This past week was crazy but as usual full
of tender mercies from Father! What I feel like we as members of Gods
church often times forget is to be keepers of our covenants. This past
week I have been pondering on our baptismal covenant outlines in the
sacrament prayers:
3 O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and asanctify this bbread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in cremembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the dname of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his eSpirit to be with them. Amen. Moroni 4:3
In this covenant we as members of the church always remember
that we need to keep the commandments and then Father will bless us to
have the Spirit to always be with us. But what we fail to remember is
the higher law part of the covenant. That we have promised with Father
to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and always remember him. In
this life the things of eternal importance are those that help us live
this covenant. We need to live our lives in the way that others see
Christ within us, that involves losing our will and constantly doing the
will of Father.
One principle that Christ perfected and I have been
studying about this past week is the principle of endurance. I was
pondering on a couple of situations. First with sports, the last game is
always the Championship Game, the game that matters most. It is then
when athletes take everything they have worked on and give it all that
they have. Also with school, I know at least for me because in high
school I procrastinated, near the end of the quarters is when students
scramble and give it all they possibly can to get their grades up.
Unfortunately many times I feel with eternal matters that at some point
we get 'burnt out', when in the end we must endure. We must focus on the
things that matter most, and always press foreword with faith in Christ
to be able to endure.
Elder Morgan and myself saw this principle in action
when we went out Saturday morning on our bicycles and it began to pour
rain. That entire day in was in and out of rain, but we pressed foreword
with faith in Christ and endured. As a result on Saturday we taught 10
lessons, got 4 blessings, and in the end was able to get five people to
sacrament meeting on Sunday!
Another time I saw this principle was on Friday
night. I'm not sure if ya'll have heard about the BOM Musical that was
shown in New York, but now it is moved down to Fort Lauderdale. The
musical brings a lot of publicity to the church, so before the show as
people are parking and walking in and during the intermission six
missionaries go and contact as many people as possible to teach them the
true meaning on the Church and Book of Mormon. On Friday Elder Morgan
and myself were blessed to be able to be a part of it and saw huge
miracles. We were contacting people before the play and not seeing an
incredible amount of success when all the sudden a lady stepped outside
of a car and the Spirit told me to go contact her. So I did and
immediately she opened up on all the tough times she has been going
through. That then gave us an opportunity to testify of baptism and
church and how the Savior can help her through those tough times, and
she accepted everything! She lives on her own private island but because
of other things that have been happening the Lord humbled her to accept
the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am excited for her to
receive the Atonement through baptism.
Something I want to invite all of my friends and
family to do is write me a letter with the specific topic of Endurance. I
would love to hear your thoughts and know that they can be an
inspiration to me as well.
Well as you can tell Father has been incredible to
us and me for my entire mission. I am eternally indebted to him for what
he has taught me and how he has helped me to grow in his service for
the short time of two years. I know the Lord and He loves me!
With Love,
Elder Pond
