Monday, June 27, 2016

Week 45 - June 27, 2016


Hello, hello!
 
We had a great week in Bayview.  Found and taught some new people, had
some great people come to church, and had some powerful spiritual
lessons!
 







I think one of my favorite, well my favorite part this week was we
went and stopped by a less-active Hispanic family who has four kids and
we are trying to help them get active in the church and get their two
kids baptized, but the dad struggles with a few things so he feels
inadequate to come to church (which is sad because everyone is
welcome!)   But anyways, we had like a 30-minute chat with him and his
wife and I made them promise that they would get active starting
Sunday and bring their kids to church.  I love the kids so much.  We
always try and make it a fun time when we are over there.  Anyways they
all told me they wanted to come to church and then they came (I didn't
see them walk in) and after Sacrament Meeting, I stood up and all the
kids ran up to me and started jumping on me laughing and hugging me.
"Elder Wilde, we are here!  We are here!  Thank you for helping us get
here!"  It was so cute.  AHHHHHHH love them.
 
Amy is going to Temple Square in Salt Lake City this Wednesday so I'm
super excited for her.  She is so close to getting baptized!
One of the new people we are teaching who is super solid, he's 17.  His
name is Nick.  We had one lesson with him last week.  He comes into the
lesson and is like, "I've read multiple parts of the Book of Mormon, I
have read everything you've given me, went on your church website, I
know your church is the true church because it has the Priesthood, I
get all that - BUT I feel like later on in my life I'm going to make
mistakes and I don't want to get baptized if I know I want to maybe do
some of those things later on," so we had a great lesson about being IN
the world and not OF the world.  We discussed repentance and the
Atonement a lot with him.  He basically told us he knows he needs to
repent of a lot of things - anyways, I did some personal study on this
topic and I thought I might share!
 
One quote I really like that an apostle many years ago said:
"Meanwhile, may we be different in order to make a difference in the
world"
John 15:19 says, " If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own:  but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you" -- meaning the people who
don't live the world's standards are hated by those who have no
standards and are always rejected as was Jesus, but Jesus goes on to
say:
John 18:36 :  "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world" and in
John 8:23 :  "And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from
above:  ye are of this world; I am not of this world."
Jesus continues to tell us that in order to live with him in his
father's kingdom we must live the laws of his kingdom that he has given
us and not the worldly laws.
We are to live in the world but not be of the world.  We must live in
the world because, as Jesus taught in a parable, His kingdom is “like
leaven,” whose function is to raise the whole mass by its influence.

Kieth Merrill had such an experience when he was a young man.  He and
his friends were diving from sheer rock walls at the East Canyon
Reservoir, northeast of Salt Lake City.  It inevitably turned into a
teenage contest when one young man climbed up to the top of the dam
and dived 50 feet into the deep water of the reservoir.  The rest of
the young men all went to the top of the dam and made the same high
dive.  One boy wasn’t satisfied with that, so he said, “All right, I’ll
do one better!”  He climbed 60 feet up the side of the cliff.  Not
wanting to be outdone, Kieth climbed up beside him.  After the other
boy had dived into the water and seemed to be all right, Kieth took
courage and made his dive.  The contest was now down to these two boys.
Kieth’s friend then climbed up to 70 feet and dived.  He came up from
the water laughing, rubbing his shoulders and his eyes.  He then
challenged Kieth, “Well, are you going to do it?”
"Of course, I’m going to do it!” And everybody on the shore said, “Of
course, he’s going to do it!”
 
So Kieth swam back to the shore and climbed up the rocks.  He knew if
he jumped from the same height of 70 feet that his friend would want
to go higher, so he scrambled up 80 feet to the very top of the cliff.
No one could go any higher than the top.  As Kieth looked down, he was
terrified to see the water so very far away.  He had made a rash
decision.  It was not what he wanted to do nor what he felt was right.
Instead he had based his decision on the prodding and dares of a half
dozen young men whose names he cannot now even remember.
He backed up and ran as hard as he could toward the edge.  He found the
mark he had carefully laid at the edge of the rock and sprang out into
space.  On the way down he remembered his parents teaching him to be
careful when making decisions, because a wrong one could kill him.  And
now he thought, “You have done it, because when you hit the water
you’ll be going so fast that it might as well be concrete.”  When he
hit the water, it even felt like concrete.  How grateful he was when
his head finally popped above water.
 
Why did he jump?  What was he trying to prove?  The young men who dared
him didn’t care and probably don’t even remember that foolish act.  But
Kieth realized afterward that he had made what could easily have been
a fatal decision.  He had yielded to the pressure of friends expecting
him to do what he didn’t want to do.  He knew better.  He said: “I was
living in the world, and at that moment I was of the world because I
was not in control of myself. I was not making decisions about my own
life.  The world made the decisions for me, … and [I] had barely
avoided being in the world about six feet deep.”
 
A poem on the Atonement
 
I’ve found a friend, oh, such a friend,
So kind, and true, and tender,
So wise a counselor and guide,
So mighty a defender.
I’ve found a friend, oh, such a friend.  He bled, he died to save me,
And not alone the gift of life,
But his own self he gave me.
I’ve found a friend, oh, such a friend.
All power to him is given
To guide me on my onward course
And bring me safe to heaven.
 
What a wonderful week it was.  Love you all!  God bless
 
Elder Wilde

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