Bring it on!!

So, for the mission splitting, it is already under way. The mission home is now in Bismark, I know a few Elders that got transferred to the Omaha mission, so I think it's happening as we speak! Don't know if it is finalized now or if they will continue to move missionaries till the mission office is moved to Bismark (that'll be in july I think?) But we'll see! Hopefully I get transferred to the Billings, Montana mission so that Garian and I can jam out! Well, it's a bit far fetched, but not impossible!!

This has been a super good week! Had a great experience teaching J the Restoration! We taught it to him, and he seemed to agree with it all, than at the end we asked him how important it would be to come to know that what we taught is true, and he said "you know guys, I'm not gonna lie to you, but I don't take mans word for anything. If God wants me to know something, God will let me know. Now, if I thought you guys were gonna teach me anything but the truth, you wouldn't be here right now, but God already told me to listen to you cause you have the truth." So, J is doing swell! We didn't get to meet with the L's this week. G got called into work. Our lesson with Je went super well! The Spirit was super strong as the 3 of us (Sis. L came with us to the lesson) bore testimony of the truth of the BoM and how important it is to know that it is true, and we'll see where that goes this next week!  well, on a less good note, we haven't heard anything from D, and we've heard very little from L, because they both have crazy work schedules....

Friday we were in our street clothes all day! We started the day off by helping a new member move in, and once we finished that we helped another member move 3 tons of concrete (by hand, by the way. I'm hurting still....) to the dump, than we helped an investigator named M sand his wood floors! It was a good day, super good!

So, there is a lady that the Sisters are teaching who was excommunicated from the church a long time ago, and she stopped coming for a while. Her 16 year old son has been active for a while now, and she started coming to church again. She has realized how badly she needs this gospel back in her life, and she has been working super hard to get back into the church, and, as usual, Satan has been trying super hard to keep her from doing so. Her husband is a former preacher of another church, and he has been loading her full of anti-literature, but every time he does, she throws it back at him (in a metaphorical sense) and shows to him that it is Biblical, that his church should be practicing that too, but they don't. For the past while this has been going on, and when she made the decision to be baptized, she said that she knew the devil was going to throw a lot at her, and she said out loud "Bring it on!! The harder you try, the harder I push back and the more I realize that this is the truth! Hit me with your best shot, and I'll dish it back! Try me, I dare you!" this Sunday (mothers day) she is going to be baptized by her son. She has been such a great example of faith in the face of trials. Trusting God no matter what comes her way. Casting aside worldly fear and letting her love for her Father in Heaven and His son, Jesus Christ, be her guide and her support. Showing how when we rely on the Savior, he will make our stumbling blocks become stepping stones, so that we can grow and become more like Him.

Many people have asked (I have probably already brought this up in the past) why God lets bad things happen to good people. Why he heals some and not others, why some die while others live, yet we have the audacity to call him a loving Father. What kind of Father lets bad things happen to his children? Pres. Spencer W. Kimball answered that very question by saying "If all the sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled, and the basic principle of the Gospel, free agency, would be ended." As I said a few weeks ago, our purpose is to grow. The Plan of Salvation makes that very clear. Brad Wilcox in a BYU address called "His Grace is Sufficient", said this. "Heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be heavenly... As I come to a better understanding of the Plan of Redemption, then the more I realize, in the Final Judgement it will not be the unrepentant sinner begging Jesus "let me stay, let me stay." No. He will probably be saying "Get. Me. Out of here." Knowing Christs Character, if anyone is oging to be begging on that occasion, it will be Jesus, begging the unrepentant sinner "Please. Choose to stay. Please, use my Atonement. Not just to be cleansed, but to be changed so that you want to stay."

"The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home, but that, miraculously, we can feel at home there." Earlier, in the same address, he said that the purpose of Grace is change. "Jesus doesn't make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps, it is about filling us....  No unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God. But no unchanged thing will even want to."

Well, since I've already started using a bunch of quotes, might as well keep going! here are some of the ones I've found!

"Wisdom comes through effort. All good things require effort.  That which is worth having will cost part of your physical being, your intellectual power, and your soul power. 'Ask and ye shall recieve, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' But you have to seek. You have to knock... Evil seeks you and it requires effort and fortitude to combat it.  But truth and wisdom are gained only by seeking, by prayer, and by effort." - Pres. Spencer W. Kimball

"In urging us to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect, Jesus was not taunting or teasing us.  He was telling us a powerful truth about our possibilities and about our potential... Jesus, who could not lie, sought to beckon us to move further along the pathway to perfection." - See above

"Temper tantrums are not cute, even in children. They are despicable in adults, especially adults that are supposed to love each other." - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"Think the best of each other, especially of those you say you love.  Assume the good, and doubt the bad." - see above

"Our faith must not be difficult to detect.  yes, in that Great and final hour, if we say we are believers, than we surely better be demonstrating it." - J. Ruben Clark

When a man accused the Prophet Joseph Smith of seeking power, he responded "In relation to the power over the minds of mankind which I hold, I would say, it is in consequence of the power of truth in the doctrines which I have been an instrument in the hands of God of presenting unto them, and not because of any compulsion on my part... I ask, did I ever exercise any compulsion over any man? Did I not give him the liberty of disbelieving any doctrine I have preached, if he saw fit? Why do not my enemies strike a blow at the doctrine? They cannot do it: it is truth, and I defy all men to upset it." - Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 284

A man in the legislature asked the Prophet Joseph how he governed so many people and maintained such perfect order, "remarking at the same time that it was impossible for them to do it anywhere else, Mr. Smith remarked that it was very easy to do that. 'How?' responded the gentlemen: 'to us it is very difficult.' Mr. Smith replied, 'I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.'" - see above

"Profanity... is an evidence of poverty of intellect, and... of vocabulary." - Elder Hugh B. Brown

Well, now that you are overloaded with quotes, I best be going. Love you all!

Elder Carter