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| Pizza Night |
This
week was a little crazy with meetings and other things we had to do, so we
barely even had time to work in our area. This weekend alone we saw President
Videla 4 times in 3 different cities. (Zone conference in Colina on Friday,
District conference in Colina on Saturday, the other half of District
conference on Sunday in Lampa and a special meeting for all the ward mission leaders
in the mission in Santiago on Sunday night) Even though we did miss a lot of
time working in our sector, the meetings were all spiritually edifying and I
learned quite a bit.
Zone
conference was special because:
- It was just our zone
- The assistants didn’t go so we had to do the part of the zone leaders and assistants.
Among the responsibilities were: setting up everything,
directing, giving a report, teaching a class, doing a demonstration directing a
council, and taking everything down. (A lot of our part was filmed and sent to
the next mission president that will be here in July) My whole mission I’ve
been a part of giant zone conferences with multiple huge zones, so it was
really nice the way it was done this time.
One thing we talked about is a program called Open Chapel.
It started in Mexico, then spread to Argentina and now it’s coming here. We
watched a video to introduce the idea to us and while we watched, a sister
missionary blurted out, “that’s me!!”. We realized afterwards that there was a
photo of her because it was through an open chapel activity that she was
introduced to the gospel and baptized. She is currently serving here in this
branch (Lampa). It’s cool seeing the fruits of these efforts right in front of
our eyes.
One of the themes of this weekend was obedience, especially
the “why”. Why should we be obedient to God’s commandments? The answer lies
somewhere in the gospel of John chapters 14 and 15.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments”
“He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is
that loveth me”
“If a man loves me, he will keep my words”
“But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as
the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us hence”
“If we keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even
as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love”
This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have
loved you”
Why do we obey God’s commandments? Because we love God. True
obedience should never come from fear nor any purpose other than love of God.
The essence of the commandments is love.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind…Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself”
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”
As we closely examine all the commandments we will find they
all boil down to a testing of a love for God and our neighbor. The essence of
the commandments is love, and this love I have felt abundantly as I have
strived to be obedient here in the mission. I invite everyone (myself included)
to examine their motives and personal obedience and to set goals and make plans
in order to feel more of this perfect love of Christ.
All’s good here in Lampa. Highlights of the week was
probably the selfie my comp and I took on President Videla’s cellphone. I’ll
try to get that picture. I included some pictures here so you can visualize the
sector a little bit.
Love,
Elder Birrell
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| Wide open spaces in Lampa |
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| Finally on a bike! |
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| Hitchhiking to Family Home Evening |
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| FHE with la familia |
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