Dear People,
You may have heard about a so-called typhoon named Soulik...
We were told to stay inside from 6pm on thurday and not expect to go back out until Friday evening. We put little tape X's on our windows and cracked them open because of air-pressure stuff. We were all excited, we had our emergency kits, and were ready to eat our ration bars and sleep in our mylar emergency blankets. Not so.
Brother Soulik slowed way down and in the morning we barely had any wind or rain. The updated forecast was that he would greet us Saturday morning at 2AM.
Apparently President Madsen and Elder Cragun's mom's prayers were more faithful than ours because we got nothing.
We're not to upset though because there are supposed to be more next month.
Excerpt from my study journal
"The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh."
-Alma 41:5
When offered the choice to do evil, our fallen natures prompt us to choose evil.
It makes sense.
It's the natural choice.
It's cutting along the grain.
It brings the immediate pleasure we seek.
Always.
Choosing good initially doesn't make sense to us.
It rarely brings immediate pleasure and usually brings some discomfort.
It requires acting without sure knowledge.
It is cutting against the grain.
Swimming upstream.
But as we deny our nature and repeatedly choose the good
the joy comes.
It makes sense.
Our desire changes because we are more well informed.
We have tasted different fruit.
We desire good.
I might have mentioned this but recently the Korean translation of the Holy Bible that the Church uses was added to Gospel Library. When I heard about this I gasped and immediately covered my face with my hands. As far as I know, the only other languages that have a Bible in the gospel library app are English, Spanish, and Portugese. Korea is so cool.
I love my companion, Elder Buxton. I never would have guessed how much we have in common.
Gunsan is the best area on earth. There is nowhere I'd rather be.
I know that the indisputably real man who lived in Jerusalem named Jesus was who He said He was. When I act like I know that and choose to do what I think is good or what He would do I become very peaceful and happy. More happy and peaceful than by doing anything else I've ever tried. I've had a lot of peaceful and happy experiences being with friends or watching cool movies or camping.
Pushing myself to do something I know Jesus would do makes me happier than any of those other things, period. So that's what I'm going to keep doing.
I also know that I didn't just get lucky and was born with this ability. It's not a genetic thing or how I was raised. I know that it works for every human. It just takes faith and practice.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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