Chapter 54: The Plan of Salvation

7/6/2021

Today was a really busy day for us. We had a lot of meetings today. We had our District Council which I really enjoyed because Elder Rindlisbacher and I are the oldest ones there, and so we get to look really wise (even though we really aren’t) and pass on all the tips and knowledge we’ve learned to the new missionaries. We also got to have our departing interviews with President Rees today, so I got to finally sit down with him for a good amount of time and talk to him. That was definitely the best interview I’ve ever had with him. When we started he asked if there was anything that I wanted to know, and I’m sure my eyes got real big as I asked in disbelief, “anything?” President Rees smiled as he nodded and said, “anything.” So needless to say I really enjoyed our interview.

7/7/2021

Today we got to help out at a service that was unusual: We got to help a farmer with the process of thinning his apple orchard. The farmer hadn’t been able to get any help, and we only had about an hour, but we were able to make a pretty sizeable dent in the orchard between the three of us. We also went to pick up our Tacoma from the shop today, and it was in great condition, except that there seemed to be a malfunction between the car’s computer and the Mission’s computer tracking system in the car. The system gives us feedback on how we’re driving, and it was acting hypersensitive. It told me I was driving aggressively 20 times (we counted, it was comical). Getting two “aggressive” warnings is considered a felony in our mission, so we were a little nervous when we called our vehicle coordinator to tell him that the car was overreacting to our driving.

7/8/2021

Today Elder Aguirre and I went on exchanges with Elder Hicks. We had a lot of lessons, and it was pretty cool to see Elder Hicks’ teaching style. It’s interesting to see that you never get to a point where you stop learning about being a missionary, working with new people always brings surprises, and today was no exception. We also got to see just how much our members love us today, it seemed like every lesson we left was with our arms full of goods to cook with and make our lives a little bit easier. Everyone in our Ward is very concerned for the well-being of the missionaries.

7/9/2021

Today we had a lesson with a man named Benjamin. Benjamin had recently moved to the area and was living next door to some of our other investigators. When we went by one evening and our appointment had fallen through we saw Benjamin outside and and stopped to talk to him for a few minutes. Our lesson tonight was really cool, because Benjamin would tell us something that he believed, and he was obviously listening to the Light of Christ, so we were able to show him in the scriptures where it said what he was talking about. He really liked the tour that we gave him through the scriptures and all that we taught him about the Gospel.

7/10/2021

Today was awesome. We taught a lesson on the plan of salvation to a couple of people who we had never met before. It took a little bit to set the lesson up (when we knocked the wife answered and her husband wasn’t home so we had to come back a couple of times to show up when he was there), once we set the lesson up though we were so glad we had gone through the effort for it, that lesson was really cool. We taught the plan of salvation like we never had before and it really connected to the people that we were teaching. It was awesome to see them latch on to such important doctrines.

7/11/2021

Today was great, we had a lesson with Coleman and finished up the message of the Restoration with him. When we talked to Coleman he was really engaged, he thought that it was really cool how The Book of Mormon fit into his knowledge of the history of the Americas. Everyone at church was also really excited today because Ashtian’s baptism was scheduled for next Saturday and announced over the pulpit. We were really glad that they announced it because a lot of people didn’t know who Ashtian was and this helped her to get some recognition from everyone in the Ward. Everyone in the Ward was also much more excited to get to know her once they found out about her baptism and that she would be a permanent member.

Today for a spiritual thought I wanted to share a couple of verses from a chapter I've been studying all week, these verses come from Alma 42:

21 And if there was no law given, if men sinned what could justice do, or mercy either, for they would have no claim upon the creature?

22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

These verses teach the entire plan of salvation. We were victims of the laws that we broke, we had no way to save ourselves, and no way to undo the damaging effects of sin, but there was One who would pay the price for us, Jesus Christ would answer the ends of justice and extend mercy to all who would accept Him as their lawgiver. He has answered the ends of the law for us so that we might not have to suffer as He did. I pray that we will all accept Him as our lawgiver, because I don't think there's anything more tragic than a twice paid-for punishment.