Email ochenta y cinco: service and Conference

April 2, 2018
While reading Jacob chapter 4 this week, I found a verse that really stuck out to me. After speaking of Christ's Atonement, Jacob in verse 14 says: "But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble."

Jacob is saying that the fall of the Jews into apostasy came because of spiritual blindness. An example of this spiritual blindness is not recognizing Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior of the world. It says this blindness came because the Jews were looking beyond the mark.

In his First Presidency message for the January 2017 Ensign, then President Uchtdorf talked about focusing on the most important gospel principles.

"Anciently, religious leaders spent a great deal of time cataloging, ranking, and debating which of the hundreds of commandments was the most important.

One day a group of religious scholars attempted to draw the Savior into the controversy. They asked Him to weigh in on an issue upon which few could agree.

“Master,” they asked Him, “which is the great commandment in the law?”

We all know how Jesus answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

“This is the first and great commandment.

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Please note the last sentence: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

The Savior not only showed us the target, but He also identified the bull’s-eye.

As members of the Church, we covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ. Implicit in that covenant is the understanding that we will strive to learn about God, love Him, increase our faith in Him, honor Him, walk in His way, and stand steadfastly as witnesses of Him.

The more we learn about God and feel His love for us, the more we realize that the infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ is a divine gift of God. And God’s love inspires us to use the path of true repentance, which will lead to the miracle of forgiveness. This process enables us to have greater love and compassion for those around us. We will learn to see beyond labels. We will resist the temptation to accuse or judge others by their sins, shortcomings, flaws, political leanings, religious convictions, nationalities, or skin color.

We will see every one we meet as a child of our Heavenly Father--our brother or our sister.

We will reach out to others in understanding and love--even those who may not be particularly easy to love. We will mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort.

And we will realize that there is no need for us to agonize about the correct gospel target.

The two great commandments are the target. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. As we accept this, all other good things will fall into place.

If our primary focus, thoughts, and efforts are centered on increasing our love for Almighty God and extending our hearts to others, we can know that we have found the right target and are aiming at the bull’s-eye--becoming true disciples of Jesus Christ."

So as far the week, this was one of the fastest yet. We did lots of service, and on top of that had General Conference.

We helped the a friend of Hermano Sorto move in on Thursday in Russellville, and right as we dropped the Russellville Spanish Elders off at their apartment, we saw two ladies trying to move stuff out of a truck. We offered to help and they said of course. It turns out one of them was a friend to the other who was moving in. The lady moving in was named K. Well, as soon as we got all the stuff out of the truck, K's friend bailed, taking the pickup with her. K said she had no one to help her move the rest of her stuff in a storage shed to her apartment. So we drove over, and put whatever we could into her Tahoe and our Corolla. We did about 3 loads of that, we didn't get everything, but we definitely helped her out. Sister Watts, a member in the Russellville Ward, came and helped as well. While we were waiting on one of the loads, I was able to give K

a Book of Mormon and tell her about what we do as missionaries. She is super interested! She said she has been looking for something more in her life, and she's already started reading it and will meet with the sister missionaries this week! Super cool experience seeing how service gives us opportunities to share the Gospel!

General Conference was amazing as usual. I loved President Eyring's talk, as well as Elder De Feo's talk on love. It was definitely the spiritual recharge I needed.

Anyways gotta go! Love y'all, have a wonderful week!

Pics: Elder Bybee! Love this kid; Kenny Williams!