Hey Everybody!
I hope you all had a
good General Conference! I know I did. I loved the speakers that were there,
they all gave great talks. They answered a lot of the questions that I had
which is why it was such a good conference for me. This is why the gospel is so
amazing, we get to listen to the prophet and apostles who receive revelation
for us every six months! Who else can say that?? I love Conference because it's
always a revelatory experience for me of how I can improve and what I can do
better. This one was especially special because it's number 4 of 4. Yep, my
last Conference of the mission. Man, I remember sitting in the Mexico MTC
watching my very first Conference of the mission, thinking "wow I still
have 3 more conferences after this." Well, they're all done now! Now I'm
more determined than ever to make the last 4 months that I have some of the
greatest on my mission.
We ended up watching
conference in almost all Recent Converts homes. The session on Saturday we
watched with Pedro, the guy that got baptized 4 weeks ago, where he is living.
Then Sunday morning in the church, and Sunday afternoon with Luis and Kathy,
the family that got baptized last week. So this was a great weekend.
Some other stuff that
happened this week is that is official Fall! No more hot weather! It's been so
nice lately with the changing of the seasons. The last week has been almost
nonstop clouds and rain. But the past two day have been sitting at a nice
mid-70 degrees. We had a pretty huge rainstorm on Wednesday where we literally couldn't
even get to our car without getting drenched. So one brave elder sacrificed
himself to bring the cars to us!
We also recorded the whole adventure
of trying to get the cars off of the patio of the church which was super funny.
It was raining so hard, haha!
Let's see here, something I've been
studying a lot about lately has been the Savior. I wanted to know exactly how
the atonement works and applies to everyone even when people don't want to live
the way God has commanded and still think they will be saved. Well, Alma 42
summed that up really nicely. Basically, the atonement is there for us to apply
mercy, so that way God is a merciful God. But he can't be that way with
everyone because he still needs to be a just God. So how do the two co-exist?
Well, it's through the atonement. Because of the atonement Jesus has already
suffered for our sins and all we need to do is ask for forgiveness. It's
readily available because the price has already been paid! But then there are
the people who are too proud to repent, thinking that God will save them no matter
what. Doesn't work that way! We have to live according to the rules and
guideline he has placed for us, and if we don't, then we are denying ourselves
the blessings and overall salvation. So don't go through this life thinking
that God will save us anyways, or that we can just repent later. What happened
in the parable of the 10 Virgins? 5 were ready to meet the bridegroom, 5 were
not. These 10 virgins each apply to us as Latter Day Saints. Some saints will
be ready for the Second Coming, others will not be because they haven't been
living in accordance to all of God’s commandments. Not everyone will be placed
into the celestial kingdom, we have to do our part in order to earn our
salvation. It's such a simple idea but such a complex process. What we need to
do as Latter Day Saints is live ALL of Gods commandments. Only by that can we
be happy. And God is there to help us along the way! He wants us to succeed! He
wants to bless our lives. We just have to trust in him and his plan and use the
atonement to better our own lives.
Well, that's what I've learned over
the past 19 months. There's my rant because I'm tired of seeing people who say
they believe in God and Jesus Christ but literally do nothing and think grace
will save them in the end. Doesn't work that way.
What brings this up is that we've
been doing pretty much non-stop finding this past week. We kinda accidentally
baptized all of our investigators so now we have no one to teach. Weird situation,
I know. First time I've come across it in my mission actually, but that's a
story for another day.
Love you guys and pray for us to
find more people to teach and that we can receive miracles!
From
Elder Biehn
