Why I'm Here (Part 1)

So, maybe you've been able to tell from past entries, but missionary work is hard. It's really hard, in a myriad of ways. I'm not going to go into details, because that could turn depressing, but let it be declared: being a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not exactly a walk in the park.

What's that got to do with anything? Well, because missions are hard, there's a question that comes up a lot. Sometimes it comes from other people who find out about what we do. Many times, it's something we ask ourselves. The question is this:

"Why are you here?"

I've asked it of myself a lot. The first time I asked it was around a year ago, when I found myself sitting on a Cuban man's back patio, sweating like a pig in my suit and struggling to understand his conversation with my companion about the Bible. Throughout my mission, I've kept asking that question, and I've found two answers. One talks about the purpose of missionary work; the other talks about why I'm engaged in it.

So, why am I here?

I'm here because over two thousand years ago, a baby was born in a stable in Bethlehem. That baby grew up and learned of His identity. He was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He came to this earth to fulfill a very specific and special mission. He lived a perfect life. He taught the people His Gospel, or the things that they should do in order to accomplish what God wanted them to do. He performed miracles; he organized His church by calling Twelve Apostles. And, at the end of His life, He carried out the most important event of all time: The Atonement. He suffered for our sins and our pains; he was crucified, and died on the cross. And, after, three days, he resurrected, completing the Atonement, and giving all of us the chance to live the Gospel and become worthy of living in God's presence after this life.

After His resurrection, Christ continued to direct His church through revelation to the Apostles. He commanded them to preach His Gospel over all the face of the earth:

 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the endof the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:18-20)

 But, it was prophesied that this wouldn't last.

As the prophet Amos said:

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." (Amos 8:11-12)

 Even the Apostles in the time of Christ knew that the church would fall before Christ was to return. Paul wrote:

"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;" (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3) 

So, not too long after Christ ascended into heaven, His church had been taken from the earth, and the people were in spiritual darkness. In this time, God didn't give up on His children; He inspired men and women to speak out against practices that were against the original teachings of Jesus Christ. These people made changes, and because of these changes, the world was eventually prepared to receive the Church of Jesus Christ again.

So, in 1820, in the state of New York, there was a 14-year-old boy. He was honest and pure in heart; he just wanted to do what God wanted him to do. But, he felt inadequate. The many different pastors and ministers of religion in the area each claimed to be the true church on the earth. But, as he put it:

"...So great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong."

So, the boy turned to the only religious source he felt he could trust: the Bible itself. He read its pages day after day, and pondered its words in his heart. Eventually, he came to the Epistle of James, and read the following verse:

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." (James 1:5)

The verse struck him deeply. And, we'll use his words to tell what happened next:

 "Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.

 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

 But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (Joseph Smith--History 1:12-17)

The boy, Joseph Smith, had received an answer to his prayer. He was, without a doubt, amazed by what was happening, but he still went on with his question: he asked the two heavenly beings before him which church they would have him join. They responded that none of the churches then established on the earth contained all of what had been revealed previously, so he shouldn't join any of them. They then also told him that he had a work to do, and that he would be called to be a prophet on the earth again, in order to restore their church again on the earth.

I testify that this happened, and that, through Joseph Smith, God and Jesus Christ restored their church to the earth, as well as the complete and perfect Gospel that had been preached anciently. With this great blessing came a great responsibility: the task of sharing this Gospel with the whole world.

"Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor." (D&C 88:81)

And so, nearly 200 years ago, without airplanes, cars, or even trains, missionaries began to go to all nations, teaching the Gospel of faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

So, this is all very nice, but what does it mean for us?

Well, as I talked about last time (you know, the one where I talked a bunch about oatmeal?), the Gospel allows us to become better people, little by little, until we can eventually meet the standards set by our Heavenly Father to return to live with him. And, the only way we can know of the Gospel is through missionary work. Sure, I'm a multi-generational member of the church: my parents are members, as are their parents, and so on and so forth. But, that all started with a missionary preaching to my ancestors, way, way back.

The fact is, we live the Gospel, and we know how it blesses our lives. It's our duty, then, to share that with the world.

And that is why I'm here...

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I know that God lives and loves us. I know that He has always loved His children, and I know that He has given us the Gospel in order to bless us in this life. I know that the sweetest peace that can be felt on this earth comes from living the Gospel and serving others. I know that I've been called to help other people feel as good as I do. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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...But that's not the whole answer to the question. Stay tuned!

