Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Laying up Treasures in Heaven

Hey Everyone!! 

Quick one this week because we're having a combined zone p-day.. Kingston zone vs. Spanish Town zone in basketball.. :)  I'm way excited!!  But it was a great week!!  Really really busy... We spent some time planning and preparing for zone conferences with President Hendricks... and had our first one in Savannah la mar on Saturday.. It went really well! :)  The spirit was strong and I feel like this zone conference is really gonna help the mission move foreward in the best way... The focus was on real growth instead of just growth... and how we achieve real growth... That was what me and Elder Randle taught on for about an hour and a half... and President Hendricks taught an amazing segment on repentance... How its really about becoming rather than doing.. Really puts things in perspective... but anyway.. it was an awesome experience..and I'm excited for the rest of them this week.. We have 5 more then we're done.. :) 


We didn't get as much teaching time this week as I would have liked because of planning and preparing for zone conference and some other things that happened.. but we still had some awesome lessons... One thing I've definitely learned on my mission is that when you have limited time, its really important to make every thing you do count... but... i wanna mention real quick 2 lessons in particular that i remember from the week....


The first was with a lady who's almost been baptized for a year.. She's been struggling with coming to church every Sunday, and when she does come, she's late... One of the things we talked with her about is really the "why" of going to church.... I think that's a question that all of us should ask ourselves fairly often.... because if we aren't careful, we forget the why of the gospel and get lost in the "what".. well.. the "why" in particular that we talked about with her, was because Jesus Christ went to Gethsemane and asked us to remember him by partaking of the sacrament every week.. One thing that was brought up is that... most of us when we have a job will sacrifice a lot of things to be on time for work... we get up early even if we're tired to make it to work on time so we can get our pay... yet when Sunday rolls around, we always find ourselves rolling into church late if we go... The logic of that is very flawed... We will sacrifice many things for our temporal job.. where the compensation is temporary.. .. but when it comes to a long term investment (living the gospel.. ie.. being to church on time) that has the greatest return.. (Eternal Life).. we aren't willing to put in the work.. Its a foolish mindset... We can not put anything before our Heavenly Father... and when we aren't willing to make any sacrifice for Him, that's exactly what we're doing.... It was really an eye opening lesson... In everything we do... we need to make sure that we are "laying up for ourselves treasures in Heaven"... The little things.. like being on time for church show how much we love our Heavenly Father.. and never forget.. "by small and simple means are great things brought to pass"..


The second lesson was kind of heart breaking.. We have been meeting with a really cool lady who is really smart.. but doesn't want to engage in a serious study of the gospel because she doesn't want to leave her church.. She's scared to study the Book of Mormon, because if she finds it to be true.. She knows she'll need to be baptized.. She would rather remain in ignorance than find the truth... 


Both these examples I think just really show how important it is to take a step back and remember why we were sent to this earth in the first place.... The only thing that matters is preparing to live with our Heavenly Father again, and we should be willing to make any sacrifice to do so.. I love this gospel and I love the hope and joy that come from knowing exactly "what" to do, but most importantly "why" i'm doing it... :)  


Have an incredible week and take some time to ponder the "why" of the gospel... or anything you do... It puts things back into perspective... 


One Love!!


Elder Kraus

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