The Final Epistle of 2009!
Happy New Year everyone!
I've been having a wonderful holiday. Mom, Dad, Rich, Bert, Mary it was wonderful to talk to all of you! Max we'll be catching up soon!
The performances at the Festival of Lights went well. Christmas Eve we had two performances, with about 400 and 300 people respectively, and then did a third bonus show for about 90 people. Christmas Day we did the two for about 300 each, and called it a night.
It was funny to actually have my voice warmed up again. After the second show on Christmas Eve and before the Third my voice had a familiar feeling to it.. it felt good! I don't think I've really have my voice warmed up since I came out here. There just isn't time and it isn't a priority. Good to know I still love singing though!
In other news my companion Elder Thompson just received word that he'll be flying to his permanent mission in Suriname next Tuesday. Apparently his Visa has gone through. Cool!
I've been thinking this week about Covenants. We enter in to several covenants with God. We make a Covenant through the Ordinances of Baptism and Confirmation, and we enter in to several other covenants in The Temple. Of all of our covenants, however, there is something unique about our first covenant, baptism. The unique piece of that covenant is that it is, so far as I know, the only covenant which we renew. I found this interesting since it is NOT the only one that, due to our imperfection, we can not fully keep.
My pondering of this lead to an answer that satisfied me. One of the things promised to us by God through the Baptismal Covenant is a remission of our sins, meaning through the merits and mercy of the atonement of Jesus Christ we are restored to a state at which, through the eyes of God, it is as if we had never sinned.
With this in consideration I realized that if our Baptismal Covenant is truly renewed, our cleansed state is also restored, and as pertaining to any other covenant we have not fully lived up to, it is, in the eyes of God, as if we had never broken it, and thus there is no need to renew any other covenant.
I think that made more sense in my head than in this e-mail. But hopefully you get what I'm trying to say!
I bought a pretty Greg Olsen calendar at the bookstore today for 2010. It's weird to think that 5 of those pretty pictures will be on display on the other side of the country.
I love you all! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
-Elder Ted E. Bear
Happy New Year everyone!
I've been having a wonderful holiday. Mom, Dad, Rich, Bert, Mary it was wonderful to talk to all of you! Max we'll be catching up soon!
The performances at the Festival of Lights went well. Christmas Eve we had two performances, with about 400 and 300 people respectively, and then did a third bonus show for about 90 people. Christmas Day we did the two for about 300 each, and called it a night.
It was funny to actually have my voice warmed up again. After the second show on Christmas Eve and before the Third my voice had a familiar feeling to it.. it felt good! I don't think I've really have my voice warmed up since I came out here. There just isn't time and it isn't a priority. Good to know I still love singing though!
In other news my companion Elder Thompson just received word that he'll be flying to his permanent mission in Suriname next Tuesday. Apparently his Visa has gone through. Cool!
I've been thinking this week about Covenants. We enter in to several covenants with God. We make a Covenant through the Ordinances of Baptism and Confirmation, and we enter in to several other covenants in The Temple. Of all of our covenants, however, there is something unique about our first covenant, baptism. The unique piece of that covenant is that it is, so far as I know, the only covenant which we renew. I found this interesting since it is NOT the only one that, due to our imperfection, we can not fully keep.
My pondering of this lead to an answer that satisfied me. One of the things promised to us by God through the Baptismal Covenant is a remission of our sins, meaning through the merits and mercy of the atonement of Jesus Christ we are restored to a state at which, through the eyes of God, it is as if we had never sinned.
With this in consideration I realized that if our Baptismal Covenant is truly renewed, our cleansed state is also restored, and as pertaining to any other covenant we have not fully lived up to, it is, in the eyes of God, as if we had never broken it, and thus there is no need to renew any other covenant.
I think that made more sense in my head than in this e-mail. But hopefully you get what I'm trying to say!
I bought a pretty Greg Olsen calendar at the bookstore today for 2010. It's weird to think that 5 of those pretty pictures will be on display on the other side of the country.
I love you all! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
-Elder Ted E. Bear
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