"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." - Philippians 2:12
How easy would life be if your parents were looking over your shoulder 24/7 making sure you were doing the rights things? We would have hardly any choices if our God were there also. This is our Father's Plan, to prove ourselves not just in His presence, premortal life, but to show our devotion to Him when we are without Him. A conference talk I read recently described how foolish at times we are in feeling safe from others realizing our secret works.
President Kimball taught: “To every forgiveness there is a condition. The plaster must be as wide as the sore. The fasting, the prayers, the humility must be equal to or greater than the sin.” “It is unthinkable that God absolves serious sins upon a few requests. He is likely to wait until there has been long, sustained repentance.”
This is what life is about... REPENTANCE! It's there for a reason, use it. We can't change the past, we can only correct our course and learn from our mistakes. Come back to the path of righteousness, God will always be there with open arms and a heart full of compassion for the truly repentant soul.
These past few weeks have been different to say the least. My new companion has been transferred out of our mission due to difficulties and discomfort he feels while exerting himself on a bike, walking, etc. He apparently has had health issues from a previous injury. So now I have Elder Gee! We are going to do good things together, I've had the spirit witness to me numerous times that this is what has needed to happen.
Our work is moving on. We have an investigator Barbara who is preparing for baptism soon. We hardly teach her at all! We give her assignments and pamphlets to read, and she reads them! She goes through the pamphlets numerous times, and is reading the Book of Mormon on her own and is absolutely loving it! She teaches herself and we just come for support, to answer questions, and bear testimony. Even in her old age, she is finding answers to questions she didn't even know she had! The Gospel rings to her, God is calling to her. How marvelous it is to be a small part in her life, this is what missionary work is all about! Helping the one.
A week or so ago, my previous new companion, Elder Dickinson and I went to this "chicken wing" place for dinner. They have this "homicidal wing challenge" where if you eat 20 of their hottest wings you get a free t-shirt and your photo gets posted on their Facebook page. So naturally I took the challenge and succeeded! Haha...those buggers were hot!
That's all folks, remember to keep in mind the messages we heard from our recent conference.
Love,
Elder West
