The week went by really fast this time. I am starting to see a
pattern here recently; when things are tough the time slows down and drags,
but when things are going a bit better time speeds up. Things went fast this
past week.
I remember when I was in the MTC sitting in a large group
meeting when we were shown a power point presentation that illustrated our
mission life. There was a graph that showed a line that increased steadily
till the middle of the graph where the line began to decrease steadily. The
graph was to represent one path that missionaries took while out on their
missions; they would apply themselves and progress till they plateau and
then they figured that they knew enough and stopped progressing. This
presentation has been on my mind these past few days and it has created a
lot of new desires and goals that I have set in order to avoid decreasing.
Things are now set in order and the errands that my companion
and I have been focused on for these past few months are completed. Policies
and procedures are now in order and we are on to other things. We will now
be consolidating our schedule and using the time spent on these past errands
on new projects and developments; a new challenge that I am way excited to
face and conquer.
Now that I have started my email with some very vague
comments...
Today I learned a lot from church. My favorite day out of the
week is Sunday because it is where all my studies for the week come together
to help me understand something about myself and the Gospel. This past week
I felt impressed to select six topics that will be my main focus of study
for the rest of my mission. These six topics are: 1. Charity/Discipleship,
2. Repentance/Conversion, 3. Revelation/Companionship of the Holy Ghost, 4.
Atonement/How to apply it in my life, 5. Priesthood/Keys, and 6. Ephraim. I
choose these topics because they are what I really want to learn more about,
and things that I can better understand so that I can teach it better to
myself, investigators, and missionaries. They might also help with
understanding my role and calling better and along with that they might help
in the transitions that are lurking in the near future.
I have studied the Atonement this past week and in Church the
topic of the talks was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ; what a
coincidence. One of the speakers explains something that was very insightful
that helped me connect the dots of all my past studies that I have done on
this topic. I have studied Section 88 where it talks about Laws that govern
all things and several other scriptures talking about the Law of Moses and
its purposes to not justify man, but to point us towards having faith in
Jesus Christ; which is the only way to be justified. Well, one of the
speakers today used an analogy that was very profound and taught me a lot
about the Atonement. The speaker was talking about laws and how we are
governed by them. She highlighted the law of gravity by holding out her
scriptures saying that the law of gravity required that the scriptures fall
when she was to let go of them, but then she said that by using other forces
and other laws she could make it possible to keep them in the air if she let
them go. My mind thought about all the ways that she could possibly get the
scriptures to stay in the air to defy the law of gravity and when thinking
about this I thought about how it is was possible that something could stay
in the air when the law of gravity required things to fall. I thought about
what makes it possible to fly an airplane. It is something that is very
heavy that should not fly, but does. I learned that an airplane does not
escape the justice of gravity; it uses other laws that are more powerful to
create flight and defy gravity. I applied this example to myself and
figuratively put myself into the planes place. I am bound to earth because
of the law of gravity. By the law I am not justified to fly, but by using
propulsion, air, and some uniquely designed wings I could use other, more
powerful laws to justify flight that would satisfy the demands of justice
that gravity would normally have. Simply put, airplanes are bound by laws
that are affixed, but its uses other laws to satisfy the affixed law of
gravity. We too are bound by affixed laws that demand punishment and justice
for our sins that separate us from the affixed happiness that we are
seeking. It is only through faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we
are able to be justified in returning back to Heavenly Father even if we
have sinned. Christ did not come to save us in our sins, but from our sins.
Christ has been given the power to save us only upon conditions of faith,
repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to
the end and everything that enduring to the end implies. It was a good
thought.
I love you family, I'm sorry that I didn't get the memory card
out to you this week. I have it packaged up and ready to go tomorrow.
Love your son,
Elder Kelly Conrad
PS. I haven't gotten that book yet, but that's ok, I plan on just holding it
till later in the next few months to use.
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