Hello everyone! We just got back from Yosemite National Park. It was a lot of fun. This earth is beautiful!
We had a great experience this week with an older couple named E and C. They had gone to Mexico for a couple weeks at the beginning of the month and we finally got to meet with them again. We started teaching E awhile back and we got to teach both him and his wife in the home of a member in April. And it was amazing, because his wife never leaves the house. And she also told us that she used to want to have nothing to do with us, but now she comes and talks with us every time we go over. And she's going to come to church on Sunday! In our last lesson with them, I felt prompted to talk about Heavenly Father, the nature of our relationship with him, and the pre-mortal life. At one point in the lesson she asked,"If we die and were to get resurrected I wouldn't still be married to my husband, right? That'd be impossible." And we said, "Well...would you want that?" And she said, "Oh, yes! We are here to tell you that it is completely possible, and we're here to show you how." We briefly talked about getting sealed in the temple and she felt the Spirit so strong. They are such a wonderful couple. I sure hope they get to the temple someday!
I was really discouraged yesterday by how many of our members, recent converts, and investigators have rationalized working on Sundays. There's a lot of work right now, and people get paid more on Sundays so lots of people are taking advantage of that. A few of our team-ups have taught investigators that, "When you need to work on Sundays, God understands." I suppose that's true, but I just don't think that most people really "need" to work on Sundays. They're afraid to turn their families' well being to the Lord. I'm always afraid to ask them to stop working on Sundays and trust that the help will come. Yet I just KNOW that if they will keep the commandments 100%, no exceptions, God will take care of them! Even if they have to make some sacrifices, it's so worth exact obedience to the commandments of God. Yes, it's hard, but so was the atonement. If He could do that, surely we can do the few things that He asks of us. I think that's why I'm afraid to ask them to do it though. There will be sacrifices that have to be made, it will be hard, it won't be comfortable. But as Elder Holland said, "Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds. "Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes—and this seems the greatest irony of all—these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of “comfortable” God. Really? He who said not only should we not break commandments, but we should not even think about breaking them. And if we do think about breaking them, we have already broken them in our heart. Does that sound like “comfortable” doctrine,easy on the ear and popular down at the village love-in?"
The Gospel is not easy to live. But it is simple. God has shown us the way quite clearly in the scriptures. If we will just unwaveringly hold true to his commandments, all the suffering and hardship of this life will be swallowed up in the joy of salvation and exaltation in God's kingdom. So keep the commandments, be obedient out of a love for Jesus Christ, and watch the blessings come pouring down. Because they will.
I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
-Elder Lofthouse
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