Wow! A month has gone by and it only feels like I left a week ago. I sure miss everyone but I have come to realize that I am right where I am supposed to be here in the CCM, I receive the equivalent of about five mission prep classes in one day. Not to mention all of the language study piled on top of that. I have the opportunity to watch a lot of talks by church leaders and have taken some pretty amazing notes that I didn't even know I was capable of.
My favorite one was a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar. The talk was given on Christmas Day in 2011 in the Provo MTC. The talk is "The Character of Christ". Elder Bednar quoted Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "There would have been no Atonement or atoning sacrifice, without the character of Christ". From that day on, Elder Bednar decided to understand what Elder Maxwell had meant by "character". The dictionary reference says, character = moral qualities, strongly developed and thorouhly lived. What does this mean? What does the Bible always tell us about Christ and others? What does Christ always do when in the midst of a trial? He turns outward! He turns outward when most of us would turn inward. After the Savior had just finished fasting for forty days the devil comes to tempt Him. The devil then proceeds to tempt Christ three times. On the final attempt the devil again failed and angels came to minister unto Him. However, if you check the footnote next to word Him. The word Him does not refer to Christ, the word Him refers to John the Baptist. John had just been imprisoned and in the midst of His trial, His hunger, his temptations from the devil. Christ sends angels to console and comfort John in prison. Amazing don't you think?
Elder Bednar also stated that we must not have a testimony of Christ, rather we must become converted unto Christ. Many people have testimonies and some even have really strong testimonies. But still those people can fall away. In the Book of Mormon when Jesus comes to the Americas the people of God (the church of God, the Nephites) have fallen away because they didn't have testimonies. But the Lamanites, those that heard His word, were converted unto the Lord. It says converted not received a testimony because they had seen the Savior they were converted!
The final story Elder Bednar gave was when he was serving as a Stake President. A woman called him and said, President there has been a terrible accident three girls have gotten into a car crash. We don't know much but we do know that one of the girls has died. We need you to go to the hospital and identify which girl has passed away." Elder Bednar then realized that she had him on one phone and the hospital on another phone in her hand. He overheard the hospital telling her, "I am so sorry to inform you ma'am, but your daughter is the girl that was killed." She then told Elder Bednar, "President, we need you to call the other two mothers and tell them that their daughters are alright." Elder Bednar was shocked! Elder Bednar then added that this was this single mother's only child. That is the Character of Christ.
On the day of the funeral she invited Elder Bednar to come see her daughter with an open casket because the because she didn't want the last image of her daughter in his mind to of her mangled face. She was thinking of Elder Bednar and how she didn't want him to have that lasting image. Elder Bednar also noted that a sister in the ward called the this mother to inform her that no one had brought her in a meal and she was sick. This grieving mother then made her ward sister a meal and took it to her on her way to her own daughters funeral.
I give a challenge to everyone who reads this become CONVERTED unto Christ. When the natural man would turn inward, think of others and turn outward. That is my challenge to you and close in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
Love Elder Kalen Jones
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