Monday, January 3rd 2011

Oí Família!

Happy New Year everyone!!! Wow I cannot believe just how quickly 2010 went by! I was sitting on the top of the roof of my house with my companion and as I was watching all the fireworks and festivities I thought to myself, 2010 really feels like a dream to me now, and just how quickly 2011 will pass by if I´m not paying attention. One thing that I have really noticed on the mission is that this time is SO precious. I will only be doing this amazing work for two years! Two years I can teach EVERYONE about the blessings of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Two years I can worry about nothing other than studying the scriptures and helping people being baptized into Christ´s Church. I can´t do this anymore when I come home, so I am going to focus everything I have to learn and teach this Gospel to everyone down here, especially this year!

So for some odd reason, I feel like talking a bit about the 13th Article of Faith today. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous and in doing good to our fellow man... As members of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, we must always strive to be examples of Him. In a world that is dropping its standards, we must raise ours. We have a duty to fulfill that we promised to do when we were baptized into His Church; that we would take upon ourselves His name. What does this really mean? Sure, we can say that we are members of His Church, but are really trying to be more like Him everyday? How are we doing with our development of Christlike Attributes? Do we really ask ourselves, What Would Jesus Do, in every situation? We need to strive to adquire this persona so that we can truly be the "light of the world" that cannot be hidden. (Matt 5:14-16) We must be the example to the world of how Christ wants us to act. Absolutely anything in this world that is worth praise or good, we must seek it! I like to compare this to the company of a good group of friends and family. We must seek for positive examples in our lives so that we, too, can be edified by their light.

This week we had another baptism! This time it was the older sister of the little girl who was baptized last week. This just goes to show that everyone can be touched by this gospel because this girl wanted nothing to do with us at the beginning, the same with their mom. But now she is baptized and their mom is marked to be baptized this next Sunday! Families can be forever through this Gospel... I know that this is true because Heaven really wouldn´t be Heaven without my family! Thank you all for everything! And a very Happy Birthday and Long Sal Salefa to Aunt Mimi!!!! I hope I spelled that right haha. Love you all!

Elder Clark