If anyone is feeling sad, stop. Forget about yourself. The only times we really are sad are when we're thinking about ourselves.
When we focus on others, that's when happiness comes. Everything is a choice. Literally. Everything.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!!


I'm so grateful today for so many things. First of all, big thank you to those of you who have supported me, it's been so wonderful. Thank you grandma and grandpa for the donuts, Becca for the dr. pepper, and mom and dad for the pie and pep. It has been such a great week for me, I am so blessed. 

I've heard devotionals from three different apostles this week, two of which were broadcast live from Provo. Elder Holland spoke about being a preach my gospel missionary, and he got pretty fiery. I learned so much from all of these devotionals, but I'm just gonna give you a couple main points for sake of time. Elder Holland said that we need to be converted before we can hope that our investigators will be converted, and he boiled everything we do down to "Do we love Christ?" If we truly love Christ, then we will feed his sheep, and do everything we can in our power to do so. He then asked us to decide tonight if we are on a course that leads to Christ, and if we are not, CHANGE COURSE. I challenge you all to do the same. 

The first live devo from Provo was Elder Oaks, and he talked missions and expectations. We can't expect anything except to serve Christ. We do not think we are better than others who belong to other churches, but our church is the only one that can bring salvation. Then to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, we need to be in working condition (healthy) and willing to do his work, not our own. It was a great talk.

Then today we had a Thanksgiving Devotional by Elder Bednar, and he seriously is amazing. It was the coolest thing ever. Him and his wife basically did a Q&A session with all the MTC's around the world through email and texting. People would ask questions and he would answer them or have his wife talk a bit about it, it was seriously one of the most spiritual meetings of my life, and I am so thankful for it. 

One of the two main points I learned though is that agency isn't the ability to choose disobedience to our covenants or to follow them, it's to choose whether or not we accept the gospel, and once we have we have to obey our covenants, otherwise we're just breaking a covenant when we disobey. Sin is selfish, and looks inward toward you, not towards others. We need to learn to love others more than ourselves. The other point was that you don't receive a witness until after the trial of your faith. I don't know if that has happened for me or not, but I guess we'll find out over the next couple years. 

Another cool thing is that I learned how to meditate for reals this week. An elder in my zone used to be Buddhist, so he taught a bunch of us how to meditate the proper way. It was pretty cool. 

Anyways, thats most of it for me this week. One of the pictures is of me just about 15 mins ago with all the packages I've received this week on my bed, and the another was the Thanksgiving Lunch we had at the CCM. I seriously am so thankful for all of you. I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, I am thankful for my family and friends, and I am so very thankful to be serving a mission. Write again soon! 

Elder Packer



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