Elder Bunn and I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon. It was a really fun time, although our schedules were a little bizzare because we had to go up the the mission office for president interviews and had to take a trip to my area Tuesday night to teach a lesson. It was pretty cool to see other styles of missionary work though. Plus their area had a really nice 7-Eleven we got to study at! I wish I had taken a picture or something. Honestly, it had this second floor area that was kind of a loft balcony overlooking the rest of the store, and it was furnished like a nice room on the Titanic or something.
Other stuff, on morning Saturday we went up to the Chapel by the Temple to play basketball for exercise time, and on the MRT (subway) on the way back we were getting this guy's LINE (that's the messaging app everyone uses here. It's really fun to say "I'll message so and so on LINE", [say it out loud]), but this guy was taking a while to get the QR code to scan. We arrived at our stop and the doors started to close and Elder Bunn finally gets the guy's LINE and just dives for the doors. but the Guy we were talking to gets in the way and then turns and grabs Elder Bunn by the backpack. So we missed our stop. I mean, I wasn't even trying to get out the door, so I would have been left on the train anyways. Not sure what I would have done if Elder Bunn got out and left me there. But Luckily we were kept together and eventually got back on the train going the other way to get back to our stop. pretty interesting start to the day.
We also met this other guy on the street the other day who is really into the Rocky Mountains and got really excited when Elder Bunn said he was from Utah. It was pretty funny because he was way into America and said he wants to move to Montana because it is the Land of Big Sky or something. He says, "Taiwan is my country but it is too small." It was hilarious but we are set up to teach him later so it worked out!
One good spiritual thought that has come up a few times this week is about a concept called "Divine Discontent." I think it comes from a talk or something I'm not sure, but President Peterson has mentioned it a few times in conferences and mission emails. Anyways, basically its something along the lines of being disasitified with your current state of being, not because you are being negative or critical about yourself, but because you know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ you can become more like God and the Savior. I think it's kind of related to Humility and turning your will over to God. I don't really have all my thoughts put together about it just yet but it's kind of a fun concept to ponder on!
Dad- I really like your thoughts on not gambling and not wearing masks ... Its really interesting that when it comes down to it, it seems like the difference between Satan's plan and Heavenly Father plan is that Satan wanted to ignore responsibility. I mean pretty much every sin is just avoiding responsibility in one way or another. That's why confession is important, because it is taking responsibility for our actions.
This brings me to one thought I have been mulling about for a lot of my mission, about agency and the mind. You know we always do object lessons with the primary kids and stuff about the body and the spirit where the body is a glove that is dead and useless without the hand (or spirit)? I think this is a little to simple and not totally accurate. The mind can't simply be the Spirit because that doesnt explain how we can have unrighteous thoughts because our spirit doesn't desire wickedness right? I think the body has its own will ( natural man) and the spirit has its righteous will. Then the mind is kind of where those two wills come together and we need to choose within ourselves to follow the will of the Spirit over the will of the body. I mean if bodies were just lifeless flesh suits, why would we need to come to mortlity to learn how to use one?
Probably my favorite talk in Conference this year was "Choose you This Day," by Elder Dale G. Renlund. I loved his opening about Mary Poppins and especially this part:
"Our Heavenly Father's goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like him. If He simply wanted us to be obedient, He would use immediate rewards and punishments to influence out behaviors. but God is not interested in His chilren just becoming trained and obedient "pets" who will not chew on his slipper in the Celestial living room. No, God wants his children to grow up spiritually and join him in the family business."
What a great way to summarize the importance of agency and the the end goal of the Plan of Slavation!
Hope you all have a great week!
Elder Neilson
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