Week 4

Hello hello hello!

Another week down here in Chile! Quick shout out to my awesome older sister Brittany who just turned 22 while serving in Japan! This week has been much better than the first three, even despite being the coldest and wettest stinkin ´´spring´´ ever haha. I´ve woken up a couple times with numb feet in the morning despite all my blankets and pajamas! What´s funny is that rather than smelling like beautiful nature after a rainstorm, it smells like wet dog. Anywho, I have some quick funny stories I want to share.

1) Every couple blocks there is a speed bump in the road, but that doesn´t always make the bus drivers slow down. It´s HILARIOUS to watch everyone get launched into the air as the old rickety bus hits the speed bump! I´ve turned it into a bit of a game to see who can get the most air. 
2) I´ve mentioned before that the singing down here is not quite American Idol worthy--well, unless we´re talking about the auditions. I still like to try to sing harmony or sing the recant bass part, but I always find people giving me quick glance that says ´´Poor dumb gringo can´t even sing the right melody or at the right time´´ hahaha. It always makes me laugh.
3)Most eventful story of the week: In the mission, girls are often referred to as snakes--just the flirty ones that will kill your focus with infectious venom. I´ve been lucky so far to not have any big problems....until a few days ago when one tried to kiss me. It might have been tempting if she weren´t 80 years old and extremely drunk...hahahaha. My companion and I were tracting and stopped to talk to a few abuelitas, when the drunk one stumbled over to me and said, ´´Tú me gustas.´´ It translates quite differently than you might think. We realized this conversation was going nowhere, so we gave them pass along cards and tried to leave. Before I could even extend my hand for a handshake, the old lady was grabbing me and pulling me in for a kiss! I firmly, yet gently, moved her small body to put distance between us and told her that just a handshake would suffice. I quickly walked away slightly confused, extremely creeped out, and didn´t even bother to try to hold back my laughter. Never in my life did I think that would happen. Oh the joys of foreign travels...hahaha.

I have several bits of great news! I got several letters at last! Thanks so much Mum for the Dear Elders, and thanks Sister Ochoa, Grandma Lenna and Corey for the letters! They were great!!! I heard that Kendra Williams sent one, but it got a little lost in the delivery process. Hopefully I´ll get it soon. I found out that while I´m here in Las Ámericas I´ll get mail the first Tuesday of each month. That´s when we have our zone conference and my zone leaders can give us the mail from the mission home (where all mail must be delivered). So thanks so much for writing me! Just a random thought that may or may not apply: if you should choose to send a package to me, it would be very wise to cover it in stickers of Saint Mary. People tend to break into those packages less often. It would also be smart to have a list inside the package that details what should be within the contents so that I know if anything is missing. ¡Gracias! Also, I finally got peanut butter!!! It´s ridiculously expensive though...ha. That will certainly have to be a luxery rather than a necessity for the next two years. 

Conference was so fantastic! It was so cool to be one of the missionaries that the prophet and apostles were referring to! Plus, how huge is the news of the age change???!!!! Wahoo!!! However, I am soooo glad that I did a year at BYU before my mission. I think that really helped me prepare so much better. But to teach is the responsibility to pray and decide for him/herself when is the right time to serve a mission. What´s crazy is that by the time I get home, Lacey could serve! And Tyler is shortly behind. Weird. Anyways I was so blessed and grateful that I got to listen to General Conference in English. All the members in all of Las Ángeles have to come to our chapel to receive the broadcast of GC. We 5 gringos went in a small classroom to watch in English. We had a blast! But it was nothing compared to home. As much as I loved every bit of Conference, it made me pretty homesick. Especially during Priesthood Session when I couldn´t stop thinking abou Dad, Papa, and Tyler attending together in Vegas. I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I had to go with them every 6 months as three generations of priesthood holders. 

Mum and Dad, thank you so much for teaching me the importance of listening to the prophets and apostles and heeding their counsel. Thank you for setting such a great example of always doing your best to be able to watch all the sessions of General Conference. I realized today that I haven´t been home for the past three conferences. But just three more and I´ll be home again! 

