Temple and Transfers

Week #63

We're going to the temple today. That's why I didn't email yesterday. I'm excited.Transfers are in just one more week and I have no idea if I'll stay or if I'll go. If I go there will be trouble. If I stay it will be double. Probably not, but the song worked. 

It probably won't be double, but there is a lot of work to be done here. I thought of a new example to illustrate how much missionary work relies on members. Yes, I know this is the only thing I talk about. Ezra Taft Benson talked about the Book of Mormon, Gordon B. Hinkley always talked about the dangers of pornography, Elder Holland talks about worthiness, Elder Ballard talks about Preach My Gospel and finding people for the missionaries to teach. I picked my favorite too. 

We as missionaries are called fishers of men. When Christ called James and John, they were mending their nets. Why were they doing that? Because if the net has holes, the fishermen can't place the net in exactly the right spot, at exactly the right moment and hundreds of fish might even touch the sides for a moment, but they will escape. We must mend the net or all of our work, though done perfectly, will yield few results if any. 

The net can symbolize many things, but lately I've been thinking about it as the ward. The missionaries can talk to everybody, teach 50 lessons a week (the new mission standard) and maybe even baptize a few, but unless the ward is intact, those people will slip through the holes and return to the world.

How do we build this net? Relationships. Not just with new members, investigators and potential investigators, but with each other. If warm and loving connections do not exist between the members, investigators will rarely feel that love. We talk so much about integration and missionary work, but how can we integrate if there is nothing to be integrated into?

So, love your neighbor. Love him unconditionally. Love him and serve him even when he lets his dog leave presents on your lawn. Love him even if he doesn't show his love for you. If he speaks against you, speak in his favor. Remember that Christ suffered for the sins of the Pharisees as well as the sins of Peter. 

If we as members of Christ's Church develop Christ's love, Non-members have reason to investigate, investigators have reason to be baptized, and new members have reason to stay because they became caught up in the net of love with every one of us.

I read this quote in the Gospel Principle Manual Sunday. "As we become like Him, our work will become like His work."- David O. McKay

I thought about this and switched the order to be "As our work becomes like His work, we become more like Him."

The work we do is the measuring stick of how close we are to being perfect even as Christ is. (3 Nephi 27:27) I do not think we need to wonder how righteous we are. Our works show us clearly what manner of men we are. 

I'll be using this idea in a talk this next Sunday. You all got a sneak peak. 

Yesterday we took advantage of one of the best things that exist in Brazil. If anybody has gone to Tucano's, Rodizio's or any other restaurant that brings the buffet to you, imagine that, but with just pizza. 

Brazilians are very creative with pizza. It is much more than pepperoni and cheese or the occasional supreme. You can do anything you want with pizza here and yesterday we ate a lot of really good pizza. Imagine pizza after pizza, every one a different flavor, brought to your table. It's wonderful. I have some pictures, but I didn't take any of the actual pizza, but just to give an idea, they even make a type of ice cream pizza. They have another one called Sedução (yes, that means seduction). Very, very good. People that complain about pineapple on pizza would probably die here.

That's all for now. We still have to go to Porto Alegre before lunch. 

Until next week.

Elder Dickson