This week has felt like a whole transfer in and of itself! We are meeting with a man named Craig who wants to 'convince' himself that what we claim about the apostasy through the bible. Which is possible but when we would show him scriptures he wouldn't see the relation because he had grown up with the apostasy scriptures referring to the state of personal apostasy taken upon us due to Adam and Eve. Scriptures are so open to interpretation which is great that we can receive varying personal revelation from the same scripture. But to base your entire belief, testimony, and EVERYTHING upon how you, or even worse your pastor, interprets a scripture. There's no order in that. All week I've been frustrated with this question because to me its so simple and makes sense. But its not like that for Craig. So I've been studying my brains out trying to help him see the pattern of Prophets and how they have been so crucial to the organization and maintenance of the church.
In the end I don't know how helpful I'll be for Craig but I have really come to understand the organization of the church, and how crucial each appendage is. I kept thinking "Man I'm so unlucky to have to deal with Craig who dissects every scripture we ever share and always has conflicting ideas. But its not like that. 1. How lucky I am that I have this 'tough' time which has made me strengthen my understanding of the gospel. And 2. I guess it never occurred to me how hard this may be on Craig. He will be such a strong member and have such a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ when he is able to act on his faith and receive a personal witness from the spirit that can help him understand the scriptures.
I am SO grateful for the hard times we have. I always have heard to pray for the strength to handle our trials not trials that are at the level of our strength. We wouldnt grow if it werent like that. Someone in sacrament meeting said something really interesting on the topic. He said that Satan does want us to feel. Because if we felt the guilt from sin, or remorse from mistakes we would want to change. And with change usually comes improvement. Im convinced Satan would love to "help" us to never ever have a problem in our lives. Because the problems we have make us improve.
This talk has really helped me this week.
I love you all! I'm so grateful for every bit of help I've receive. I pray for you and wish we all may turn to Christ in our times of need.
Elder Wilson
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