Since last Tuesday I had already chosen what spiritual thought I wanted to share, but then Elder Bednar gave his talk on it--AKA are you converted to Christ or to the church? So I´m going to change my spiritual thought. A few days ago, my companion and I were on our way to an appointment with a new investigator (or at least a hopeful). We couldn´t find her street at all, even though we knew exactly where it was supposed to be. Twice we stopped and asked for directions, and twice we were told the same direction to walk in. After deciding they pointed us in the wrong direction, we walked the opposite way and sure enough found the correct street. We found her house, and she cancelled on us because she had guests over. Disappointed, but not truly surprised, we set another appointment and left. We had only walked a few meters when we decided to stop and look at our list of inactives to see whom we could visit that lived nearby. As we discussed, a woman carrying grocery bags approached as if to pass by. We of course said hello, stopped her, and struck up a conversation with her. We found out she was an inactive member and we were standing in front of her house. She invited us in, and our discussion continued. I wish I could have understood more of what she said, but people are difficult to understand when they are crying. That´s why God blessed me with a native companion so that at least one of us understood haha. Anyways, long story short, she agreed to attend church this past weekend. I know that Heavenly Father wanted us to run into her that day. That´s why two different people pointed us in the wrong direction. That´s why our other appointment fell through. That´s why we decided to stop. We didn´t know who she was or when she would be passing by, but the Lord did. He is always aware of you and of your needs. The Lord will put you in the exact place you need to be at the exact time you need to be there because He has a plan for you. Even when it doesn´t seem like it. So don´t complain if external circumstances cause you to be late to something. You never know what the Lord has planned for you. Even in regards to Kassi Gillette having to wait to be 21 to serve a mission. The Lord has a specific place and time for you to be in Italy. He knows best. 

This gospel is true. Christ lives. He loves you. Trust in Him and in His timing. Have a wonderful week!

Elder Long

Week 3 in Chile!

Well howdy do!

This has been one super crazy week. The most physically and mentally stressfull yet. Aparently one of the many wild dogs with fleas rubbed against my pants and transfered the bugs to me. I´ve had bedbugs ever since. Just from my left ankle to shin I have over 41 bites. Ha. I´ve heard that the only way to get rid of them is to burn the mattress and cothes and whatnot. Seeing as I can´t really afford to burn EVERY item of clothing I have, does anyone know a way to get rid of the little critters? Or am I just kind of screwed for the next 10 weeks?

Random thought: before I left I promised the Horton family that I would let the know if the toilets flush the opposite direction down here. Unfortunately, I can´t remember which way the flush in the US haha. But I can tell you that down here they flush counter-clockwise. Is that opposite as in the States?

Being a tall white boy with blue eyes and blond hair kind of makes me stick out. People love to try to practice their English with me, but I usually can´t understand what they´re trying to say in English either haha. Plus most of the English people learn is from American songs, so it never makes any sense--or it´s just something really rude. Probably one of the best was when Elder Torres and I were proselyting and a random little kid yelled, ´´juan two tree ford!´´ as we passed haha. My favorite, however, was during lunch with a member family. The 11 yr old daughter was talking about music, and asked if I listened to ´´Juan Direcho.´´ I don´t know much Spanish music, so of course I said no. She started flipping out like I had said the most obsurd thing in all of history. I had the thought to ask her about the song, ´´´That´s what makes you beautiful´´ by One Direction. Her response was, ´´¡Sí, cómo te dije, Juan Direcho!´´ hahaha. She couldn´t pronounce One Direction. Silly times! Speaking of inability to speak English, I´m starting to forget words. It took me over a day and a half to remember the English word ´´pamphlet.´´ But understanding the Chileans is coming along. To help illustrate my point: my Mexican roommate (who was obviously fluent in Spanish before his mission) was unable to understand the Chileans for the first few weeks of his mission also. They just speak sooo differently. Instead of saying, ´´¿Cuantos años tienes tu?´´ they say something that sounds more like, ´´Kaydadteen.´´ So ya...haha.

