We had a worldwide missionary broadcast this week:
“All things gathered together in one… (D&C 27:13). Again, we can’t just treat baptism separate and apart from the “repentance thing”. It’s ongoing, they are all interrelated. In my judgment, there is little or no spiritual power in treating the fundamental elements of the Doctrine of Christ as separate things. It’s when they are tied together, and we see faith unto repentance (Alma 34:15-16), and repentance preceding baptism (Moroni 8:25), and baptism helping us to press forward (2 Nephi 31:13-21) on the strait and narrow path – the covenant path – that there is power (D&C 84:20-21), not when they are separated.”
How do we as members of the church live each element of the doctrine of christ separately? Maybe you all could answer that for me because I guess I still don't quite understand.
How can you excercise true faith alone and that wouldn't yield repentance? Faith moves a person to repentance so can they really have faith if they don't repent? I would have to say no on that. Also can a person truly make a covenant of baptism without true repentance? no they can't and they also can't receive the gift of the holy ghost without baptism by proper authority. So maybe you can help me here. How does a person treat the doctrine of christ separately? What might that look like?
I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that when he said it but I've thought a little bit more about since then. Now I think I understand a little bit more, that we can't live a life of just faith or just repentance, or make and keep covenants through baptism or have the companionship of the holy ghost in and of itself. Repentance can't be achieved without faith, neither can baptism without repentance, and a person can pretend all they want that they have the holy ghost, but they will not truly have it unless they are repenting and have made or are working toward making covenants.
I am excited to go to Weldon Spring and serve with Elder Gifford. Elder Kama served with him and I know that was his favorite companion.
We had our baptism with Julie this weekend! We made a lot of preparations for the baptism and it payed off! People were saying that it was one of the best baptisms they've ever attended. There were a lot of people there too. We tried to get the members to invite their nonmember friends by giving out invitations but unfortunately none of them showed up. I do like how our branch does baptisms after church Sunday because we had over 80 people there to support Julie!
I am excited to go to Weldon Spring and serve with Elder Gifford. Elder Kama served with him and I know that was his favorite companion.
We had our baptism with Julie this weekend! We made a lot of preparations for the baptism and it payed off! People were saying that it was one of the best baptisms they've ever attended. There were a lot of people there too. We tried to get the members to invite their nonmember friends by giving out invitations but unfortunately none of them showed up. I do like how our branch does baptisms after church Sunday because we had over 80 people there to support Julie!
We have a lot of hope for Julie and Brian. Brian's mother Reba expressed that Julie being married to Brian was an answer to lots of prayers. Brian kind of fell away from the church after his father died while he was in high school. He played for the basketball team but then his father died of either a heart attack or a stroke during one of the games and it kind of traumatized him. He left to play basketball in California, but then made his way back. I don't think I've ever met anyone as cool as Brian Fulk! He couldn't ever pronounce my name correct but he will be remembered.
We haven't found a whole lot of new investigators this week. I think part of the reason is it takes more time to find new investigators when you try to work through the members. We got multiple solid referrals this week, a couple of them which we contacted and said they would be interestsed in either family history or want to come check out our church services.
We haven't found a whole lot of new investigators this week. I think part of the reason is it takes more time to find new investigators when you try to work through the members. We got multiple solid referrals this week, a couple of them which we contacted and said they would be interestsed in either family history or want to come check out our church services.
We have also been sharing the Dallin H Oaks talk and Neil L. Andersen talk with members. With the Neil L. Andersen talk it is fun to share with members because we do an object lesson where we use an actual 100 or 1000 piece puzzle that they have to try to solve by themselves, but when we help them see what happens when they all contribute together, then they begin to realize like Neil L. Andersen said in his talk: each of us is a piece of the puzzle, and each of us helps to set in place other essential pieces. Its weird to think that if each of us is a piece of the puzzle then that would be an over who-knows-how-many Biillion piece puzzle to represent the population of every person who ever has or will live on the earth!
I am going to miss the Paris area. I've never seen people so united and their hearts being knit together as one. I will definitely revisit some day and hopefully the new converts here that I was able to see get baptized will still be strong and their posterity will too. I have great expectations for Brian and Julie Fulk when they can go to the temple in a year and be sealed to their little boy. Hopefully one day Mashell's husband Randy will come and accept the priesthood. I wonder how many people will be affected by Julie's decision to be baptized because she is so excited to share the gospel with her family and even gave her mother a Korean book of Mormon this week!
I am going to miss the Paris area. I've never seen people so united and their hearts being knit together as one. I will definitely revisit some day and hopefully the new converts here that I was able to see get baptized will still be strong and their posterity will too. I have great expectations for Brian and Julie Fulk when they can go to the temple in a year and be sealed to their little boy. Hopefully one day Mashell's husband Randy will come and accept the priesthood. I wonder how many people will be affected by Julie's decision to be baptized because she is so excited to share the gospel with her family and even gave her mother a Korean book of Mormon this week!
Well I had better get going.
Elder Soutas
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