Nampa Idaho Mission 2016-2018: Jesus Loves you.. So follow Him

July 10th, 1017

Hey everybody!

I hope everyone had a splendid Fourth of July holiday and celebrated what is great about this great country and its foundation/values on which it stands. We got to stay out till 9 to visit with people in the neighborhood which was fun to hand out some Fourth of July stickers to the kids! Up here they have what they call the Culdesack of FIREEE! Its basically just abunch of neighbors that come togeather and celebrate! I thought it was pretty cool to see a sense of community.

This week has been crazy as they all are! But im really enjoying the challenges of this area! with each new challenge comes a lesson along with it so I simply remind myself about this and it makes things alot easier to move forward! Elder Hamel and I have had some good times thus far, but it will be crazy when he leaves in the short weeks to come! We just bought milk that will expire after he goes home!.. lets just say he was pretty excited that he could do that haha. I have made alot of connections with people in my area right now that know my Uncle that lives about 5 min away from where I live so that has been fun making all of these connections. We don't have many investigators right now so we are just striving and praying that we will be able to be lead to them so in the coming weeks this is our goal to build our teaching pool!

My thoughts this week come from a few different conversations that I have had with some people that we have talked to throughout the week. A big misconception it seems for many people is they get the notion that we "earn" our way to heaven. This false idea in the mind of these great and devote followers of Christ believe this to be a total slap to the face to our Savior and His sacrifice in instituting the atonement for us. To this I agree. It is offensive to believe we earn our way to heaven. The fact of the matter is we don't earn it! I think its no surprise that we spend a lot of time teaching repentance and baptizing those who are converted. Many of the ordinances we make in life such as baptism aren't our works, but they are things the Savior has asked us to do. Because we love him..we follow him and we do it. This then enables us to have the full access and power of his atonement. I love how Elder Bednar explains how faith, repentance, and baptism all rely on each other.

" Elder David A. Bednar: I think too often we, as members of the Church, have a cookbook, checklist mentality about living the gospel. So faith is this little separate thing, and then repentance is a separate thing, and then there’s the ordinance of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. All things are gathered together in one in Christ. So faith is in the Savior—in Him as the Son of God, in His nature, and in His attributes. Repentance is a dependence upon Him. Faith in Him and depending upon Him is repentance. Following Him is baptism. Pressing forward with Him is enduring to the end, with the companionship of the Holy Ghost. It’s all gathered together in Him. So as we are proclaiming our continuing dependence upon Christ, that is repentance, which leads to the mighty change of heart."

Repentance is the works we ought to be doing in this life so we can be with our Heavenly Father forever! I hope we as members can stray away from the phrases "Have to" and "We must" when talking about how to live again with Heavenly Father. Although there are things that we should do.. let us remember what they unlock and enable us to do.. which is use the full reach and grasp of our Saviors Atonement. This is what we MUST do.. repent and depend on the Savior.