As far as investigators, this week has been wild. We´re teaching a family of a mother and two daughters. They´re progressing, and the two daughters are scheduled to be baptized October 20th. When we stopped by on Thursday, suddenly no one wanted to be baptized. That same day we passed by our other new investigator, a man who´s wife and family left him and he´s been thinking about suicide. He cancelled our appointment for that night because his niece died that day. Super rough. So we´re working hard and praying harder for these people. Lend us your prayers!

Tracting has been really difficult.All our appointments usually fall through each day so we spend the whole time knocking doors trying to find people to teach. Satan has gotten better at blurring people´s beliefs and making it so our message doesn´t seem distinct anymore. People think that they are fine simply believing and that since Christ already paid for their sins, they just have to try to be better-than-average and they´ll live with God and their family forever. The difficult part is getting people to actually listen so that we can explain the importance of our message and help them understand the differences. So the work is pretty slow right now with only four investigators (three of which are in on house) who´s lives are breaking lose, but we´re praying and searching for more people to teach.

We also work a lot with inactive members. One family in particular has some marital problems. Through talking with them, we found a small, yet powerful, indicator. Neither of them could remember the last time they told each other they loved one another. So here´s my advice/plea to you. Tell your family and friends that you love them. Tell them often. And then match your actions to your words. It´s such a simple way to strengthen and protect a marriage or any relationship. 

General Conference is this next week, and I hope you´re excited to watch and listen and learn from the prophets and apostles of God! Powerful stuff right there. There´s sooooo many people that don´t have that blessing. I don´t think I´ll get to watch it in English, so please pray that I´ll be able to understand in Spanish. General Conference is one of my favorite church events, and I´m actually kind of bummed that I won´t get to fully understand it this time. So take advantage of it up in the US!!! 

Much love,

Elder Long

Week 2 in Chile

Mis amados!

Well if the phrase ´´your future wife gets hotter each time you go tracting in the rain´´ is true, we misionaries down here are going to have some super hott wives!!! Luckily, spring officially started on Saturday, so hopefully the weather will get better. Today is a super beautiful day!!! Other fun facts of the past week: I´ve still yet to be able to purchase peanut butter. The local grocery store hasn´t had any in stock for two weeks now. Poop! I also had my ´´First Incoming.´´ You can ask Bishop Hollis to remind you what that means. Luckily, Heavenly Father protected us and the kid missed, but that also means I was unable to keep the rock haha :P

The food has still been really good so far. Hopefully that doesn´t jynx it. We only eat a small breafast and no dinner but a  huge lunch. I still wish we ate dinner though... Our average--if not consistenly always--almuerzo starts off with a big soup, then a plate of rice, meat, delicious bread, and a salad. The salad is always just lettuce with lime juice and tomatoes. There´s been a few times when I´ve decided not to ask what part of the cow the meat is from, but it´s always tasted good at least haha.

This mission is definitely more dificult mentally than physically. Don´t get me wrong--I have blisters covering my feet and even my toes, I slouch from my backpack, and I yawn a bajillion times a day. But the struggle this past week has been mentaly. I´m definitely growing closer to Christ as I experience the rejection He faced. I´m amazed more and more everyday how He did what He did. I´m developing a deeper understanding of how He felt while knowing that He had to press on because it will be worth it. He didn´t give up on us, so I (and you) can´t give up on Him. I don´t quite believe all the people that have told me I´ll have hundreds of baptisms down here in South America, because people are not nearly as receptive here as everyone seems to think. Trust me. But I´m learning to work hard despite the feelings of frustration and disappointment that come with being a missionary.

