September 22, 2014

Hello from Magoanine!

So this week was good. We had a little rough time getting some lessons but, it was still a really good week. We had a visit from Elder Khumolani from the seventy. It was a really good meeting. We talked about the false traditions of africa, tithing, our testimonies, how to strenghthen our families... it was all really good! That was saturday afternoon. I really enjoyed that meeting. Last p day we played football, soccer and a little basketball, but it was so dang hot we ended up just quitting and going home to get out of the sun haha. Luckily, these past couple days it has cooled down a little bit! We also were informed that two more General Authorities will be coming next month,but we don't know who yet, they will announce it in a couple weeks. Tomorrow we will have zone conference so we are very excited about that! Umm some things that have been on my mind lately also have to do with obedience. There is a talk where one of the apostles talks about a thing called selective obedience, that we as members have a lot of times. Where we want to be obedient but only to the commandments that we want. But the Lord expects exact obedience. This has been something I have been trying to work on a lot lately. Is exact obedience. And one thing I had thought about is, why would the Lord expect exact obedience? Well if you think about it, what is the purpose of the plan of salvation? Why did christ give his life for us? Why are we here? It is so that we can prove ourselves worthy to one day, have all that the Lord has. Do you think that a person who doesn't understand exact obedience is worthy to have all that the Lord has? I don't believe so. The Lord knows what we need to be able to recieve blessings. When we choose to disobey, we are saying we trust more in ourselves than in the Lord. So why is it so hard to give up some of our sins? We see them as pleasurable maybe, or maybe we just don't see the big picture. If everyone could really see the big picture, look at our potential and then see what we need to do to reach our potential, I think obedience would be a lot better. Once we can truly give up our sins, and submit our will to the Lord's, is when we will be truly and eternally happy. I was talking to another Elder about this, how we as missionaries have it easy sometimes. We aren't tempted by a lot of things, but when we get home, we will have lots of new temptations and how we have to be strong. And I was talking about the principle of making up your mind. And really its that easy. We have to decide. Once we decide that we will be completely obedient, it becomes much easier. Really obedience is such an incredible principle. I invite all of you to read 2 Nephi chapter 9. Me and my companion are doing a 30 day challenge. We read this chapter once a day for 30 days along with our other studies, with the purpose to gain a stronger testimony of the atonement. I invite all of you to also take this challenge. Take 10 minutes each day to gain a stronger testimony of the atonement. I think we will all be surprised at the difference it will make in our lives. It will give us a little bit different perspecitve on life. I love you all and I would love to hear your experiences you have with this challenge if you choose to do so! I would love to hear what you learn!

Love,
Elder Lynn

Also a funny joke that a person told at church during his talk... So there was a couple that was getting married and the wife had a box. But she told her husband, as long as you truly love me dont ever open this box. So he loved her and never opened it. SO the years passed by, they laughed and cried together and just kept on loving. But one day when they got a little older, he said, can I finally see what is in the box and she agreed. So they opened it together, and in it was a tiny little circle that had been crocheted and $25,000. So he asked her, what is this? and she explained that when she got married, her mom said, when you get mad at your husband, don't say anything, just crochet! and he said wow! I did good then if you only have this little circle crocheted and he hugged and kissed her. but then he said, well what does the $25,000 have to do with anything? and she said well thats the money i made off of all the things i crocheted hahahahahahahahaha

 

this is our ghetto bench. we had a person make the rack, but the bench is homemade :) haha