It was great to be able to talk to the family this week! It's always a rejuvenating experience!
This week was Joseph Smith's birthday! So, me being me, I decided to celebrate! haha! I went and bought a cake from Dairy Queen (cause those things are delicious) and we had a grand party. :)
Christmas Eve we didn't have any plans... so we got together with some of the Elder's in our district and went caroling to a few investigators and less actives. It was so much fun! And the spirit was really strong as we sang hymns to those that we having a hard time during the holidays.
Christmas was fun. We had a couple of families invite us over to their homes for meals. It was nice of them. :) Overall, it was a humble Christmas and a GREAT Christmas.
I had a cool experience this week. We have been teaching this couple- Ellen is a less active member and Vern is a non-member. We're trying to focus on Vern, but as we talk with them, Ellen participates a TON and Vern doesn't say anything at all. But that's besides the point. We had invited them to church and then they didn't come, so we decided to drop by their house on Sunday evening. As we were talking to Ellen, I began to share the story of the 10 Virgins. (It's one of my favorite parables to share with those that are on the fence of activity. Encouraging them to get prepared for when the Savior comes again, because others are not going to be able to share their oil.) As I was sharing the message, I told Ellen that "now is the time to choose a side because there isn't any fence sitting in the kingdom of God". When she just stared at me really weird.... She told me that an old, frail woman had approached her at the store the day before and had told her, "You need to figure out whose side you're on." And then walked away. Ellen then told me that what I had told her had confirmed to her that this was a sign from God- she needed to pick a side!
I'm not exactly sure why, but the topic of grace, mercy, and justice has been on my mind a lot this week. Probably because there are some people that I've been talking to that think that if they just pray really hard that grace and the Atonement will go to work and that they'll become perfected. Elder Christofferson says: "...salvation is certainly not the result of divine whim, but neither does it happen by divine will alone." People put so much stress on knowing the "WHAT" of the gospel but they don't focus enough on the "WHY" and the "HOW" of the gospel. The question at judgement will not be "What do you know about the Savior?". It will be "How well do you know your Savior?".
I love Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk from conference ("Free Forever, to Act for Themselves"). I've been reading it a lot this week. And I've been being caught each time by the phrase: "Misunderstanding God's justice and mercy... will result in our achieving less- sometimes far less- than our full , divine potential." So, it's obviously a big deal to understand these things. And our Savior didn't die for us to save us indiscriminately but to offer us repentance! And repentance takes a great deal of WORK on our part.
Sister Gubler
No comments:
Post a Comment