A thought I had the other day really set me back: one of my roommates was watching a video of a past General Conference talk, and ofcourse it was dubbed over in Spanish. I realized that the people down here--and in so many other parts of the world--don´t get to actually hear the prophet´s voice. They don´t get to understand the uplifting messages of all those EFY CD´s that you never listen to because they´re not cool. Don´t take for granted the blessing that you have to live in a country where the prophets and apostles live, and to be able to speak and understand the language that they speak. How blessed I´ve been. Also, for those of you in the Hacienda Heights ward, do me a favor and give Sister Hales a giant hug and thank her for being so wonderful. In Sacrament meeting on Sunday, we sang the hymns acapella because our usual accompanist didn´t know how to play the hymns. And let me just add that I don´t think anyone in Chile will win any singing contests any time soon. Sister Hales has always been so fantastic to so willingly share her time and talents for the benefit of our ward. Don´t take for granted that she can so skillfully and easily play every hymn and every musical number that you throw her way last minute. She´s wonderful and I so appreciate her willingness and dedication to providing the music for the HH ward.

One thing I´ve noticed about the incredibly high number of inactive members down here that I´ve visited with is that they all have one thing in common: they stopped reading their Book of Mormon. That´s always the first step that leads to inactivity. Everyone needs to understand that the foundation of this entire gospel is based on that book, and therefore so should your testimony. If you aren´t reading the Book of Mormon on a daily basis, you are letting Satan ever-so-slowly pull you away from your Savior Jesus Christ. Please read and study that book. Even if the most you can do is a verse or two. It makes a difference

My time is gone, but I wish you all the best! Have a wonderful week, choose to be of good cheer despite rough circumstances around you, and smile. It´s great to see a stranger passing by on the street with a glum face and all my companion and I do is smile and say hello and keep walking. A sincere smile can really change a person´s mood more than you probably realize.

Much love,

Elder Tanner Long

Elder Long, his trainer and Sept 18th festivities

Tanner's 1st letter from Chile!!

Sept. 18, 2012

Mi Familia,

 

Soooo much has happened since I´ve been able to send an email! For one, I´m in Chile! So forgive me for typos, this keyboard is weird haha. Well so what was supposed to be an 18 hour trip turned into about 50 hours. Our flight leaving from LA was an hour late, so of course we missed our connecting flight from Santiago to Chile. We spent nearly the whole day Tuesday trying to get on another flight. We finally arrived that night in Conce, met the mission president, and had to be rushed out to our areas without the standard afternoon of intros and instructions. I´m about 2 hours south of the city of Concepción in a place called Los Angeles. My trainer is a native Chilean from Santiago, and we share our humble home with two others. Elder Gonzalez is from Peru and his companion Elder Alvarez is from Mexico. Our house is about the size of my kitchen in Las Vegas (maybe including the pantry), so it´s pretty humbling to be here. How blessed I´ve been! At times it´s kind of frustrating to not be able to fully communicate with my companions because they are all Latino, but we get by. Hopefully it will help my Spanish get better faster. Elder Gonzalez calls me ´´Elder Tin-Tin´´ because he thinks my hairdo is the same as the cartoon character. He´s probably my favorite so far. He knows the most random phrases in English--which really don´t do any good haha. For example, the only English he knows is,´´Hey baby, you smell good. Are you busy?´´ hahaha so I taught him, ´´Errbody on the flo gettin krunk´´ and ´´Chuck up them dueces!´´ Teaching each other phrases and words in each other´s language is really fun.

 

How to speak Spanish like a Chilean: cut off the second half of all your words, say ´´po´´ at the end of your sentence, and speak as FAST AS YOU CAN! Vuala, Chileno Spanish. What´s difficult is that all the vocab I´ve ever learned is more Mexican, and down here the dialect is completely different. Luckily, my Mexican roommate Elder Alvarez has been out about 6 months, so he can usually help me out a bit. I definitely had that moment from the movie ´´The Best Two Years´´ where I thought, ´´Oh Elder, that ain´t the language they taught me in the MTC!´´ All four of us are only 19, so our house gets pretty crazy sometimes. My roommates are looooongi (loco)! So we have lots of fun. It´s the end of winter here, almost spring, so it´s still pretty cold. We don´t have any heaters or airconditioning, so it´s super cold in the morning. I can´t even describe how incredibly happy I was when I found out that we could use a propane tank to heat the water for a hot shower!!! But we ran out a few days ago....ha.

