Past Feeling

Hey! Things are going great!
Elder Garner is still getting used to biking on the ice, he's fallen quite a number of times. Haha. Me? I'm pro by now; I haven't fallen this winter yet. (Knock on wood) I'll buy the mitts out here; there are some good places to find them.

My thanksgiving was great! I'm so sick of pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes though! I swear I had them coming out my ears!

Elder Garner and I are really just trying to find people to teach. I have been saying that for the last few months, but it's been slow. It makes me wonder at times if I am involving the Lord enough in our finding, asking Him where we should go. But when I do pray, I don't feel anything, so I take that as He trusts us where to go. So I almost feel like a catch 22 sometimes, but I guess we gotta keep chuggin’ forward.

As far as the "feelings,” I like that quote from Brigham Young. It's so true. It makes me think that perhaps the people that I am teaching or have run across are just closed to the spirit, the "past feeling" that's talked about in the scriptures. It makes me sad though that people have gotten that insensitive, trusting their own wisdom and their own learning. I had one guy this week tell us that we weren't going to make it to heaven. It hurts! It hurts because of what they are missing out on. This is a quote I found by Jeffrey R. Holland that I love. I sent it to Cam today.

"I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. Why would we believe, why would we think, that it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? In turn, how could we bear any moving, lasting testimony of the Atonement if we have never known of felt something of such an experience? As missionaries, we are proud to say that we are disciples of Christ-- and we are. But mark my word. That means you must be prepared to walk something of the path that He walked, to feel something of the pain that He felt, to at least occasionally sometime during your mission shed one of the tears of sorrow that He shed.

Now please do not misunderstand... I'm not saying that we experience anything near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and frankly, sacrilegious. But I believe that [everyone] to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to come to repentance, to know something of the price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price-- it will only be a token, but I believe it has to be paid.

I don't believe missionary work has ever been easy nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness in the church is. I believe it is supposed to require something of the soul. So if [you] wonder why it isn't easy, [you] should remember [you] are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot better asked that a long time ago... When [you] struggle, when [you] are rejected, when [you] are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, [you] are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect missionary that ever lived."

This has given me a new outlook on missionary work. Nothing worthwhile was ever meant to be easy. But it is achievable, and the Atonement is how we can accomplish all things.

Tell Uncle Max and Aunt Melissa I say hi! That's about all I have to say for now.

Love you all,
ELDER BROOKS