibly elect and after he said this, she was super excited and told us, "yup! mark it for this sunday!")

Home chemistry -- My companion left a 2-liter bottle of water in the freezer this week, and after taking it out, filled to the top with ice, rather than letting it melt, curiosity quickly got the best of me, and I unscrewed the lid. In that moment, I was reminded of two things I learned in chemisty:

1. Water expands when frozen into ice.

2. Water does not compress.

I don't know how many psi the remaining water inside the bottle was under, but it enough to launch the cap up at the ceiling and spray the water all over me. 

It's also kind of funny having an email list where I can talk about my experience of having a water bottle explode on me and expect at least one person to read it, lol.

Favorite hymn -- Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing:

An experience I had with this hymn was part of why I decided to serve a mission. I was in my BYU young adults ward in the basement of the JKB, nowhere too exciting, and I had had a pretty tough week. I don't remember exactly how I was feeling, but I had been having a hard week for a while now, and I had taken it out a bit on the Lord, pushing myself away from Him.

That day, we sang the very first hymn in the new hymn book, #1001, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. A christian classic, it hadn't been in our hymn book for a while now, and having heard and enjoyed the hymn in other places, I was so glad it had been added. But I hadn't really listened to lyrics until I heard the chorus of the second verse that day:

The atonement has the power to save us; we will all be resurrected like Him one day. It is a gift immeaserable. And I've been learning every day, it is also a gift that changes us now. 

I talked about lots of goals this week. We all have goals for our weeks, years, and lives, but Christ gave us the *biggest* goal for our life:

(Matthew 5:48)

Perfection? That seems impossible. We have so many weaknesses, trials, temptations, and obstacles that it seems rediculous to expect that of us. And many people think it is. Many see the expections given by God, especially for members of our church, as impossible for them, and for a long time, I did as well. Serving a mission seemed like an impossibility for me. 

But, the atonement is about change. The goal of it is to save us, but also to perfect us. It is how we are made perfect. But it's not just how we made perfect one day far in the future, it's how we are perfected now! Jesus Christ, as "the author and finisher of our faith," is our path to perfection. I know that as I've accepted his help, the challenges I've faced and the weaknesses I've had have been lightened, and I've been able to change. I encourage all of us acknowledge this: that perfection starts now and it starts with Christ. We will never see us truly perfect in this life, and this is why we need His grace to make all the difference, even after all we can do.

But what is a big goal, like being perfect, without smaller goals? God wants to help us with these goals too! As missionaries, we work a lot with goals and use them to ask for help from the Lord. One thing I've learned when it comes to asking for and recognizing the Lord's help in our lives is to be specific. 

Rather than asking, "help me do well this school year" every day, you can ask, "help me get at least 80% on my physics test next week" or whatever else. The Lord wants to be involved in your life so include him! While he may not give the exact blessings you ask for, if you ask with a sincere heart, you will be better prepped to recognize any other blessings given because of your ask in faith. 

Porque Deus é bom, todo tempo!

Want to learn more how I did about the changing power of the atonement? Check out these talks!

"His Grace Is Sufficient," Brad Wilcox, BYU Speeches, 2011.

(https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox/his-grace-is-sufficient/?highlight=Grace+is+sufficient)

That's it for this week,

Till next time,

Elder Haroldsen

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