LAST WEEK IN THE MTC!! I'm almost ready to
start my mission after being out for 2 months! This last week has been
full of so many good experiences, though, and we are still learning so
many things here! No crazy stories to tell this week, but the new MTC
buildings just opened up today! They are so beautiful, and the spirit is
so strong inside. We only get them for a week, but I'm so glad we get
to be there at all.
We start in field training
Friday, and I take off for the airport next Tuesday! So next Monday will
be my last P-Day in the MTC! I'm going to miss all the fun times here,
getting hit in the face with volleyballs (twice now), and messing up
words in Chinese. But I really have learned so much about our
relationship with our Heavenly Father and His plan for us. It's so
amazing that, as someone pointed out, of all the titles our God has been
called, He asked us to call Him father. To me it just shows again the
love he has for us as His literal spirit children.
I
also had the opportunity to teach the lesson this week in our District
Meeting, and I taught on obedience. As I was preparing the lessons, I
was thinking about what obedience is, and what it means to be obedient.
God loves us, and so He gives us commandments to keep us on a path that
will protect us from danger, both temporal and spiritual. Sometimes we
don't understand the commandments we're given, and sometimes we don't
know how they can help us, but I know that He gives them to us because,
like any good parent, he wants us to be safe. And if we keep His
commandments, the rules He's given us, if we use the Gift of Agency
we've been given to obey him, he promises to protect us, and to bless
us. Obedience is a covenant, both we and God make promises. His
blessings and protection all hinge upon our agency, though. There are so
many example of obedience throughout the scriptures, but the best
example of obedience is Christ. He was always obedient to his Father,
throughout His entire life, and did everything that was asked of Him. He
taught others, and shared the love of His Father. And then, as an
ultimate act of obedience, He drank the bitter cup of sin and death, and
atoned for us. In Luke 22, we see the only time in Christ's life where
he may have doubted, where He didn't want to obey. In verses 41 and 42,
we read "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying,
Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not
my will , but thine, be done." He knew the pain He would suffer pain
beyond our comprehension, he knew that He would feel emotions and mental
pains so terrible any mortal would have succumbed to death. But in the
Garden of Gethsemane, alone and on His knees, in the ultimate act of
obedience, He told His father "Not my will, but Thine be done." He knew
that there was no other way, nothing else that could be done to save his
fellow men. And so His will was swallowed up in the will of the
Father's. He made His Father's desires His own desires, and He saved us
all. We as children of God have the same opportunity. We will never have
to suffer the bitter pains of sin, if we use Christ's atonement to
repent. The commandments we are given may seem hard, but they will never
compare to the cross the Christ was given to bear. And the blessings of
obedience are so numerous. In Leviticus 26:9, we are told we will have
the Respect of God. How amazing is it to be told that God will give us
His respect if we follow His commandments. And that is just one of the
blessings of obedience. I know obedience to God's commandments will
bring us closer to him, and will help us trust in Him as he trust in us.
I know Christ lived, He died, and He lives again. And I have promised
to always obey my Father's commandments, because I love Him. And I love
all of you. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love,
Elder Shope
PS, thank you for everyone that has emailed me! I'll post more pictures later!
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