Week Thirty-Six: 4/28/2014 to 5/4/2014--Great People and Grace

Hello Family and Friends!

Holy Cow! Every week goes faster and faster. It's ridiculous! I'm reminded of a book I studied and analyzed my senior year of high school(I'm sure Daniella, Elder Gee, and others will remember the many Socratic seminars done on this book). It's called "[insert name here. i forgot] At Winter Creek". One of the topics discussed is the dissolution of the present. She compares it to when you're perpendicular to a river that keeps running by and no mater how hard you try, you can't grab the water directly in front of you and get it to stay. You see it for a moment, but it's constantly rushing by. That's kind of how I feel every Monday when I write these letters. All the stuff that happens during the last week seems like it's constantly speeding away down the river and other stuff is taking it's place and I have no time to stop and just absorb it. I don't know. Maybe I need to start looking to the future instead. Or maybe I just need to take time every P Day to meditate and reflect. 

A typical meal.  I get all this for about $2 American.

 Anyway, enough of my psychological woes. This week was really good! A few of our investigators made some good progress. Rod is still the same(parents want him to wait until he's 18) which is good and bad. He has a lot of really awesome questions that I love answering! I could seriously just sit in a room all day and answer his questions and be fine. Killy passed his baptismal interview with flying colors! He's still deciding on a specific date, but he's limited it down to sometime in June. Patience...Colin accepted a baptismal date this week. He's having kind of a rough time because he's studying the Book of Mormon in English, but then he has to talk about stuff in Chinese when he meets with us and at church because the members don't speak English. Other than that, he's doing great! Brother Hong(the guy who is amazed at everything) also accepted a baptismal goal so I'm really excited about that! 

My face on a piece of wood. I bet you were all curious how that would look;) One of my friends got it for me and my companion.

This week I read Brad Wilcox's talk "His Grace is Sufficient". My Sunday School teacher shared with me this talk before my mission and since coming here, I've studied it 2 more times. This time, however, it really just hit me how simple, beautiful, and powerful the Atonement is. He payed the price for our sins, for our weaknesses, for our faults. We can't make that up to him, no matter how many commandments we keep or how many scriptures we read or prayers we say. But he's not looking for repayment. Brother Wilcox uses a really simple and effective example to explain the reason Christ performed the Atonement. He says it like this: 

"Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom    pays the piano teacher. How many know what I am talking about? Because Mom pays the      debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. It is how he takes advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life at a higher level. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. And so she continues to call for practice, practice, practice.

If the child sees Mom’s requirement of practice as being too overbearing (“Gosh, Mom, why do I need to practice? None of the other kids have to practice! I’m just going to be a professional baseball player anyway!”), perhaps it is because he doesn’t yet see with mom’s eyes. He doesn’t see how much better his life could be if he would choose to live on a higher plane.

In the same way, because Jesus has paid justice, He can now turn to us and say, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19), “Keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If we see His requirements as being way too much to ask (“Gosh! None of the other Christians have to pay tithing! None of the other Christians have to go on missions, serve in callings, and do temple work!”), maybe it is because we do not yet see through Christ’s eyes. We have not yet comprehended what He is trying to make of us."

Please remember what Christ sees in us. He made a great investment in us. What he wants us to become cannot be done over-night. His expectations are very high, but his grace is sufficient. 

I love you guys! 

-Elder Smith

Jesus' Atonement is a gift to us that we accept as we open the door and agree to let him into our lives.