Investigators

Hey everyone!

Great things continue to happen! Our three baptismal investigators are progressing marvelously and are so good! May will be a good time for baptisms at this rate! I don’t have anything else. Here’s the thought! 

We are eternal beings, destined to achieve supreme levels of glory and righteousness if we do what is right. We are subject to constant change, and obliged to it as well, if we seek righteousness. Even the Savior himself had to undergo certain levels of physical as well as spiritual progression while in the flesh: „And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first.“ (D&C 93). As we as well progress from grace to grace, we must advance from lower standards of life and spirituality to higher planes. It is no surprise, then, that the need for repentance becomes increasingly more apparent as we rise in our levels of spirituality. 

One of the beautiful ironies of the Gospel, frustrating as it may be, is that the further we come along the path to perfection, the more we realize how absolute our need for repentance is. C.S. Lewis wrote the following pertaining to this:

„No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. There is a silly idea, that good people don’t know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist know how strong it is. … You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply doesn’t know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They’ve lived a sheltered life by always giving in."

I personally feel that I am living with a greater emphasis on being good now than ever before. Yet, I’ve also been brought to my knees more times that I can count on my mission because of the resulting knowledge of my faults and failures that come as a result of a greater effort to live righteously. The need for repentance has never appeared with such frequency and power to me. I don’t know if this is right, but having a knowledge of this makes it a bit more difficult to say with comfort „I am a good man!“ because one comes in the same moment to realize how much progress must come to become the better and, ultimately, perfect man. 

So, if you are finding it difficult to do good, the need to do it is higher than ever. It’s purifying to know you’re imperfect. The pain we recognize from mistakes and repentance is equivalent to that of antibiotics on a wound, or of fire to unrefined metals—all serve the purpose of restoring or bringing things to, ultimately, an immaculate and healed state. Find the need at some point each day to repent, and if you have something to change, big or small, do so thoroughly and directly. If you don’t, search a little harder. The gospel is all about consistent growth and we can all reap the benefits of joy that come from it!

I love you all!

Elder Wallentine