Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Epistle 1.14.09

Happy 14th of January everyone! I've now been 20 for a full month. This is my 1/12th Birthday! I believe I'll have a party, or perhaps a root canal. Either one sounds exciting enough for my day =]

Things are very good here. The weather is beautiful and cold. However, since I am newly equipped with a Moroni sporting scarf and some earmuffs I am well prepared to face down any chill wind.

This week my companion and I spent some time getting ourselves very organized. I made the decree that I wanted our companionship to work like a well-oiled machine, and so we went about doing that. Sticky note reminders, a small white-board on which we write what time we have to start getting ready to leave whenever we get in, moving the maps of our area from our eating area to out study area so we can plan in the study, and some new firm rules for us to make us more obedient. All of which really make life easier.

It's interesting to me to look at how Satan hungrily gobbles up our agency. We give him a little of our agency and he starts dragging us down before we know what happens. And then I look at how the Lord stands ready to accept our Agency. Little by little we choose, ourselves, to give it to him. We see that our lives get better when we do so, and give him a little more.

Our mission president gave a very cool workshop last transfer on agency. He asked the question, "Once you are out on your mission, and you look at the rules in the handbook, do you really have a choice what time you get up? Do you have a choice when you go to bed?" His answer was surprising, but I agreed with him. No. You don't. When you go on a mission you agree to live by those rules. You have "excercised" your agency. You don't have it anymore. What you DO have is the choice to be a covenant breaker or not. To stand by your word or not. That's the only choice you can really make.
As members of the church we make some very sacred covenants. We excercise our agency and we really only have that simple choice to make. Am I a covenant-keeper, or a covenant breaker? If the answer is the first, then yes, I will accept the calling accepted to me. Yes I will magnify my calling. Yes I will give all that I have to building the Lord's kingdom. The only other option, and the option that entails rejecting callings, not giving of all of our time requested, and doing anything less, is being a covenant breaker. So which will we be? =]

Food for thought for all of you. Even non-members have many obligations they freely enter in to and so excercise their agency. Are you going to call in faking sick to your employer? Or are you going to be the best employee you can be? What choice are you REALLY making? Am I going to be an honest person who does what I said I was going to do, or am I going to be a liar?
Today's epistle wasn't written incredibly well, so I hope you all understand what I'm saying. I need to run home because my ride should be here soon, and then I'm off to the dentists.

I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer, and that through him we can become better and better every day of our lives.

Fill your time with good things. There are too many good things to do with our time to waste any of life's most precious resource on anything less than great.

I love you all.

Till next week,
-Elder Ted E. Bear