Hey family! Hope this week has been going well for
you! Some cool things have happened this week. I studied a great
talk this week by President Ezra Taft Benson called Jesus Christ - Gifts and
Expectations. It was really good and made me think about what I need to
be doing to give something to Christ. A small little excerpt of this
really stuck out to me as I studied this week:
Said President Brigham Young, “I have heard a great many
tell about what they have suffered for Christ’s sake. I am happy to say I never
had occasion to. I have enjoyed a great deal, but so far as suffering goes I
have compared it a great many times, in my feelings and before congregations,
to a man wearing an old, worn-out, tattered and dirty coat, and somebody comes
along and gives him one that is new, whole and beautiful. This is the
comparison I draw when I think of what I have suffered for the Gospel’s sake—I
have thrown away an old coat and have put on a new one.”
What a great comparison for the gospel. We are
taking off the old coats of our old selves and replacing them with new coats
that Christ is giving us for the small token of following Him. What a
great gift that he has given us. Another thing that stuck out to me was
this quote:
But just as when one loses his life in the service of God,he
really finds the abundant life, so also when one sacrifices all to God, then
God in return shares all that He has with him.
Try as you may, you cannot put the Lord in your debt.For
every time you try to do His will, He simply pours out more blessings upon you.
Sometimes the blessings may seem to be a little slow in coming—perhaps this
tests your faith—but come they will, and abundantly. It has been said, “Cast
your bread upon the waters and after a while it shall come back to you toasted
and buttered.”
I think I have tried a good many a time to put the Lord in
my debt, and I can tell you personally it doesn't work. We always end up
being in debt to the great Redeemer of the World! It was super powerful
to read that and understand just a little more how much Jesus Christ does for
us. We could never repay him even if we tried. Super great!
Something else that happened this week, I got sick!
Nothing too bad just a little stomach problem on Firday. But while I was
sick I had the opportunity to hear a talk from Elder Neal A Maxwell called the
Inexhaustible Gospel. highly recommend that! Won't spoil it, it's
just really good!
This week when collecting stats I had the opportunity to
call each member of my district and see how their week was. Normally this isn't
the case in our mission as our leaders just want stats and then they figure out
everything else later though. This week I made them wait as I called all
of them and found out how they were doing and really looked into their areas
and saw if there was anything that I could do to help them. And, funnily
enough, when I did that, it worked really well and I was able to help my
district in a way that I was never able to before! Sister Ness
really opened up to me and asked ways to do better even when they have no
investigators. Didn't know they were having that problem and so it was
cool to help them. I was really happy that I had the inspiration to do
that.
Heavenly Father has really been giving me a lot of
inspiration in my prayers lately of things that I need to keep in mind as I go
about his work. Something that I want to share with all of you is what
President Monson said from a couple of conferences ago: Never let a problem to
be solved become more important than a person to be loved.
I have learned of the truthfulness of that quote yesterday
as me and Elder Manwaring got into an argument, because I allowed a problem to
be solved become more important than my own companion who was having a little
problem. It didn't matter how small it was, he needed my help and I
needed to be there for him. Eventually all the problems were solved, and that's
the quote that came into my head as I prayed about it. So remember that
family, and live that every single day and I can promise that you will be
happier! This is what I leave with you this week. May the Lord
bless you!
Elder Yamagata
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/117955201172198470717/albums/6113683893924175505
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