Why I'm excited to go home:

Quoted from another missionary:

"But the end is but a better beginning. I'll be honest to say that I was more than excited to go home, not because I wanted to be off my mission, but because of my mission. It changed me, just like this life was meant to change us and prepare us for the next. So I guess you could say that I look forward to death, not to be separated but rather to be reunited, not to escape happiness but to embrace joy, no longer to learn but apply. Yes I loved my mission and would go back the half beat of a heart, but I have experienced life to a greater dimension than I ever have before."

Sums up my feelings to a T.

Love you all! Stay strong! 

– Elder William Kevin Black

Training Wheels

I was pondering this morning about why I didn't like a simple 50/50 trade off rule at the doorstep and had the following revelation: I don't like it b/c it's a lower law solution to a higher law problem - i.e.: the problem is that I'm not forthcoming enough and he's too overbearing. A simple 50/50 tradeoff wouldn't really help as the problem is in me not initiating the speaking - I can talk fine, I'm just not inserting myself enough. So merely trading off doors wouldn't help me grow. It would halt my progression as a person.
But then, as I thought, the image of a bike with training wheels came to mind - it dawned on me that the lower law is given to train us in the right action until we can take off the wheels and do it for the right reason. For example, for someone who smokes, living the word of wisdom helps them realize the importance of keeping the body healthy and how it helps them feel the spirit, but the higher law is to be as healthy as possible - to put into your body only what God wants you to. The lower law trains them how living the higher law feels, to inspire them to live the higher law for the right reason.

Next image: kid riding a bike with training wheels, riding too slowly. They slump to the side, and just trundle along. They're not learning how to ride a bike, they're just pedaling - just doing the action. Using training wheels properly, you increase your muscle ability so you can ride at speeds necessary to be able to ride a bike properly without the training wheels.

Next image: adult riding a bike with training wheels at normal biking speed, or even ahead of the pack - if they try to take a sharp turn, the wheels are cumbersome and block the full potential of the biker - in fact, they could cause them to crash on a turn that they would otherwise have been able to make without training wheels. This is why it is so important to learn the higher law - to change our motivation for things, and not merely change our actions.

Next image: kid who has strength and practise riding full speed having the wheels taken off, trying to ride, panicking, floundering, crashing.

So God will give us the law we're ready for - yes, we'll flounder and crash at times. Sometimes, our growth is so slow that we need a lower law, but if we lean on the lower law as a crutch it is actually damning our progression as people. Amen.

In other news, I learned some cool ideas about how we can share the gospel by word and deed, we can also invite people by word and deed - by outright inviting people to learn, and by inviting people to help you do service - because that is the gospel. :)

Love you all! Hope you have a great week!

And by the way - I'm staying in Lisburn another 6 weeks, bar any radical happenstances, so I'll be here until the end.

Cheerio! :D

– Elder William Kevin Black

Ups and Downs

So on the upside, we chapped into a few nice people recently! Pretty miraculous, very prepared people. :) We've been directed by the spirit to a few miracles (e.g.: feeling we should go by a potential, no one home. Then turn around to leave and their car pulls in!) and I've felt my testimony growing. 

Read a cool lecture called the Donaldson Papers, where it mentioned how angels teach. Look at 1 Ne 11:10-18 How does the angel teach? (cf. Revelations)

The angel shows Nephi an image, then asks Nephi what he sees. Nephi describes it, to his knowledge. The angel asks another question Nephi doesn't know the answer to, and then explains it with more images. 

This can be done with any picture, but specifically for missionaries, it works wonderful with the pamphlets. It really quickly lets you know where people are. 

e.g.: 

What do you see here? 
I see an old man writing something. 
Yeah, that's a prophet, and he's writing scripture. God's talking to him, and he's writing what's coming to mind. 
vs
What do you see here?
Oh, that looks like Isaiah, writing the great Isaiah scroll! I once visited jerusalem and saw it!
Okay, we can move on then. 

 

It also allows people to teach themselves, rather than us just spurting information at them. 

e.g.: 

What are the parents doing here? 
Teaching the kid to walk.
How does the kid look, like his expression?
He looks kind of scared. 
Yeah. So why would the parents do that to him? 
They want him to learn how to walk.
Exactly. Just like our parents taught us to walk, our Heavenly Father wants us to learn to walk like him. 

but wait - it gets better: 

Is the kid ever going to fall?
yeah...
Why would the parents let that happen?
He needs to learn. 
Exactly! God lets us make mistakes and get hurt so that we can learn! That's why Adam needed to fall - so that we could learn how to walk like our Father. 

 . . . and so forth. Teaching this way is great. A lot more interactive, more simple, and a lot more fun. You spend more time teaching the points that really matter. Comparatively, it doesn't matter if someone remembers the names of the degrees of glory, than if they remember that the purpose of life is to progress. 

 

What do those look like to you, if the bottom line is a path?   

Stairs.

Yeah! We've all been saved from falling below the line, but God has shown us a way to climb - to progress! If God's up here (point to Celestial) we need something to climb to get there.

Anywho. Hope you've gotten something out of this! Teach like angels! Testify with power the things that God has taught you, that you know to be true, by the power of the Holy Ghost! 

Love you all! Cheers! :D  

– Elder William Kevin Black

This week it was hard

to keep from smiling. :) We've been so blessed to be here in Lisburn together. We've seen so much success, and really enjoy serving together! 

Since last time I've written, we've had some massively spiritual lessons - some with a Figian man with a huge spiritual background - it's great seeing God's hand in the work, and feeling him work through us to help him come closer to His presence. 

I had a cool realization, in talking with another member. 

What prompted a really memorable answer to a prayer was my question: how is it possible for there to be a next life? I didn't see how it could be. I asked God if He were even there, and got an answer. 

At the start of my mission, I really wanted to see spirits and the like - physical manifestations of a life after, but I've changed. This member actually asked God to stop showing him the other side. Satan's power is real, and I know that it's not something I want to associate myself with. It may look powerful through physical eyes, and in the physical world, it is powerful. But beings with a body will always have more power than a being without one - that's why Jesus took up a perfected, glorified body! 

The problem is when we try to sever our spirits from our bodies - when we rebel against the Light of Christ in us, it leaves us weak. I have felt this, and know it to be true. Sin leaves us weak. That is why so many sorcerers and spiritualist people go after it, because they see the spirit being stronger than the body - and it is, if the body rejects light. That gives Satan power. Conversely, accepting and working towards light - when spirit and body work together - we have infinite more power than that of Satan and his devils. 

That's really the goal of life - bring the flesh into subjection to the spirit - because in this there is power, when flesh and spirit work as one. 

Like the red and blue 2d images of a 3d movie (okay, that's a bit old, but bear with me) the glasses make the image 3d, but the red and blue are sort of fighting each other w/o the glasses. When they work as one, it's powerful. It's a higher dimension! When they're separate, it's just a headache. 

That was a bit long, but it's true. :)

Love you all! Cheers! 

– Elder William Kevin Black

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