Merry Christmas everyone!
For some reason being a missionary and living in Phoenix doesn't really help it actually feel like Christmas. I don't really do a lot of Christmas-y things, aside from listen to Christmas music, and the weather feels more like early spring than like winter. I've decided that Christmas needs to be cold. I think I'd go crazy living in Australia where it's a summer holiday.
This week was really good. We had a Christmas Zone Conference on Friday and went to the Mesa Temple as a mission. On our way to the Mesa Temple we missed an exit and wound up in Chandler. We we some of the last ones getting there. We were a little worried that they were going to start without us.
I love the Temple. It's just so peaceful. I always feel different in my day to day life after I go. I feel like I act a little better and like I remember the Lord a little more in my activities. I also felt like I understood things a little better now that I've been a missionary for a year. Hopefully this time I won't wait a year until I go to the Temple again.
It was a good week as far as the work went. We had lost contact with a part member family who had moved to a different apartment complex in our area. We didn't have their address and their phone number didn't work. The only thing we knew was what complex they lived in. So we decided to do a little tracting in those apartments and they were the first door we knocked on. That was a little surprising. Normally I don't hear "Come in" on the first door I knock. So we went in and taught the husband who's a nonmember. The hard part will be getting them to come to Church now.
We also had a lady who got some paper and wrote down the date when we extended a baptismal date in the first lesson. We're excited for her.
The husband of our recent convert who we've been working with for months finally let us know some things that would help to teach him. He doesn't fully agree with us on what sin is and how we should get clean of it. That's something that's taken me too long to learn as a missionary. I've only recently started helping people to see the exact definition of sin and then work from there. I also just took it for granted that people think sin is disobedience to God. But Preach My Gospel says that a lot of people have different conceptions of what sin is or what it means. There are some people who think that only serious things are sins or there are others who believe that they don't need to repent of small things like not praying or going to Church.
I've been studying a lot of how Christ teaches in 3 Nephi and in the Bible and he's always very direct. He tells it like it is. I've especially noticed how often He says, "Do this and be saved, don't do it and be condemned." It's very direct and difficult to misunderstand. I've started doing that more in my lessons, explaining the blessing and consequences of the commandments, and it's definitely helping a lot. I guess I just assumed that people would know that not keeping the commandments is a sin and prevents us from going back to live with our Heavenly Father. I guess sometimes we just have to be forced to answer if something is really essential to our happiness and salvation. I love how black and white and clear the Gospel is. The Restoration leaves little room for personal taste or interpretation when it comes to God's law.
I love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas. I think I've grown closer to the Savior between these two Christmases than I ever have before. It's His life and His Gospel that we celebrate with Christmas, not just His birth. I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for the wonderful gift of His Son.
Love,
Elder Grasley
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