-Elder Richmond

Cubans, Astronauts, and Commandments

Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed Conference! Elder Holland was definitely on the soothing side this go around. In general, I thought the conference was fantastic; I received many answers to my questions and felt God's Spirit strongly.

So, as a Spanish missionary here in Florida, I have the amazing opportunity to speak with Hispanic people from all over the world. I've met people from Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Spain, Puerto Rico and Uruguay, to name a few. Here in Jacksonville, I've had the chance to talk to a group of people I've especially grown to love: Cubans.

Before my mission, I didn't know a lot about Cuba or Cubans. I knew that it was in the Caribbean (a map of Cuba here, provided by the LDS church. Which gets its maps from Google), that their cigars were supposedly high quality (not that I'd ever smoke one--The Word of Wisdom (scroll down to find it) says that's not a good idea), and that their Spanish was a bit mumbly and hard to understand.

As I've talked with Cubans, I've found out a few things. For one, their way of speaking is, in fact, a bit hard to understand at first. You get used to it after a while, but there's still a particular man from Havanna that's just about impossible to figure out (we love him anyway). For another, they love to talk. They also love to read. They're very open and relaxed; most are pretty friendly. In general, they're a likeable people.

From recent conversations with some Cuban friends, I've also found out a bit about the actual country of Cuba. They say that the land is beautiful and there are stunning islands all around. But, they're not allowed to go there. In fact, Cubans aren't given free reign over a lot of things, due to the communist government currently in place. For the poorer people, you're told where to go, what to buy at the store, what to do for work. If your scores on scholastic tests aren't high enough, you're required to give military service for two years. Even if you do well in school, it can be hard to get around or even leave the country if you want. Few Cubans I've talked to say they want to go back.

Why does this matter? Well, a conversation with one Cuban in particular got me thinking. We were talking about all the restrictions in Cuba, and somehow the conversation turned to us talking about the missionary rules. The Church is known for its high standards of membership in general, but missionaries are asked to follow even more guidelines. We get up and go to bed early, we don't watch tv or go to the movies, we don't swim, and we only call our families on Christmas and Mothers' Day (not including weekly emails). All of these guidelines have been put in to place to help us better be able to do the work and help other people. However, after sharing some of these standards with our Cuban friend, he sat back and shook his head.

"Wow," he said (translated from Spanish). "I could never do it. After finally leaving all of that behind [he'd just finished describing the rigorous military service], I could never limit myself like that."

Stemming from that conversation, I believe, was the idea for this entry. I was thinking about things while shaving (I get a lot of good thinking done then), and a voice (not my own) came into my head and said:

"Wow, the commandments sure are restrictive, aren't they?"

To which I responded (in my head):

"Maybe they are restrictive. Seatbelts are pretty restrictive too, come to think of it. In fact, when you're in an accident, they tighten up and make it so you can barely move at all."

I then went on,

"Do you know what else is restrictive? Space suits. Astronauts can barely move around in those things."

Satisfied, I kept on with my shaving.

The point here is that the commandments, although they're "restrictive" (which is debatable), are there to help us. Just as seatbelts keep us safe during accidents and space suits keep astronauts secure when they travel to the moon, the commandments keep us safe as we go throughout this life.

The devil's advocate inside of me wasn't done, though.

"Hah! You think you've got it all figured out. Sure, we need things to protect us when we're in danger. But that's just the thing; we're not in danger! You don't need a seatbelt when you're parked in a parking lot! You don't need a space suit if you're just going for a walk on the beach!"

"Well, do you need any kind of protection if you're just walking on the beach?"

"No! You're free! You could even run around--"

I think he was about to suggest that I go running around the beach naked, but I cut him off.

"What about sunburns? What about skin cancer? Even if you're on the beach, you still need protection; you need sunscreen!"

And I think around then I moved on to thinking about other things.

--- --- ---

Taking a step back, the Devil's Advocate is right. There may be many situations where there are seemingly few or no consequences to breaking God's laws. This, I think, is a big reason why so many people don't care. But, just like hanging out on the beach without sunscreen, we'll eventually feel the consequences of our actions. It may not even be in a sunburn the next day (I very rarely get those), but somewhere along the line we are going to realize the damage we have done to our skin by neglecting our sunscreen. Similarly, the effects of sin may not manifest in days, weeks, months, or even years. It's possible we may not even see them in our lifetimes. But, if we continue to willingly disregard counsel from our Loving Heavenly Father (who would never ask us to do something that would limit our happiness), there will come a day when we'll have to stand before Him and realize what we've done.

President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles summed it up nicely (in a great Ensign Article by D. Todd Christofferson on the subject of obedience):

“We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see.”