 

Normally my P-days will be Monday, but today is a national holiday so no missionary work would have gotten done. However, at the same time, all the stores are closed so we can´t do any grocery shopping. We got lucky enough that we can email at this members house! It took us over 30 mins to get the computers working...haha. Speaking of September 18th, it´s like the 4th of July in the US but multiplied times 10. For example, school is cancelled for the week prior and one week after so that everyone can party. It´s made missionary work pretty difficult because everyone says, ´´No, maybe after the 18th.´´ Bleh. But the parties have been pretty crazy! EVERYONE loves to blast music 24/7, and they actually listen to a lot of North American music. That´s how most people learn English phrases, so usually when someone wants to talk to me in English it´s pretty nonsensical stuff...haha.

 

For absolutely every meal we eat completos (hot dogs), the most delicious bread ever, mystery meat, and Coca-Cola. I never cared at all for Coke or Pepsi, but since those are my only choices now, I´ve accustomed myself to them. I´m going to come home sooooo fat though! The sky is always smoky because of everyone burning little furnaces to stay warm. I love the smell of smoke, but not necessarily for extended periods of time. I woke up the first morning with a sore throat and extremely thirsty! But life moves on. There are dogs EVERYWHERE! I´ve never seen so many dogs in my entire life, even when I´ve gone to dog parks haha. What´s funny is they are either super huge or amazingly tiny! My favorite is our pet wolf Osíto and a palm-sized dog that one of our investigators has. There is trash and graffiti everywhere as well, but I think this is one of the nicer areas of town. I´m developing a pretty bad slouch because I always have to duck to either avoid a tree branch to the face, but mostly because I have to lean down to hear what people are saying. They talk super fast and rather quiet at times. The abuelitas are the hardest to understand. They are usually whom we talk to when tracting because they stay at home all day. They crack me up.

 

Ok, I´m really out of time, but one quick spiritual thought. In the scriptures, many times the Lord commands us to ´be of good cheer.´ It is indeed one of the commandments to be able to gain eternal life. He also gives us the key how: in 2nd Nephi 9:39 it says, to be ´´spiritually minded is life eternal.´´ If you pay attention, the first letters spell out SMILE. Be happy! I´m in a country where I can hardly understand what´s going on and people either love to tease me for my white skin or completely hate me simply because I´m North American.  That and I´m Mormon. Ha. Anyways, point being, all I have at the moment is my testimony and a smile. That´s really all I can contribute until I can understand what people are saying. People actually tell me I speak really well, which I humbly might concur with, but being able to understand the Chileans is completely different. So I SMILE and generically testify, ´´I know that everything my companion has said is true, and that this message will help you better your life. If I didn´t know it for myself, I wouldn´t be here.´´ And I mean it. Saturday royally sucked because no one would listen to us, I was mocked, flipped off, yelled at, insulted (that much I understood), and ridiculed. But I´m not coming home, because I know the message we share is true. And I implore you to read the Book of Mormon until you can´t deny it´s veracity either. Have a wonderful week, and remember to SMILE!

 

Çao-Çao!

 

Elder Long :)

Leaving the MTC and off to CHILE!

Mis amados!

First off, sorry for the late letter--I forgot to mention that this week's P-day was moved back a day so that we could have in-field training. Guess why... I leave for Chile on Monday morning! Whoo!!! So weird.
This week's fun events: During our mission conference last Sunday, one of the people giving a talk had the hiccups. Soooo hilarious!!! That night we also got to watch a recording of President Monson's 85th birthday celebration. So good! Look it up on LDS.org if you haven't seen it yet. The music is absolutely incredible. There are now over 2750 missionaries here in the MTC, so breathing space is very limited. Sooo crowded! Good thing I leave in one more day! I hosted again this past Wednesday and got to host Elder Garrett Jacobson. It was great to see him! I also bumped into Elder Sammy Caballero, who happens to me in my zone! It's so great to get to see him and talk with him! He'll be such in incredible missionary. Love those two.

