Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Brett:s First Letter
Hey Everybody! I spent most of my 30 minutes of email time today just trying to set up this account. So, I'll be brief. First of all, you should know I am only allowed to write and email letters on my preparation day, which is Tuesday. So, if you don't get a response from me right away that's why. Anyway, the MTC is okay.The days are long. Most of the time I'm in a classroom or studying on my own somewhere. I leave my room at 7 am and return at 9:30 pm. It's gotten better as the week has gone on though. My companion is Elder Samuelson from Sandy, UT but his mom is from Lima Peru. Im really glad I got paired up with him because he is the only other one who speaks spanish in my district. They put me in the Intermediate Spanish district which means Im gonna have to be here for 9 weeks, but my companion leaves in 3 weeks to Lima, Peru to the MTC in Peru. So, I am not sure what they're planning on doing with me once he leaves. My other two roomates might be my companions. All of our roomates and I (there are 4 of us in a room) get along really well. We're always laughing and having fun together. My whole district gets along well actually. There is a Spirit of love and unity here at the MTC. Having a ompanion 24/7 is hard. I would like some alone time. I gave my companion a blessing last night because he was feeing really sick. Fortunately, he's getting better very fast. Enough about me. What's everybody been up to lately? My old BYU roomate who works at MTC told me BYU beat Florida in overtime. YA!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Brett's Farewell Talk
Brothers and Sisters, we have a Heavenly Father who loves each and every one of us more than we could possibly imagine. We are his literal spirit children, we were with him before this earth, and we can be with him again after this life. We each have something divine within us and, therefore, we are each capable of far more than we can comprehend. This is the message I want to share with you and with the world. It is the message that lifts spirits, mends broken herts, and gives hope to those who have none. It is the message which fills one's life with purpose and a desire for continual self-imporivement. And, if applied properly, this message can be a source of great strength and power in dealing with life's many challenges.
Once again, I tell you that God loves you more than our human minds can comprehend. He loves us so much that he created this beautiful earth and all life on it for us to enjoy. He has blessed us with physical bodies similar to his own. He allows us to feel pain so that we can know peace and sorrow, so that we can know joy. He has given us the ability to act for ourselves and the freedom to choose good or evil so that we can increase in understanding and knowledge and learn that we are happiest when we choose good over evil. This gift is so sacred and so central to our Heavenly Father's plan for us that he will usually not even prevent another from misusing his free will to oppress, abuse, or otherwise harm another person. He will, however, always strengthen the victims of another's bad choices if they will but ask. Though we reamin physically separate from him in this life, our loving Heavenly Father pleads with us to come unto him spiritually through prayer and he stands ready to answer the questions we cannot seem to answer for ourselves and to bless us with the things we need most when we humbly and sincerely ask. He ofers the promise of a glorious and infinite existence and has provided a way for us to learn and grow in this life and the next until we become like HIM, our Heavenly Father. He has promised us all that he has and is. But the greatest expression of the love our Heavenly Father has for all of his children was given when he allowed his Only Begootten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer on behalf of every person that had and that ever would live on the earth and to be crucified in complete innocence. Without this miraculous expression of divine love, there would ultimately be no purpose to our existence and no way to experience true happiness as there would be no resurrection and we would all remain in sinful states, unable to ever have our sins forgiven and return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In addition, we would have nowhere to turn for relief beyond our mortal capacities in times of distress, poor health, or weakness. Christ not only took upon himself our sins; he also suffered every pain, affliction,and sorrow that would be felt by anyone in this life. It is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that God is able to comfort and stgrengthen us.
"And he shall go forth , suffering pain and affliction and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upom him death, thay he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities" Alma 7:11-12
What I'm tryimg to demonstrate to you is that love is at the center of everything God does and is. Even his commandments are manifestations and testimony to his love for you. Many believe that if God truly loved them, he would be pleased with them regardless of whether they choose good or evil and that he would not allow them to suffer the natural consequnces of their own sins. These people do not truly understand God's love. While God loves all of his chilren, even the wicked and rebellious ones, true love never supports self-destructive behavior, and God is not pleased with us if we stray from the path of our eternal progression and thwart the very purpose of our coming to this earth. His purpose is not to reward and punish merely for his pleasere; his only goal is to help us along the path to becoming perfect, as He is. That is his work and his glory regardless of what we think we need or desire. I like the way C.S. Lewis described it:
"We are a Divine work...something that God is making, and therefore something with which he will not be satisfied until it has a certain character. It is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less...To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask God that he should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us, He must labor to make us loveable...We are bidden to put on Christ, to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we think we want...He gives us the happiness that is...To be God-to be like God and share his goodness...These are the only...Alternatives. If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows...then we must starve eternally.
Nevertheless, sometimes we get so caught up in all the specific shoulds and should nots that we miss the bigger picture and the key to becoming more like our Heavenly Father. Christ criticized the religious experts of his day for this very reason. We can avoid this problem and rest assured that we are doing God's will if we remember to focus, once again, on love. Jesus declared the first and greatest commandment to be "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" God did not give this commandment because he needs us to love him: he gave it beause it is the key to becoming like HIM. As President Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, said "His power nad glory are not diminished should we disregard, deny or even defile his name. His influence and dominion extend through time and space independent of our acceptance, approval, or admiration. No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh how do we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are and who we will become." Coupled with the second great commandment, which Christ declared "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," much of the confusion and disagreement over God's will should clear. For "for on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." They should be at the center of everything we do if we wish to be true disciples of Christ. President Uchtdorf also said, "When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as disciples of Christ become more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavnely Fatehr becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden." A passge of scripture in Moses, Chapter 7 illustrates how dissapointed God is when when we fail to obey these two commandmdnts, especially the second one...
