Oct. 21: Humility

Dear Friends and Family,

Firstly, I thought I'd remind you that Elder Ballard (who I'm seeing this Saturday :) invited every member to have someone taught by the missionaries by Christmas. EVERY MEMBER. Pray for it, and if you don't know how to invite, ask the missionaries. They know how to help.

So, for the area. We have a baptism this week! Sister Fournier is getting baptized, so she, her husband, and her two kids will all be baptized, and one day be able to go to the temple and be sealed together. Families are the best. :) While I really didn't put much work into it, I'm excited for it, either way. I never saw baptisms as that big of a deal before my mission. It was just such a regular thing, that I never thought much of it. But... I realize now, how incredibly important they are now. What Baptism, REALLY is. It's not just something all the kids do at 8 years old. It's a covenant with God, and it's the only way we can make it back to God again. The only way. 

I have seen often how humility changes us. And how some people don't change because they refuse to be humble. I had to define humility to a ten year old boy yesterday, and it eventually came out something like this. "Humility is being willing to not do what you want, but to do what God wants you to do." Of course that's a religious definition, but there are SO many little things that we refuse to humble ourselves about. We refuse to forgive someone, or we don't want to give up some of our personal time to help another, or we simply don't pay enough attention to the lesson in church, because we're checking sports scores. We all know what God wants. We just sometimes ignore it. Pretend like we're doing fine. When of course, there's something we can do better. 

Remember, that just because something might not necessarily be a sin, (God will judge that) The Lord might not want us doing something. I just talked without a couple of teenagers, about the rules of dating as well. They both want to push the limits. Obviously, for example, dating only one person in high school isn't breaking any commandments. But... In all honesty, you're generally wasting your time. There are many people you can date, and if you're planning on going on a mission, or getting married AFTER high school, then you shouldn't be looking for someone to marry during high school. And God doesn't want us to waste our time.

Enough of my rambling. I invite all of you to quit doing one thing, that God doesn't want you to do, for 40 days. Whether its drinking soda (water is better for you) checking up on the sports scores during church (there's something better you can learn) or something a tad bit more serious, like doing your home/visiting teaching this month. All of it. I promise you'll feel, and see the Spirit stronger in your life. We all need it.

Love,

Elder Grant