On Monday morning I'll be able to make a phone call during my lay-over in the LA airport. I bought a $5 phone card with 500 minutes on it, so I won't need to use your credit card, Dad. That would have been super expensive! Mum and Dad, would you two figure out beforehand how to group call so that we don't have to use up precious time during my call? I'll probably be calling around 10:30 am or so. Also, I'd like to call Lacey. I don't have her number memorized and I won't receive any more Dear Elders here at the MTC, so I'll just ask you Mum and Dad during our call. Lacey, when your phone rings during class, just politely excuse yourself. I'm sure your teacher will be OK with Miss President of Everything missing a couple minutes. If not, too bad. I don't want to have to leave you a voicemail ;P See if you can grab Tyler or something too. That would be cool! Be ready for my call!
Soooo many great stories to share this week but so little time! I had to retype this letter because everything suddenly got deleted -__- I had a good discussion with our investigator, Javier, about why the day of rest is Sunday, when Saturday is considered the 7th day of the week. After some research, we discovered that it's because the day was changed after Christ was resurrected on the Sabbath day, Sunday. Remember Elder Holland's talk "Sunday Will Come"? Soooo much more meaning to it than you think. Just ponder on that one for a while. Do some scripture reading on it if you can ;)

During TRC last week, we met with a girl named Valerie. She was supposed to have gotten to the MTC an hour earlier for her appointment, but the traffic from SLC was so bad that she was super late. Which meant we taught her instead. As we talked with her and got to know her, we all realized that it was divine purpose that she was late. She was meant to be taught by us. My companions and I had each had specific experiences throughout the week prior to Friday that had taught us important lessons--lessons and experiences that Valerie needed to hear. The Lord had prepared us all week for that lesson without us even knowing it. It was the best lesson I've had so far. I got to genuinely help a real person (not fake investigator) come unto Christ. I so firmly believe that everyone in our life is placed there for a reason. There is something you can learn from each person. And next time you're running late, who knows, it might be for a bigger reason than you know.

I've always known the scripture stories and that's great, but now I'm finally really learning how to apply those stories to my life. I was reading in Alma 17-18 about the story of Ammon and found so many incredible gems. Please re-read those two chapters and really ponder about how his words apply to your life. For me, 18:3 is a powerful verse. We too, should live our life in a way so that others know we are a friend to the king--who is our Master Jesus Christ. Read through chapter 18 and think about what your "flocks" are and how you can be a better servant of the Master.

Lastly, I'd like to share my missionary purpose. "To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." Guess what. That's your purpose too. Every member's job is to invite others to come unto Christ. You can do that through your example, sharing the Book of Mormon, bearing testimony, offering service, etc. Prophets have declared that every member is a missionary. And you don't have to teach non-members to be a missionary. "Invite OTHERS unto Christ." Everyone. Anyone. We all need help coming unto Christ. As I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Ammon's experiences, a thought was placed in my mind of a quote from the Bible, except the words had been changed prior to entering my mind. The thought was, "Be thou a servant of the believers" (1 Tim 4:12). I took that as my personal call to not forget to help other members and even other missionaries come unto Christ, not just the non-member Chileans.
I invite you to think about how you can be a better servant of the Lord. Have a wonderful week! Write me (at my new address) in Chile!

Much love,

Elder Long :)

Week 7 in the MTC

Howdy do!

     Wheew. It's weird to think how close I am to leaving! I got my travel plans with my flight schedule last night. We leave Monday morning Sept 10 at 9:45am from the SLC airport. We have a little layover in LA, and then we don't land in Santiago until 7am the next day...haha. Then one last flight to Conce, where we're schedule to arrive at 9:35am. I'm so excited to finally get down there and start the real work! I've loved being at the MTC, but I think I've learned all I can learn here and it's time to move on--meaning I'll get to Chile and realize I can't actually understand or speak Spanish and have no idea how to find or teach...haha but "asi es la vida!" We're allowed to call home while we're waiting at the airport, and I'd like to. It would probably be easiest to do that during my three hour layover in LA (10:46am-1:25pm). Let me know (via Dear Elder) when would work best for you, Mum and family!

