Elder Jones week 17

Hey guys! so this week was great! Last week Elder Torres and I went to Larcomar with a member family and it was so clean it was like America. The view of the beach was pretty crazy and there were a ton of people paragliding off of the the cliffs before the ocean and it was only 80 soles which is like 30 US dollars. If I wasn`t a missionary I definitely would have done that.

We had a good week teaching. I stayed up late organizing the area book because it was basically empty, and not to say anything bad about Elder Torres or the other missionaries that used to work here, but there aren`t any teaching records from the last 6 months in our area book. So I did as much as I could from the past 2 months and every night I`m working on it and I`ve really found that my love for the people I`m teaching grows when I work on the area book.

I`m starting to get really organized too.  And we clean our apartment a lot more often now.  When I got here Elder Torres told me that we only clean the apartment right before the Zone Leaders come to check it and for the other 3 months we don`t do anything and it got really really dirty.  But now we clean every day and I`m not as sick anymore so that`s good.

I got to watch the Saturday afternoon and Sunday Morning sessions of conference in the house of members because we brought investigators.  I really really liked both of them.  I liked Henry B. Eyring`s talk about revelation and how when someone receives revelation their words aren`t their own. They are the Lord`s.  And we should treat their words as words from God, like we treat the words in patriarchal blessings as words from God and not the words of the patriarch.  He talked about how Nephi said he would go and do what the Lord commanded, and not what his father had commanded because he knew that his father had received revelation from the Lord.  

 

And also this morning I was reading in Mosiah and when the Prophecy of Abinadi came true, it says that the words of the Lord were fulfilled, not the words of Abinadi.  I was thinking about how that could apply to my mission.  In my mission I`m in a lot of councils.  Ward council, mission correlation, and district council. We talk about our investigators or other people that need help and we talk about how we can help them. In our church we use councils because they`re really efficient and we receive revelation for the people we are talking about. And when someone receives revelation and makes a suggestion, it`s not their words, it came from God. And we can`t just brush off the suggestion and ask if anyone else has any other ideas because that`s like asking if anyone has anything that isn`t from God. 

I also really liked Russel M. Nelson`s talk about how we sustain the prophet, how it`s not only by raising our right hand.  And when a prophet is sick or incapable of fulfilling all of his duties we shouldn`t doubt his ability to receive revelation from God. He has his 2 counselors to help the presidency fulfill it`s duties. 

One of the families we`re working with watched the session on Saturday afternoon and had a lot of questions and really liked some of the things they said. The only thing is that they didn`t like that there were so many white general authorities.  I gave an answer about how there are a lot of general authorities from other countries but I could tell it wasn`t the right direction to go to answer that question. So yesterday I studied it out and this is what I learned. In 1 Nephi 22:23 it talks about the church of the devil and how it will always seek to do what is popular in the eyes of the world.  Something that is important to understand is that our church is led by God, not by men.  If it were led by men we would absolutely call more people from other countries as leaders because the diversity would attract more people to our church.  We also wouldn`t have so many unpopular opinions.  When someone receives a calling in our church it is because they were called of God to serve with specific responsibilities, not because of anything good they did to deserve that calling. With mission calls and patriarchal blessings they don`t change depending on how much good you did before receiving them. God has a very specific plan for each of us and when someone receives a calling we can`t judge God for not choosing who we want. The priesthood isn`t man. It is God and it is held by man. When someone is given a calling in a leadership position they aren`t given power over anyone. They are called as a servant and to receive revelation for the people they are serving, and when they speak to us they are telling us what God has revealed to them for us. And we can`t say "I would rather receive my revelation from God through someone from a different country". We are probably going to see more general authorities from other countries in the future but when that happens it will be because they were called of God, not because we are trying to look more diverse. God isn't a politician. He doesn`t care what`s popular in the eyes of the world, and neither do we. We are a peculiar people and we will continue to be the only church on earth led by God.  Also the Book of Mormon is full of Latino prophets. 

Okay I love you guys. I hope you have a great week and its really exciting to hear about what`s going on at home. I miss watching conference with you guys in the super nest. Bye!