Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Hey it's me. I'm still in Salisbury.  Transfer calls come in about two weeks, but as of now I'm still here. Elder Larsen and I have had an awesome week full of miracles. This week we have been teaching nonstop.  I have learned a lot about myself and my relationship to my Heavenly Father.  This week we had to exercise some faith and drop some investigators who just haven't been keeping commitments. We didn't have much of a teaching pool at the time but since then we have almost doubled our original teaching pool. I'm going to steal some thing from Gabe this Email and do a...

Cool things found in studies/Testimony Time:

So this week I was studying in the New Testament in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 and it speaks a lot about charity. The first footnote about charity is that the Greek root is love. I learned this week that in Ancient Greek there are four words used to describe love. The first word is Eros (I have no idea if I spelt that right). Eros is a love that is full of desire, it's like seeking some thing to "fill" you or give you satisfaction, it is the worldly idea of love now a days that you see on TV and in movies. The second word is Philos (I never took Ancient Greek so I have no Idea if I spelt this right either). Philos is a brotherly love i.e. Philadelphia is the city of "brotherly love". The third is agape (Pronounced ah-gahp-eh, also probably spelt terribly wrong) and this is the form of love closely associated with charity in Corinthians. Agape love is a love that gives, it is caring for some one else before your own needs. I think that the words in Moroni 7:47 when he says Charity is the pure love of Christ and it endureth forever…is talking of this agape love. Heavenly Father a has enough love for us that he sacrificed his only begotten son for us. Jesus Christ our savior loves us so much that he went through infinite pain and affliction so that by his mercy and a grace(Substitute the word Charity there) could help us return to live with our Heavenly Father. Now how can we show our love for our savior we can find the answer is in John 14:15 when he says if he love me keep my commandments. If we love our savior in an agape manner we will follow him and keep his commandments. Not because we want to be forgiven of our sins or have a celestial marriage or peace in the home (those are outstanding bonuses though) No we will follow him because he asked us to(emphasis added) and because we love him enough that when he asks we obey. It's a choice of love to sacrifice our Carnal will for his Divine will and as the savior says in Mark 8 deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. It's definitely a difficult journey but if we jump back to John 14:18 Christ says I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. And that's the beauty of the atonement often times I think that I have thought when I make mistakes it is my job to return to the strait and narrow path but when I make a mistake Christ comes to me, comforts me and helps me progress from a new starting point and I am so grateful for that. I am grateful for Christ's charity and grace for me and how he for the help he has given me all my life. I will always work to have genuine love for my savior as well.

-Elder Dean
P.S. I have no Idea what the forth word or definition of love is.
P.S.S. How has your day/ week gone?
P.S.S.S. Mom use your spider web of power to get some Emails heading my way
P.S.S.S.S. I love you guys in the most genuine way

-Trevor