Salvation is Not a Cheap Experience

Somehow made it through my first week here in San Pedro. Honestly, could not tell you how, but we made it!

Our first few days were super slow and depressing. We went two days in a row with only 3 lessons each day. Basically in 10 hours that we have to work, we could only find three people to teach. 2 days in a row. All of the appointments we had set up fell through, and by the end of the day we were just sliding slowly face first in the mud toward our house. But I decided to hit Thursday running and be happy and excited no matter what. So when everything fell through on Thursday, I just smiled and went looking for someone to contact, and I had a super good day. I felt the Spirit of God so much more. We were guided to people to talk to, we taught powerful lessons, and we had a successful day despite our difficulties. The thing I learned is that our happiness really doesn't depend on other people or everything going our way. If we want to be happy, we need to obey the commandments, know that God is guiding us and taking care of us, and then suck it up and be happy. Laugh when Satan throws a bad day at your face and you’ll be able to shake it off a lot faster.  

Eating choco bananas on p-day. They are frozen bananas covered in chocolate on a stick.
Pretty much the best idea ever. 

I've always wondered why missionary work is so hard. If this really is the Church of Jesus Christ, led by living prophets and apostles, the very same church with the very same power and authority that Christ established on the earth during his earthly ministry--and I testify with all that I am that it is--then why don't we just baptize people all day long? The apostle Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk about that in the MTC that really hit me hard and I have thought about a lot this week. He posed the same question, asking why isn’t the only danger in the mission field getting pneumonia from standing in the baptismal font all day long. The answer is that salvacion is not a cheap experience. 

Pause for dramatic effect.

SALVATION IS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE!

If it was, it wouldn’t be worth it. We know that when we labor to bring people to Christ, we are taking upon ourselves the same purpose that drives everything that God does, even to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Christ came to earth with this sole focus and purpose, and if it was hard for him, why should it be easy? If he sweat drops of blood to give us the ability to return to live with him, why would we think it would be a breeze to take part in the same work? Everyone's road to salvation must follow the steps of our Savior, which eventually lead to Golgotha and Calvary. Salvation is not a cheap experience, but it is worth fighting and sweating and being in Honduras for.

To be honest, the only really hard thing about missionary work for me is that I can’t make these decisions for people. I can teach and I can pray and I can invite these people to make changes in their lives that I KNOW, I KNOW will make them so much more happier, but I can't change their lives for them. I can't make those sacrifices for them. I wish wish wish wish that I could, but I can’t. If they don’t want to read, ponder, and pray, I can't do it for them, and they won’t receive an answer. If walking and working all day and night could help them in some way to understand the importance of what we are saying and to help them make those choices, I would totes do it. But I can’t. So the hardest part of missionary work, for me and I am sure for our Padre Celestial, is to teach and to invite, and to watch someone refuse. To pray, to stop drinking, to go to church, to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if all this stuff is actually legit, I can’t do it for anyone. But I can invite so that’s what I’ll do, because to work all day and find someone who wants these changes in their life, that wants an answer and is humble enough to look for it, is more than worth it. I don’t think we will actually realize how worth it everything is until after we die and get a look at the whole picture, and then we will realize that every little sacrifice really was so so so so so so worth it.

Anyways, it always seems like I start writing and thinking about the week and then up writing a little spiritual sermon about something to bore you all to death and then my time is up to write. I’ll try and work on telling you all some cool stuff that I am doing and that is happening to me the next week.

Hugs and kisses, 

Elder Moffitt

Some Testigos, or Jehovahs Witness stopped by during our personal study time and gave me some sweet pamphlets, including their famous magazine.
I gave them a pamphlet on the restoration of the gospel, to be fair. :)