Week 4

This week has been super good though nothing too out of the ordinary. The Nashville Tribute Band came and played in the Sunday devotional and they weren't really my thing but they sang quite a few songs about the Restoration of the Gospel and about Joseph Smith so that was neat. Elder Echo Hawk of the 70 and his wife came and spoke to us on Tuesday and they spoke about how good enough IS NOT good enough, especially in the gospel. The people that often times think they are 'good enough' are the ones that fall away from the church and lose their faith. As we learn in Alma, faith is active and requires growth. We have to plant the seed of faith, let it grow, and if it's a good seed we continue to grow it and nourish it until it's a beautiful tree of faith. Good enough doesn't continue to nourish that faith because it thinks that we are good enough! There's no simpler way to explain this true and eternal principle that faith and conversion are active and constantly need to be nourished! If it's not, then it will be lost forever, only to have to be replanted and regrown all over again. It's SO much easier just to nourish it a little here and a little there until one day you have a great tree of faith. 

This week our teacher Panginaban Sensei talked to us about receiving Divine Implicit Swagger. This swagger is when no matter what is going on in your life you are 120% sure that Christ has your back and will help you and guide you and comfort you to the point where you essentially forsake your own will to God because your will has transformed into God's. By doing so you will have Christ's spirit with you always and you'll know "all things which ye should do". This Divine Implicit Swagger shows in your demeanour and choices you make and ultimately, if you're truly doing God's will, you are helping others to receive this internalized conversion and knowledge and be able to go through the temple and make covenants with God and endure to the end until the day that He comes again, and like Paul said "I have kept the course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is a crown of righteousness laid for me" or something like that. Paul is the purest definition of Divine Implicit Swagger. 

Last week we had a sad moment. Maxwell Chourou went to the hospital and found out he had a completely torn ACL and had to fly back to Ohio on Saturday for surgery. He'll be able to study Nihongo at home and hopefully when he comes back in two to three months he will be here for two weeks, but he definitely will end up going to Japan. What a trooper! It's better to find out here than in Japan because they would have just reassigned him stateside if he found out it was completely torn there. 

I made some eternal gospel goals this week and wrote them down and laminated it to carry with me everywhere. The overarching goal is not just to reach heaven and be okay with that. I want to be LIKE Christ. I want to be there next to Him and receive EVERYTHING the Father has to offer me, like we are promised in the scriptures and especially the Doctrine and Covenants. I don't just want to receive eternal life, I want to be next to God himself and have that crown of righteousness Paul spoke about given to me. That's what matters. And I'm going to help and aid everybody I can to receive the same. Why would anyone settle for less? In order to help people I teach receive everything the Father has to offer, I made it one of my goals to go through the temple and/or be there when they get sealed to their family for time and all eternity at some point during my life and as I wrote that down I was overcome by the spirit and just felt a very powerful impression from God that I would be able to do that and that this is truly His work and His glory. 

I love it here so much and I'm excited that I've seen pretty much half of the kids from Timpanogos here at some point. I love all of you so much, I can't even begin to explain!

Pics: Pushup Party from Monday Night. Family Home Evening if you will.

 

Me and Sherman Chourou and Colton Chourou, aka the Tool Squad. Colton is going to West Point and is one of the best men I've ever met!