July 8th, 2013
Dear Everyone, I have been thinking about my relationship with my Heavenly Father lately. How it is going? How could I improve it? What does he expect me to do each day? I have come to the solid and sure conclusion that he expects us to be happy (2 Nephi 5:27) He wants us to talk with him constantly, (Alma 26:22) He wants us to prosper (Mosiah 2:22) That we are free from sin (Alma 41:10) and we bring others with us (D&C 84:106). To be sure that we complete these things, He has asked us to do one thing.....Keep His commandments. Some people have told me that that is a hard thing to do. I am here to tell you that IT IS NOT. The HARD THING to do for us or the "Natural Man" is to reject the temporal pleasures that seem to bring us the happiness we seek. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is not hard at all, in fact it is beyond enjoyable. But when temporary happiness gets traded for eternal blessings is when we find things to be hard. I have a cure all for this....go see the bishop. Go seek counsel from a parent or a close friend. I am going to tell you a story quickly. This is not a real story, but it is powerful.
A bus full of sinners travel on there way to heaven from hell to see if they might be able to enter into the Kingdom of God. On this bus was a man named Hoal, and Hoal had always carried with him a red lizard. He was the last to present himself at the gates, and everyone else had already gone and was back on the bus. As he approached the angel said to him, "You must give up your most prized possession " Sheepishly Hoal looked to the angel and said, "My most prized possession is my lizard. I have cared for this lizard since it was a little tiny lizardlette. Fed it. Loved it, and I don't know what I would do without it." And Hoal humbly offers forward his lizard the angel peels it up from Hoals hands and breaks the lizard in half throwing it on the ground. Hoal pains inside with seeing his beloved lizard on the ground, when it starts to change. It transforms itself into a beautiful white stallion. And the angel says, "Hoal you may ride your stallion into the gates, you have truly given up your most prized possession, you have given up your sins."
Though powerful, when I heard this story I thought to myself that there is only one problem with it, and that is that, WE DO NOT GIVE UP OUR SINS AT THE GATE. We MUST change NOW. Saying I will sin now and repent later or justifying any action is exactly what Satan wants us to do. We must apply the atonement of Christ today in our lives to be happy. This I know to be true.
Now I will step down from my soap box and tell you another cool story.
This was possibly one of the most spiritually overwhelming/powerful/fantastic Sundays of my life. As you know we have been waiting for a long while for the Spanish Branch to begin here. Well, this past Sunday, it began. As we sat there in sacrament meeting hearing the closing hymn, The Spirit of God, be sung by 60ish Hispanics in Spanish at one time, my heart was beyond filled with joy. I could name almost every single person in there by name and I could tell you how my Father in Heaven has blessed me to be involved in each of their lives. As I watched a man bear his testimony as the new 2nd counselor of the branch presidency. I pictured him when I first saw him in his house, exhausted from work, weighed down by the world. But he had been brought back into activity no more than 2 months ago, and that was by no effort on any missionaries part. THIS IS NOT MY WORK, THIS IS THE WORK OF MY FATHER IN HEAVEN AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED TO BE PART OF IT. The Savior is our only opportunity to shake of the things that weigh us down and, like this counselor I saw, fill our eyes and our lives with the light only made possible through the Savior Jesus Christ. I only have 2 minutes left on my computer time at the library. But I know my Savior is Jesus Christ and that we each have a significant role to play in His gospel. That He was sent here by our Heavenly Father to save each and every one of us from our own selfish sinful ways.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
Love you,
Elder Hatch
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