The Eternal Sunshine of the Everlasting Gospel

“If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” -D&C 42:61

We are so blessed to know of these gospel doctrines and truths. I find that those of us that have been in the church for a while often take these truths for granted; for how precious are they to those seeking them out. Questions like what’s our purpose in life, what happens to those that pass away, and how can I find truth and guidance through the confusion in life can all be answered through the words of God. Cherish these truths and doctrines, and discover joy not only in the fruits of the Spirit, but in sharing them with others.

Man, Heavenly Father is such a loving Father, he really does understand our individual desires and needs no matter how small and insignificant they may seem. This week has been nothing but great sun and clear skies. If you read my previous message you may have saw that I wasn’t exactly content with the constant overcast and rainy weather. So it’s been super duper nice to see this sunnier weather. But now I gotta really prepare myself for the season of rain. It’s coming!

Honestly looking back on this week, has been awesome! This is probably one of my most productive weeks as a missionary. Not that it wasn’t productive before, it was just slower, less lessons and stuff. We’ve met with quite a few members now and have been sharing lessons with them. It’s been so good getting to know the members. They put so much effort in contributing to the ward and it really shows.

We went to this super epic store in the mall called Muji! All the missionaries love this store! Muji is like this no-name brand Japanese store. They sell so many things, anything from clothes, hats, pens, notebooks, shredders, containers, tooth brushes, and so much more. The brand’s just super cool cause everything is so simple yet it has this signature Muji look to it. Anyways we stopped by and bought some pens and stuff. My trainer got some pretty sweet slippers from there too!

My trainer and I got to lead the discussion in district council. We discussed the parable of the talents and how it’s important that we recognize and utilize our talents. We then had everyone write on the board a talent they believe they have, one their comp has, and one for another person in the district. It went really well, and it was so great seeing what everyone saw in each other. Often times we fail to see our strengths, our talents, it’s not obvious to us. But when others recognize them, it helps broaden our perspective and be more effective in applying our talents. I recommend looking for talents in others and sharing those with them.

We met with the Davis family again last week. It’s always a pleasure seeing and talking with them. I loved chatting with Sister Davis’s husband. He works as a software engineer and commissinos projects. Which is super cool! We had some good programing talk. We then talked about his single board computer projects, internet of things devices he was programing, local car stereo media streamer, and pinball machine emulation. As well as some Linux server distro discussion. It was super great to talk to someone that shares some of my common interests. It sounds like next time we are going to meet he’s going to show us his epic car stereo!! I’m definitely looking forward to that!

Everyone on the mission got so excited because a new Youth single came out. Basically all the music we listen to on the mission are from the Youth albums. So it’s a bit like Christmas when they release a new song. That was pretty epic!

We met with the Prasad family, Brother Prasad is the president of the Elders Quorum. He had some super awesome insights on what he believes the members including his family can improve on. He emphasized just how important it is as members to invite other members and friends into their homes. After Covid, he expounded that the members tended to keep their doors shut and stopped inviting people over for dinner. We totally agreed and as missionaries we would love to get to know the members more and build connections with them. So we are going to work with the Elders Quorum to spread this message especially over the holiday season. I include this in my message because this is something that I believe we can all improve on. Find someway that you can invite and share with others. Even if it’s small and simple, the lasting effects of doing so can be great.

To end this message I want to share my thoughts on the whole mission experience so far. Going on a mission has been a very humbling experience. Most of the things I did before my mission were in line with my skills and talents. Those things were definitetly still a challenge, I felt more content with the results. But since being on a mission I’ve felt like basically everthing I’m doing I’m not good at. So it’s been very humbling and great growth for those areas of my life. I know that this is exactly where I need to be. God has put me here to learn and grow. And I know I’ll look back on this experience and be happy that I was given those trials.