     Thanks again all of you who have written Elder Gordon. It has been so great! A few random thoughts that I'm going to compile into one paragraph: I think the MTC does a great job preparing us to serve missions in foreign countries--I didn't think it were possible for me to get so tired of hamburgers... So I'll be ok in Chile for a while without my American food! Secondly, I'm curious of the whereabouts of a few of my letters. Alissa/Twinner, I replied to your Dear Elder about two weeks ago, but I'm not sure if it didn't reach you or if you've just been super busy with school (which would be understandable). Just let me know so I don't feel guilty making you think I never wrote you back! Also, Mum, did you pass along my letter to Kassi a few weeks ago? I don't have her address. That's so exciting she got called to Italy!!! On Tuesday I was talking with my companions about how we all want to learn Italian after our missions--we were cleaning one of the Italian classrooms and I could actually already understand most of what we read! So that would be super awesome!

Quick funny story of the week: we bumped into my companion's girlfriend at the temple on Sunday. Soooooo crazy! I don't have time to explain the details, but it was quite the adventure. And of course he's been ridiculously trunky all week ever since....ha.

     Ok, I have so many uplifting thoughts I'd like to share, but I feel impressed to share just one in particular so I can expound upon it for a bit. Yesterday all of us in my district were feeling pretty discouraged with ourselves and feeling like our Spanish and teaching skills were getting worse and we didn't want to be here anymore and we missed our friends and families. Big time. Our incredible teacher, Brother Derek Adams, threw out his lesson plan and instead took the time to listen and respond. We read in 2 Nephi 4, Nephi's lament. Despite Nephi being an absolute stud--let alone now the prophet--he expressed how he thought he was such a wretched and worthless man. What???

     Here's the thing: We often get so caught up in humbling ourselves and trying so hard to recognize our faults so we can repent and be better, that we forget we are a child of God. That phrase is overused and looses meaning nowadays, but think about it. You belong to God. He created you. The scriptures say countless times that only good can come from God (Moroni 7:16). You're not as bad as you think. The closer we get to Christ, the more Satan wants to bring us back. The easiest way for him to do so is to drag us down by our own thoughts of inadequecy. Those thoughts come from Satan. He whispers them to you and make you think you are no good, that you can't do it, that you'll never succeed, you've sinned too much, etc. You can choose to listen to those thoughts from the devil, or you can put your trust in God and His love for us (2 Ne 4:34).

     Only good can come from God, and only bad can come from the Satan. We forget that those are the only options--we are either being like Satan or being like our Heavenly Father. Being like "man" isn't a third option. I want you to understand that it's ok to recognize that you aren't doing as well as you should be. But here's the kicker: "I need to do better" and "I suck" are two completely different thoughts that we often confuse to be the same. The first motivates you to improve and is thus of God; the latter is detramental and is of the devil. If you pay attention closely, the "I'm a horrible person" thoughts usually follow after the "I'm not very good at this, I should be doing better" thoughts. Satan's easiest tactic is to drag you down by confusing those two thoughts together. President Spencer W. Kimball said that these thoughts must be cast out the same as you would with a sexually impure thought. They will mentally, emotionally, and spiritually destroy you.

     Be of good cheer. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have offered their help and protection against Satan and his attacks. They want you to be happy. They want you to succeed. They are so pleased with you, even if you think they shouldn't have any reason to be. You already made the right choice to follow Christ when you chose to come to this earth and receive a mortal body. You are doing great! We all make mistakes, and Heavenly Father wants you to recognize those mistakes AND THEN try to be better, and He has promised that He will help you. Christ has promised that He will never abandon us. Even when we abandon Him.

 

Christ loves you. Have a wonderful week :)

Much love,

Elder Long :)