But we don't have to be perfect today. As long as we are giving our best effort the Lord will bless us right now with peace of conscience, comfort in our trials and strength in our adversity, guidance for our lives, answers to our prayers, and true joy. He will also bless us with eternal life and exaltation when we have moved on from this mortal realm. We should be grateful that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has made it possible for each and every one of us to have these blessings as well as countless others and to become like our Father in Heaven, even when we repeatedly sin. God's love is so great that he, who is perfect and omnipotent willingly forgves our sins, pays our debts, and makes our weaknesses srengths when we come unto him through humble prayer and then strive to do what is right. No matter how others feel about us or how we feel about ourselves our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ stand ready to lovingly and mercifully receive us if we but do our part and seek them. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God (Romans8:35)
Once again, I tell you that God loves you more than our human minds can comprehend. He loves us so much that he created this beautiful earth and all life on it for us to enjoy. He has blessed us with physical bodies similar to his own. He allows us to feel pain so that we can know peace and sorrow, so that we can know joy. He has given us the ability to act for ourselves and the freedom to choose good or evil so that we can increase in understanding and knowledge and learn that we are happiest when we choose good over evil. This gift is so sacred and so central to our Heavenly Father's plan for us that he will usually not even prevent another from misusing his free will to oppress, abuse, or otherwise harm another person. He will, however, always strengthen the victims of another's bad choices if they will but ask. Though we reamin physically separate from him in this life, our loving Heavenly Father pleads with us to come unto him spiritually through prayer and he stands ready to answer the questions we cannot seem to answer for ourselves and to bless us with the things we need most when we humbly and sincerely ask. He ofers the promise of a glorious and infinite existence and has provided a way for us to learn and grow in this life and the next until we become like HIM, our Heavenly Father. He has promised us all that he has and is. But the greatest expression of the love our Heavenly Father has for all of his children was given when he allowed his Only Begootten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer on behalf of every person that had and that ever would live on the earth and to be crucified in complete innocence. Without this miraculous expression of divine love, there would ultimately be no purpose to our existence and no way to experience true happiness as there would be no resurrection and we would all remain in sinful states, unable to ever have our sins forgiven and return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In addition, we would have nowhere to turn for relief beyond our mortal capacities in times of distress, poor health, or weakness. Christ not only took upon himself our sins; he also suffered every pain, affliction,and sorrow that would be felt by anyone in this life. It is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that God is able to comfort and stgrengthen us.
"And he shall go forth , suffering pain and affliction and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upom him death, thay he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities" Alma 7:11-12
What I'm tryimg to demonstrate to you is that love is at the center of everything God does and is. Even his commandments are manifestations and testimony to his love for you. Many believe that if God truly loved them, he would be pleased with them regardless of whether they choose good or evil and that he would not allow them to suffer the natural consequnces of their own sins. These people do not truly understand God's love. While God loves all of his chilren, even the wicked and rebellious ones, true love never supports self-destructive behavior, and God is not pleased with us if we stray from the path of our eternal progression and thwart the very purpose of our coming to this earth. His purpose is not to reward and punish merely for his pleasere; his only goal is to help us along the path to becoming perfect, as He is. That is his work and his glory regardless of what we think we need or desire. I like the way C.S. Lewis described it:
"We are a Divine work...something that God is making, and therefore something with which he will not be satisfied until it has a certain character. It is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less...To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask God that he should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us, He must labor to make us loveable...We are bidden to put on Christ, to become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give us what we need, not what we think we want...He gives us the happiness that is...To be God-to be like God and share his goodness...These are the only...Alternatives. If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows...then we must starve eternally.
Nevertheless, sometimes we get so caught up in all the specific shoulds and should nots that we miss the bigger picture and the key to becoming more like our Heavenly Father. Christ criticized the religious experts of his day for this very reason. We can avoid this problem and rest assured that we are doing God's will if we remember to focus, once again, on love. Jesus declared the first and greatest commandment to be "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" God did not give this commandment because he needs us to love him: he gave it beause it is the key to becoming like HIM. As President Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, said "His power nad glory are not diminished should we disregard, deny or even defile his name. His influence and dominion extend through time and space independent of our acceptance, approval, or admiration. No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh how do we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are and who we will become." Coupled with the second great commandment, which Christ declared "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," much of the confusion and disagreement over God's will should clear. For "for on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." They should be at the center of everything we do if we wish to be true disciples of Christ. President Uchtdorf also said, "When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as disciples of Christ become more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavnely Fatehr becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden." A passge of scripture in Moses, Chapter 7 illustrates how dissapointed God is when when we fail to obey these two commandmdnts, especially the second one...
But we don't have to be perfect today. As long as we are giving our best effort the Lord will bless us right now with peace of conscience, comfort in our trials and strength in our adversity, guidance for our lives, answers to our prayers, and true joy. He will also bless us with eternal life and exaltation when we have moved on from this mortal realm. We should be grateful that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has made it possible for each and every one of us to have these blessings as well as countless others and to become like our Father in Heaven, even when we repeatedly sin. God's love is so great that he, who is perfect and omnipotent willingly forgves our sins, pays our debts, and makes our weaknesses srengths when we come unto him through humble prayer and then strive to do what is right. No matter how others feel about us or how we feel about ourselves our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ stand ready to lovingly and mercifully receive us if we but do our part and seek them. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God (Romans8:35)
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