Hey Family,
Just a quick update on the family we are planning a baptism for, they are probably going to have to be baptized on the 14th of April because of a few complications due to one of them missing church this week, but they will be baptized and we are so excited!
(We let Elder Funk know that a good friend of his, Jake Griggs, had passed away.)
I talked to President Jones this morning and it was hard.. I have never lost anyone like that before so it is not going so hot but i'll get through it.
It's interesting now that I have to live what I am preaching to these people here in Texas. I have been telling of the love of our Savior. I have been declaring that he will get you through anything and everything and that His love knows no bounds. This has been overall probably nearly the hardest week of my life. Most certainly the hardest of my mission. It has been hard to train. Although Elder Low is a fantastic guy that loves the gospel we just can't quite go at the speed that Elder Kertamus and I were at when he left. I have felt stressed at the whole week and it has been so hard to go from place to place so quickly. I know that it might get easier with time but for now it has been so hard. It's so interesting that He gives us all experiences to grow that we may come to love him.
Let me just share one experience that we had with a man this week. We were out knocking doors, Elder Low and I and we ran into him. He started telling us that he thought God was a jerk. He makes people suffer so that they can turn around to show Him their love for Him. What kind of God would do that? Make the people starve, die and suffer all matter of pain and affliction. So they could do what? Love him? He went on to express that he could not be a God of love if we allows us to have all of these things happen to us. He was such a confused man. He is right about the people suffering why would this have to happen? I read a quote recently and it said. "God does not need to love us, but Oh how much we need to Love God." I testify of the truthfulness of that statement. That we all have these experiences that will in time allow us to love our Heavenly Father. He allows us all things and suffers us in our afflictions. He is a God of mercy and of Love. He would not, nor could he have, sent us here to live on this earth if there was not an eternal purpose. He could not have sent us here if we could not return to live with Him. He would not do that. He is Perfect, He is loving, He is My God. He rather takes this life and allows us to grow. These experiences that we have are not for his benefit. They are not for us to prove that we love him. He does not need our love to live. On the contrary we need His Love to live every second. There is not a day that goes by that we can breathe, speak, or walk, except through the infinate and unmatched love of the God. So how does he show us that? He sent his Son to die for us. He sent His son to die for me and for you. I know that he suffered all manner of pain and afflictions (Alma 7) and that he truely did descend below all things. This is the way to our happiness. The uncovering and the application of the gift of life, the atonement. This is the only way that we can obtain this happiness that we are so freely given. What am I to do with it? It seems at times that I have told people that he has felt of what they have felt and born the burdens of them that we speak to. Is that true? How could it be true? There comes a time when we are so humbled before God that we must ask ourself this..
Can this be true? Did he die for me?... In Alma 22 there is a King that says that he will give up all that he possesses even all of his kingdom to know that this is the truth. I know that after we give up all of our fears and all of our sins, our natural tendencies that we will be shown by a great manifestation that this is the truth. That Jesus is the Christ. The Son of God. I testify in the name of the Holy one of Israel that this is the truth. That He did die for me. He felt as I feel, He thought what I think, He saw what I am. He knows me more then I know myself. He could not be the God that this man thinks he is and by the God that I know he is. He Loves us so very much. He is not a God of fear and a God of destruction as some may assume but I testify that he is the God of Love the God of unrestricted blessing, the God of everlasting Life. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, The redeemer of Mankind, the Brother and my Best Friend. I so testify this Easter season that He lives. He lives who once was dead for me. In his name I say this. even Jesus Christ. Amen.
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