Hello!
This week I was called by yet another name or pronunciation of Garrick! I was called Sister Erica by our 76 year old investigator, Maria José! hahaha WHAT! Okay but this week was great! It was a real faith tester, but I know that we receive a witness after the trial of our faith. (Ether 12:6)
We were able to have zone conference and ward counsel and leadership meeting this week so it was super hurried and we even had to travel to Camaragibe which was like flashback into the past because it´s super interior but man how I miss the interior! But my heart is in Boa Viagem now and I don´t want to leave!
This week we were able to learn with President Bigelow about the premises of what we believe. We have to understand why we keep commandments like pay tithing, obey the word of wisdom, etc. and as missionaries and members of the church we have to align how we think with how the Lord thinks. We as latter-day saints think differently and I will attach the talk we read for you guys because you can learn so much!! Learning is great amiright?!?!
But my favorite part of this talk was this:
When I say that Latter-day Saints “think differently,” I do not suggest that we have a different way of reasoning in the sense of how we think. I am referring to the fact that on many important subjects our assumptions-our starting points or major premises-are different from many of our friends and associates. They are also different from many assumptions currently used in the media and in other common discourse. For example, because Latter-day Saints know our Heavenly Father’s plan for His children, we know that this mortal life is not a one-act play sandwiched between an unknowable past and an uncertain future. This life is like the second act in a three-act play. Its purpose is defined by what is revealed about our spiritual existence in Act 1 and our eternal destiny in Act 3. Because of our knowledge of this Plan and other truths that God has revealed, we start with different assumptions than those who do not share our knowledge. As a result, we reach different conclusions on many important subjects that others judge only in terms of their opinions about mortal life.
In some ways our experience is the same as the Apostle Peter’s, recorded in the 16th chapter of Matthew. Jesus taught His apostles that He would soon go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and finally be killed. Quote:
“Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:22–23).
Peter did not savor “the things that be of God, but those that be of men” when he argued that Jesus would not be killed in Jerusalem. By reasoning from the wisdom of men he reached the wrong conclusion. If, on that occasion, Peter had reasoned from “the things that be of God”-from the Plan that required the Savior to die-he would not have been chastened. Then, he would have had what the scriptures describe as the “mind of The Lord” or the “mind of Christ” (Romans 11:34; 1 Corinthians 2:16; D&C 102:23; also see 2 Nephi 9:39), which includes the ability to understand and think clearly about the application of eternal gospel truths and teachings to the various circumstances we face in mortality.
Sorry this email is really long but I am grateful for you all and grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful that we think differently because it means we can help others come to this knowledge of the gospel too!
Boa semana,
Sister Erica ;)
Photo: Zone Conference (Zonas Litoral & Recife Sul)
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