 We don't follow God's laws because someone's just telling us to; we do it because we have long-term vision, and we know that a brighter future lays in store if we do.

I know that God lives and loves us. I know that He sent us here to earth in order to be happy, and to prove ourselves worthy of returning to live with Him after this life. I know that He didn't want us to fumble blindly, wondering what to do in this life, so He gave us commandments through His prophets. And I know from experience that living according to the commandments blesses us and helps us receive all the happiness Our Father in Heaven intends us to have. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Have a great Sunday (Keep the Sabbath Day Holy)! Keep Moving Forward!

-Elder Richmond

Photo courtesy of LDS.org

111: Love Each Other

Welcome back! My apologies for being a day late. While we plan out every day as a missionary, sometimes even we get thrown curveballs and deviate from our plans in order to help those in need. But, we are all set for today.

I'll start out this portion of 111 with another story, this one much more recent. I was with another missionary, and he asked to borrow some shoe-shining supplies since we were staying in my apartment. I said that was perfectly fine. Using some materials from my kit, and some that a previous missionary had left behind, he shined his shoes. As we were leaving the apartment, I noted that he'd put some of the older missionary's supplies into a bag to take with him. I didn't have a problem with that. However, I also noticed a small buffering cloth in his bag that looked awfully like one of mine. I was a bit suspicious, but didn't jump to any conclusions until I was back at my apartment later, with another missionary. Sure enough, I checked my shoe-shining kit, and one of the cloths was missing.

And that really bugged me.

We'll come back to the story later.

So, going back to the original post, the second great commandment that Jesus taught us is that we love our neighbors (i.e. everyone around us) as we love ourselves. For some people, we find that very easy. For others, we find that very hard. They hurt us with their words and actions. They stress us out. In a perfect world (not this one), everyone would treat each other with love and kindness, and hurt feelings would not exist. That world, though, won't come for a while (although it will eventually come). In the meantime, we need to learn how we can keep living with people we'd rather not have anything to do with.

First, we need to understand that nobody is perfect. To bring back the scripture from last time, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Due to a lack of knowledge or understanding, or perhaps even because of malicious intentions, people are going to end up hurting us. So what do we do? Do we mourn our social injuries, constantly bringing back the hurt we've felt? Do we get angry, despising the person at fault?

Let's use a metaphor. Say you see a rosebush, and you stop to admire the flowers. As you go to touch the blossoms, though, a thorn pricks your thumb and sticks in it. What do you do? Do you stare at the wound, tears in your eyes, wishing for the pure, unhurt thumb you had before? Do you spitefully leave the thorn in the wound, using the pain to fuel your plans to take a chainsaw to the bush?

Or do you calmly take out the thorn, step inside to get a bandage, treat the hurt, and go back to looking at flowers?

We firstly can't wallow in self-pity, longing for the happy selves we were before we were hurt. Some people believe that the world would be better if nothing bad ever happened to us at all. We know, though, through the Book of Mormon, that pain and trials are part of this life, and they help us grow (See 2 Nephi 2:27). We also shouldn't let the offending words and actions become the focus of our lives. The wound will never heal if we refuse to take out the thorn, and we shouldn't get angry at the imperfect nature of the thornbush for hurting us.

What we should do is forgive. Recognize that nobody is perfect, and be willing to move on and keep associating with those who have harmed us. As we do so, we find that we are free, that we don't let the words or actions of others define us. As stated by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, "We do matter. We determine our happiness. You and I are ultimately in charge of our own happiness" (See, "Of Regrets and Resolutions").

As well, God has commanded us to forgive, or to be merciful. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:7: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." He demonstrated this principle in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (see Matthew 18:21-35). In short, since we all depend on God for mercy (as discussed last time), we must also be ready and willing to extend mercy to all of those around us, be they friend or foe.

I know this is a bit hard to swallow. But, as in my story about the shoe cloth, I've obsessed over the actions of another person, and it just doesn't make me feel good. There have been other circumstances as well, in which I've become so focused on what another person has done or said that it becomes hard for me to think of anything else. But I've found freedom and happiness through letting these things go. It is hard; I've prayed for a lot of strength at times to do this. But, in the end, the past is the past. A shoe cloth is just a shoe cloth, and we'll all feel a lot happier when we're willing to let it go.

I know that God lives and loves us. I know he wants to forgive us, and he wants us to forgive others. I know that as we do these things, a greater light and happiness will enter into our lives. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well, just one more installment of 111! See you there next week (and hopefully on time)!

-Elder Richmond