Tacloban Phillipines Mission August 2019- August 2021: 3-8-2020

MAY I SEE YOUR ID and LAMANITE ARMIES

Ladies and gentlemen I am back and better than ever. Sorry I didn't have time to send a weekly last week. This week was a roller coaster for sure.

So I found out last week I did a baptism wrong, when I asked the sister's middle name she replied with the first letter of her middle name not the full middle name so I got to redo that over again this last Saturday. The baptism is not correct if the full name isn't used. Right as I was about to pat myself on the back for fixing the problem I had created I got hit with another problem. When we explained to our family that we recently baptized why the other sister had to be rebaptized it came out that their daughter had a middle name that was not provided at the time we did the paperwork or at the time when I asked her full name. I was calmly explaining why I had to rebaptize the other sister this last Saturday when the dad said to us, "ohhhhh I get it, it is the same as if you had baptized sister Jannah (their daughter) by the name Jannah Antonette Basibas instead of the correct name Jannah Antonette Asebias Basibas." At this point my heart stopped, I swallowed my tongue and pretty much wanted to keel over and die right there. I let out a long groaning NOOOOOOOO. Than I said well we will have to do that again as well. So the moral of this story is that I will ask from now on, "MAY I SEE YOUR ID" so that I don't make any more mistakes. The good thing is that I can at least learn from this mistake and not make it in the future. Although missionaries and members alike are not perfect what is important to remember is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect.

Spiritual thought: WE CAN ONLY DEFEAT OUR PERSONAL LAMANITE ARMIES WITH STRENGTH FROM GOD.

Today I was reading in Alma2 and 3 and I noticed it talked about the nephites defeating ANOTHER lamanite army.

The Nephites defeat another Lamanite army.

at times in our lives we will have Lamanite armies to defeat, we will have lamanite armies to defeat, at times our lamanites and amlicites or our OBSTACLES and CHALLENGES metaphorically speaking will be as ^anumerous almost, as it were, as the sands of the sea, came upon them to destroy them. - C2, Verse 27. At times we may think that our trials outnumber us 10 to 1. You may feel you do not have enough strength to overcome your trials. That is why we have something that Elder Bednar calls "THE ENABLING POWER OF THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST"

Elder Bednar's "Strength of the Lord" helps us understand how to overcome our trials that outnumber us with the atonement of Jesus Christ.

As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who “act” rather than objects that are “acted upon."- Elder Bednar

In this talk Elder Bednar talks about praying not that our "circumstances will be magically changed" but that "we will be given strength to change our circumstances"

That is the enabling power of the atonement, that is how we can use it to overcome the obstacles that seem to numerous to defeat.

In the very next verse of Alma 2:28 the nephites do not pray that they will magically defeat the army of lamanites and amlicites but that they may be given strength from the lord to defeat them.

28 Nevertheless, the Nephites being ^astrengthened by the hand of the Lord, having prayed mightily to him that he would deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, therefore the Lord did hear their cries, and did strengthen them, and the Lamanites and the Amlicites did fall before them.

As we pray for the strength from the lord and use this enabling power of the atonement our metaphorical Lamanites and Amlicites will fall before us.

You will receive strength from the Lord that you will be able to overcome your challenges.

Love ya'll!

Tribute to Durango. A sea rock cairn.