Being on a mission is the _______ experience ever. It is the best experience ever. The hardest experience ever. The happiest experience ever. The most sorrowful experience ever. The most fulfilling experience ever. The most frustrating experience ever. It´s the full package. You can put almost any superlative in that blank space. A mission is a roller coaster of emotions. Good things happen and difficult things happen. I think that on a mission we get to feel, just an infinitely small portion, of what the Savior felt during his life, earthly ministry, and atonement, and what He feels now. We get to feel joy for the people that accept the gospel and become truly converted. We feel sorrow for those that choose not to accept the gospel, without a full consciousness of what they are really missing.
The bishop in one of our wards is one of those guys that is always happy. He always tells us, "Elders, we don´t have anything to complain about. God is so good to us that we don´t have anything to complain about. We can only be happy."
Even when things are really hard, even when nothing works out, we have nothing to complain about. I´ve been thinking a lot recently that happiness is really a choice. We have nothing to complain about. We can only be happy.
I love the Christmas season, because it is a time of year when we can focus a little more on the happiest and most important event that happened in the history of the entire world: the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Savior. Through him we can receive a remission of our sins. Through him we can have eternal families. That is what the angels meant when they said they were bringing to the shepherds "glad tidings of great joy."
This week we taught a family about the restoration of the gospel for the second or third time. One of the daughters in the family has already been baptized, and she is really anxious to have her family have the same opportunity. The rest of her family hadn´t completely understood the importance of the restoration, so we decided to teach it again. We decided to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with them. After we read, we asked the father of the family:
"José, do you believe that the Book of Mormon is true?"
He started talking for a while. He kind of avoided the question.
"José, we want to ask you a question, and we want you to respond saying either 'yes,' or 'no.' Do you believe that the Book of Mormon is true?"
The was a long pause.
"Yes."
I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it changes lives. It changed my life. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that through him we can be happy. God is so good to us that we don´t have anything to complain about. We can only be happy.
I love you all and hope you all have a great week and happy holidays! Sorry that I can´t respond to all of your emails! Just know that I love you all!
Love,
Élder Olivier!
No comments:
Post a Comment