Pencils

We were over at the house of one of our friends.  Edgar and Karen are some of the strongest members in our little congregation here in Wilmington.  We had gone over to help them with some translation work, making sure that they had some paperwork in order.  They invited us to stay over for lunch, a nice rice-beans-and-chicken combo.  (Sometimes, I suspect that they ask us to do chores as an excuse to get us over there.)  While we were there, we got to talking about life, and hwat we have to do, and especially what we as missionaries can do better.  He got to talking about how we should use examples for everything we teach, and back it up with scriptures.

One of the examples that he gave us is really good.  Edgar talked to us, and asked wheter we have faith.  Of course, we said yes.  Then, he pulled a pencil from his pocket and asked a question.  "Says in the Bible that with faith, you can move mountains.  Can your faith move this pencil from this hand to the other?"

Well, my companion sat there grunting and thinking about it for a while, and admitted that he could not.  I had seen the example before and so knew the answer.  Reaching for the pencil in his hand, I transferred it to the other hand.

"Exactly."

Just like it says in James chapter 2,

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. ~James 2:14-24

If we will show God our faith by doing what he says, we will see miracles in our lives.  We will have eternal life, and nothing that Satan throws at us will be able to bring us down.

Beware of Pride

Life in Wilmington has gotten a bit interesting of late.  Monday, as we were doing E-mails home to our family, two elders walked into the library and told us that they were going to be our roommates for three weeks.  Elder Lake and Elder Kerouac are both excellent missionaries, which was why it felt a bit like President Schaefermeyer was putting them in to fix the area.  Kind of like having the KGB live in your house.

As expected, it didn't take long for stuff to start happening.  Thursday, Elder Kerouac criticized Elder Bingham quite severely for having music he didn't approve of on his IPod.  I wound up playing counselor to both of them, trying to help each understand the other.  It was good practice, since I want to become a psychologist after my mission.  Elder Bingham only wanted to be left alone, but didn't really feel that he was able to do so while being under what he felt was the constant scrutiny of Elder Kerouac.  Elder Kerouac didn't want to leave him alone, since that would mean leaving a source of contention in the house.

As I saw it, it all stemmed from pride.  Really, there's one talk that I simply love.  It's one that Ezra Taft Benson gave a while ago, called Beware of Pride.  In it, he explains how pride is essentially a power struggle between ourselves and somebody else.  Pride says, "If you win, I am a failure."  In another way, pride refuses to change, because that would imply past failure.  Sin is essentially our pride against God's wisdom. 

I remember reading a story of a janitor in a Nuclear facility.  In this facility, scientists accelerated molecules almost to the speed of light and colided the molecules together to study the result.  A janitor walked in on an experiment and shouted, "I knew it!  Y'all are getting paid a lot of money to do NOTHING!"

A lot like that, we often shout at God that he doesn't know what he's doing.  Even if we do not express this thought as such, by our actions we show that we don't believe God.  We don't believe in his promises.  We don't believe that Christ can help us.

Let's change that, and next time somebody comes to you and offends you, forgive him.  Let go and let God.

Why did it have to be snakes?

So, who here hasn't seen this movie?  If you haven't, I highly recommend that you crawl out from under the rock and get yourself to a Blockbuster.  It's taken from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, my personal favorite Indiana Jones movie.  Steven Spielberg in his prime.  We won't go into the monstrosity that is the Crystal Skull.  I mean, come on.  Aliens?  What's more, he's still fighting Nazis twenty years later?

Anyway.

In this movie, Indy finds himself in a bit of a pickle.  He's looking for the Holy Grail, a cup that supposedly gives eternal life to he who drinks of it.  However, the Nazis have shot his father, and sent him in to try to beat the trials guarding the grail.  He's beat two of three, and that's when this clip starts.  His father's notebook gives him an impossible task: leap the gorge.

"It's a leap of faith," Indy mutters.

That's kind of what we have to deal with in our own lives.  I've seen it so often.  How can I possibly pay tithing?  I don't have much money, so I have the choice between paying tithing or buying food.  I remember one time, I paid what the Lord asked, and found a twenty dollar bill when I went to give the money to the Bishop.  I know that God makes a way to do what he asks.

We come to a place where we don't know what to do.  We've gone as far as we know how to do, and come to a wall of darkness.  We hear a voice that says, "There's light on the other side of this darkness. Come."

May we all leap, and trust in God.

Thoughts

I was considering putting a picture of Achmed the Dead Terrorist here, but I decided it would probably be in bad taste.  Aw, what the heck.  Because, you know there's nothing as good as bad jokes the day after something big happens.  Besides, I'm probably not even the first to have that idea.

It's kind of worrying what all is going to happen in the United States as a result of all this.  We will most likely be the target of international criticism.  However, we have struck a critical blow against Al'Qaeda; they are demoralized by the loss of their leader, and we've also obtained a lot of information about them.  It will be interesting to see just how things turn out with this.

It would be really easy to let all this slide.  After all, as missionaries we do not have much contact with the outside world.  We stay focused on our area and on teaching the gospel to people.  Life is very simple as a missionary; no TV, no newspapers, very limited internet.

Then, it turns out that we aren't so isolated after all.  We went over to Golden Corral for lunch yesterday.  Every single TV in the entire place was tuned to CNN, talking about just what went down.  It was amazing.  There are pictures of people celebrating all over the place, making pilgrimages to Ground Zero in New York, the Pentagon, the place where the other plane went down, all triggered by the death of a terrorist.

I have a mixed bag of feelings.  There's a quote by Martin Luther King jr, that says that hate cannot replace hate, nor darkness light.  While it is good that he is dead, to prevent any future damage, and that we have all this information not previously available, he's still dead.  Not much change going on.  Now, once Al'Qaeda regroups, they will attack with renewed fervor.

It would be really easy to retreat now; to go back into my shell of isolation where I knew what the heck was going on.  However, that's not really an option.  We need to go forward with faith.  Really, that's all I need.  I know that as long as I'm doing what I need to do, God will do his part.  Because with faith,