Dear Family,
I hope that all has been going well for you this week! I have learned so many amazing things this
week. Magi accepted a baptismal date,
as well as Maria. We are so excited, and
so excited for everything to happen.
Things are amazing, and we are seeing so many miracles!
----------------------------Pride--------------------------
So this week was full of fun adventures. Many miracles, lessons, and busy times. This week was also exchanges! I got to go to Jasper with Sister
Patterson. We started our missions
together in the same district so that was fun to be with her! We were driving somewhere and we started
talking about the things that we have learned on our missions. One thing
interesting that she said was pride, and its many forms. I thought a lot about that, and it just rang
so true to me. That has been the bane of
my existence! The source of all of my
problems. The charity and humility
killer, The Father of failure, and the Shamer of success. Basically, my biggest
enemy!
So, what is
pride? Naturally, I have to turn to my
good old "Beware of Pride" talk (which I have had for years, and it seems to have
a ton of depth- the most simple are the most complex).
"The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward
God and enmity toward our fellowmen."
So what does that mean?
Pride is exactly what I was striving to fight against from the
beginning. I have wanted to face God,
and do His will. Who knew that I was being a pride killer!? :) Anyway, the
struggle to do that is hard. It is not
something that is easy. That also means
that we must give up our ability to appease man, and those around us, and
strive to please God!
"Our will, in competition to God’s will, allows
desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled."-What are our motives?
"Our enmity toward God takes on many labels"-what
are we labeled? Do we care? Does it actually matter?
C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having
something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the
comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the
element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”
"Fear of men’s judgment manifests itself in competition
for men’s approval."- Facing God?
"There is, however, a far more common ailment among
us—and that is pride from the bottom looking up. It is manifest in so many
ways, such as fault finding, gossiping, backbiting, murmuring, living beyond our
means, envying, coveting, withholding gratitude and praise that might lift
another, and being unforgiving and jealous."
There are so many different and amazing things learned
here. Actually, a lot of this is
coming from what I am learning right now, so personal study # 2. So, who are we? Are we pitting ourselves against man, and are we in a constant power struggle? Do we strive to stay away from competition of
others, or do we strive to refrain from judging other people? Judging is also a
large form of pride, and a killer of Charity.
I think that is when we have to ask ourselves the real question. Are we
becoming like Christ, or are we becoming a person that wants to be perceived
like Christ? That was the desire which
got Satan thrown out of Heaven. Who are
we? What are our motives?
I have been contemplating these things, as of right now,
with a start this week. I have been
struggling with many things, many of which are frustrating me to death! I do not like it, but I have to deal with it,
and honestly I should be thankful for it!
Anyway, I have had this constant battle.
Although it is not generally me pitting myself against others,
there are times that I find that I pit myself against myself. Who I was, who I think that I should be, or
maybe who I think that others expect me to be.
That is not the plan of God.
Pitting myself for who I was, is denying repentance, and pitting myself
against who I will be, is fear of the future. I cannot be in fear. I cannot be full of pride. As Sister Patterson said, "Pride manifests
itself in many different ways!" Once you
kill one piece of it, God lets you start to see other ways that it affects you.
And every aspect that you start to kill allows your vision to match just a
little closer with the vision and sight of God!
As the weeks have past, I have been striving to really
change to really repent - to make a real
change, a real change of heart! To
become- not only to do, but really become.
I guess that means to wipe pride away.
Maybe the definition of perfection is the elimination of pride, which
allows for complete humility, and perfect submissiveness to the Father. That is the goal!
So, searching for those weaknesses is a big thing that we
have to learn how to overcome. I have
discovered some of my biggest weaknesses these last few months and I guess you
could say my character flaws. Yep! And to destroy them is difficult! That is what we must do, though - be submissive
enough to allow God to come in and make us strong. We have to be submissive enough to allow God
to keep our strengths, and not let them become subject to our pride and
therefore become our weakness. (Ether 12:27)
We have to eliminate pride. That
is our quest! That is our dream and
desire! Everything that we do should be
to please the Father, and to eliminate pride!
So, part of allowing yourself to submit to God, is to allow
yourself to do what the spirit says to do, no matter what! Story time!!!
This week we had a lesson with Magi!
She is one of my favorite people ever, and I just love her so much. So we stopped at the apartment complex to see
another family, and decided that we were going to bring "The Family a
Proclamation to the World" with us.
They were unable to meet so we headed over to Magi. We went in and for some reason none of us could start the
lesson. Later, we heard everybody else's
conflicting thoughts, but we just could not do it. We listened to her talk for a while. She is an angel and the most mature 14 year
old that I know, but just kept talking.
Quite a few times I saw the fasting pamphlet in my bag and then I saw
the family proclamation. I thought FAMILIES, but then I remembered that we had set up a lesson in a members home
to talk about that. So, I just kept
refraining. Stupid, I know! Anyway, finally it just came out "Magi, what are your goals?" A question
that I had asked before. We talked, and
I realized that I needed to add the word spiritual in there. We talked about it, and she talked about the
importance of family to her. Hermana
Bown happened to drop her family proclamation pamphlet on the ground, and, in
her words, was just too lazy to pick it up! After a few interruptions, Magi saw
it, and grabbed it. We read it a little,
and she said, "So that means that in your church you don't have the words 'till death do we part'". No, Magi, we do not. Life can go forever WITH our family! She said a lot of really cool things, and has
noticed the families in the church, and wants to raise a family in the
church! She also said that she wants to
know more and go to church every week.
If she is committed, she wants to be committed. We talked about the temple, and that was
that. Magi has had some amazing lessons
in the past, and is so incredible. She
has some amazing people in her life, and has a super bright future. On Sunday night, she came to us, and said that
she had for sure decided to get baptized!
She is amazing! I can't even explain how much I love that chica!
Well, more to say, but I think that you all have had enough
of me today!
I love y'all,
Hermana Gamett
No comments:
Post a Comment