Aloha Everyone!!
It's been a busy week or two. I wasn't able to email last week because it was transfer week. I was asked to serve as a District Leader, so that meant I had to make sure the missionaries in my district were all settled in. We ended up getting two new missionaries in our apartment which will be a big change. So far, they're not my favorite people, so God is putting us together for a reason. It should be an interesting transfer.
Last week and this week were pretty good. We have been able to teach a lot of people, so that is great. It felt like some of my week was very long, but overall it went by quickly. Something I've learned quite a bit this week is that challenges are hard, but every challenge is there for you to learn from and to ultimately make you better. Hopefully you can survive the challenge so you can then know how to help others who might be experiencing something similar.
My new assignment of being a District Leader is great. I have no issues with it and am actually looking forward to seeing how I can best help and serve others in my district. As I mentioned, the new Elders living in our apartment are . . . different. I won't complain, but I will say that I know that I can be an example. Hopefully they will see that example and change some of their behaviors and work ethic.
We have been busy with car washes and service projects and other things to keep us busy and meeting other people. I ripped my shirt at one of our service projects, so that wasn't great. But it felt good to be able to help people.
Last Sunday I got to speak in Sacrament meeting with my companion, Elder Gordon. The Wahiawa 1st Ward broadcasts their Sacrament meetings and I was able to send the link to my family so they could see me talk. Pretty cool! I wrote down my talk so I could share it with you. Hopefully you can benefit from some of it:
Brothers and Sisters, Aloha!!
I'm excited to talk with you all today. For those of you I haven't met yet, I'm elder Smith. I'm from Nashville Tennessee and I couldn't be happier to be here. If my companion and I haven't had the privilege of meeting any of y'all yet, I hope we get to do so in the near future.
Today I'll be talking about Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's October 2020 General Conference take "Waiting on the Lord".
Elder Holland said the following:
"...faith means trusting God in good times and bad, even if that includes some suffering until we see His arm revealed in our behalf. That can be difficult in our modern world when many have come to believe that the highest good in life is to avoid all suffering, that no one should ever anguish over anything. But that belief will never lead us to “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
With apologies to Elder Neal A. Maxwell for daring to modify and enlarge something he once said, I too suggest that “one’s life … cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free.” It simply will not work “to glide naively through life,” saying as we sip another glass of lemonade, “Lord, give me all thy choicest virtues, but be certain not to give me grief, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor opposition. Please do not let anyone dislike me or betray me, and above all, do not ever let me feel forsaken by Thee or those I love. In fact, Lord, be careful to keep me from all the experiences that made Thee divine. And then, when the rough sledding by everyone else is over, please let me come and dwell with Thee, where I can boast about how similar our strengths and our characters are as I float along on my cloud of comfortable Christianity.”
My beloved brothers and sisters, Christianity is comforting, but it is often not comfortable."
From this part of Elder Holland's talk, I learned a few things.
1) We need trials and suffering in our lives to be able to reach our full potential.
2) Asking God to remove our trials is to misunderstand his divine plan.
3) Having faith alone isn't going to make our burdens light. Its actually quite the opposite. When we have faith, we believe that God is there, we believe that God loves us, and we believe that that every trial we go through is for our benefit because he loves us.
Not to get off the topic of the talk, but I'm reminded of another talk by Elder Neal A Maxwell Where he talks about God's love for us. He starts of by saying that we accept a few truths all to casually.
1) This life is a testing ground.
2) Because God loves us so much, he placed us here at this point in time and space to face a particular set of challenges. "He will customize the curriculum"
Brothers and sisters, God has given us all challenges, both personal and public, that we each must face. But God knows that we will be able to overcome it all. I too know this to be true.
Mosiah 2:17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
Mosiah 2:41 "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."
In short we need to follow God's commandments and serve those around us and we will make it through every trouble and trial in our lives. And no matter what comes we will continue to grow and have joy in our trials
So I invite everyone within the sound of my voice to serve those around you.
Brothers and sisters, I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. It is my testimony that Christ lives and will help us as we go through our trials. He will also help us understand how to assist others as they go through their own trials...
Again, I hope this was helpful.
I love you all!!! Thank you for all you do for me.
-Elder Smith