I've been in the hospital for most of the week, not for me though! My companion, Elder Beach, got salmonella, and so I volunteered to stay with him. He was hospitalized for a few days, which meant we didn't do much. I did get to hear some interesting talks by President Oaks though! There is one that I loved called Love and Law, from 2009. It was so interesting, because it precisely answers a question that we get a lot from atheists, which is "If there is a loving God, why does he allow so many good people to suffer at the hands of wicked people?" Usually they reference terrible events like the Holocaust, or terrorist events. It also speaks about the importance of laws, and the importance of a loving parenting style that includes laws and punishments. It was very enlightening! Today, I got to go to the baptism of one of my investigators from Chosica! She had been listening to the elders for 4 years, and finally decided to be baptized! I was so happy to see their family unified! I was also able to talk to one of my converts from Chosica, and they are planning on getting sealed in August, just before I leave!! Incredible!
Love you all!
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Multizone Conferences, Consecration, and Goals
This week has been crazy. We've had Multizone conferences all week, and it has been exhausting. We got up early every day to set up, and made sure everything ran smoothly, and then we got to go pick up lunch, which were burritos from about 45 minutes away, so we got to rest in the car. The burritos are made by an English guy, like from England, and he was super cool! He makes everything himself, including the tortillas, the barbecue beef, hot sauce, and everything! It was so good! He said he was inspired by Chipotle when he went to the states, and his boss back in the UK didn't think it would work, but when he moved to Peru, he tried it, and it worked perfectly! It's a huge hit, and it's super good!
In the multizones we talked about some great stuff though! We talked about the law of sacrifice, life planning, and the law of consecration. It was so interesting, because the law of consecration can turn into just a law of outward performances, where we are consecrated for the simple end of being consecrated. When we consecrate ourselves with a specific goal in mind, like finding people to "help... come unto Christ," we have power. It's when we focus on our goals, and understand that that's the reason we're doing everything we're doing, that's when we see power in our lives. When we are willing to sacrifice everything, that's when we are able to see miracles, and we have the power we see exhibited in countless scriptures. It was so cool!
We also talked about how our life plan needs to line up with our patriarchal blessing, and with God's will for us. If we make plans that are not according to the will of God, and we want it enough, He'll let it happen, but we will not be nearly as happy as we would be if we were following His will. Sometimes we end up miserable, even though we got what we think we wanted. Sister Amato, our mission president's wife, had us all draw out a map of our life, and then set our goals for 10 years, 2 years, and 1 year. It was so cool! We were able to really feel the influence of the Lord guiding us in our future! I know He knows us, and loves us, and will help us in everything we ask him for!
Love you all!
In the multizones we talked about some great stuff though! We talked about the law of sacrifice, life planning, and the law of consecration. It was so interesting, because the law of consecration can turn into just a law of outward performances, where we are consecrated for the simple end of being consecrated. When we consecrate ourselves with a specific goal in mind, like finding people to "help... come unto Christ," we have power. It's when we focus on our goals, and understand that that's the reason we're doing everything we're doing, that's when we see power in our lives. When we are willing to sacrifice everything, that's when we are able to see miracles, and we have the power we see exhibited in countless scriptures. It was so cool!
We also talked about how our life plan needs to line up with our patriarchal blessing, and with God's will for us. If we make plans that are not according to the will of God, and we want it enough, He'll let it happen, but we will not be nearly as happy as we would be if we were following His will. Sometimes we end up miserable, even though we got what we think we wanted. Sister Amato, our mission president's wife, had us all draw out a map of our life, and then set our goals for 10 years, 2 years, and 1 year. It was so cool! We were able to really feel the influence of the Lord guiding us in our future! I know He knows us, and loves us, and will help us in everything we ask him for!
Love you all!
Saturday, May 5, 2018
Coast Trip, Faith, and Input Forms
This week has been really cool! We had the best P-Day ever today! It's Cinco de Mayo today, so we had a party.
We went down to Lima South (Barranco) with President and his family, and we went to a really high quality ice cream place, with what tasted like Cold-Stone-level ice cream.
It was super cool, and had freelance French artwork all over the walls!
Then we went to a place called Burrito Bar. It had these massive Chipotle-style burritos, which were absolutely delicious!
And while we were waiting for the burritos, President bought us buffalo wings! I was thinking of Harrison the whole time! And then we went with President and his family to the beach!
It was absolutely amazing! I haven't seen the ocean in 20 months.
I had forgotten how beautiful it is, and how alive I feel next to it!
It was such an amazing experience!
Going to the coast to me is always a reflective experience, and I felt the Spirit really strongly standing out there and looking at everything.
It made me realize how powerful God is, and how great our potential is.
I absolutely loved it!
We went down to Lima South (Barranco) with President and his family, and we went to a really high quality ice cream place, with what tasted like Cold-Stone-level ice cream.
It was super cool, and had freelance French artwork all over the walls!
Then we went to a place called Burrito Bar. It had these massive Chipotle-style burritos, which were absolutely delicious!
And while we were waiting for the burritos, President bought us buffalo wings! I was thinking of Harrison the whole time! And then we went with President and his family to the beach!
I had forgotten how beautiful it is, and how alive I feel next to it!
It was such an amazing experience!
Going to the coast to me is always a reflective experience, and I felt the Spirit really strongly standing out there and looking at everything.
It made me realize how powerful God is, and how great our potential is.
I absolutely loved it!
The attribute of the transfer is Faith, so we've been studying it a lot. I've been reading through and studying Lectures on Faith, as found on the Joseph Smith Papers website, and it has been super fascinating! President also approved another book for us to read, called Drawing on the Powers of Heaven. I haven't read it all, because I don't have a copy, but I did read through and look at all the sources he cites, and he cites a lot of Journal of Discourses, which is on BYU's website. So I was able to read through some of that, and it's very clear to me that a major part of faith is concentration. So I'm working on improving that, because I can get really distracted sometimes, and I get really focused, but on the wrong things. I have loved reading what some of the prophets have said about that!
President is having me work on the input forms some more, and I feel like I am getting real life job experience! He asked me to add maps functionality to the forms, so I got to research the google maps API, and integrate it with the forms! I also decided that sharing zip files over and over again was not a good idea going forward, so I created a project on github! Now I can track all the updates I make and have a central place to distribute the results! If you're interested, here is the link: https://github.com/
I love you all so much! I promise that as you all keep reading your scriptures daily, you will be able to do anything. You will feel the Lord in all aspects of your life. It is absolutely a miracle. It changes the way you think and act, when you realize that the Lord is there! It's not, If the Savior Stood Beside Me, He is standing beside you all the time! It's an incredible thought!
Have a wonderful life! I'll talk to you next week!
--Dallin
P.S.
Just a word of caution, Drawing on the Powers of Heaven is a great book, but it's not a declaration of doctrine, rather it's a CES teacher summarizing the words of prophets and sharing his experiences. Also, Journal of Discourses is also not considered a source of doctrine due to the unreliable nature of the transcription, but is very valuable! We could say that we believe Journal of Discourses as far as it is transcribed correctly :)
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