Oct. 24, 2018

 So...Elder Trezise's p-day was supposed to be Oct. 22 (Monday) and I had waited all day to hear from him and started to really freak out and send him a lot of crazy emails when I still hadn't heard from him by 7 pm.  I finally got an email from him at 8 saying that he changed his p-day to Wednesday that week so he and his companion could go to the temple.  Whew...Here are some pics he sent.

Elder Nelson

Elder Trezise showing that the cold doesn't bother him (insert eye roll here)

a painting in the Idaho Falls visitor center

Idaho Falls Temple

Elder Trezise and his district in front of the temple

 Here is his letter from this week:

I have eaten plenty of potatoes. They're okay. And I've had a lot of hamburgers. Also okay. They're no chicken, that's for sure. I did get your package! Thank you so much! It was awesome! The candy was gone within a day between Elder Nelson and I, and the balloons we gave to the VanOrdens. They're a family of non members we're teaching, and they have 5 kids under the age of 10, and another on the way. They LOVED the balloons. I miss Ollie a ton. Whenever I see a dog I think of my baby. You should pray to see if you should get another dog. Praying is the best, and if you're doing it sincerely, you'll get an answer. Read Moroni 10:3-5. It is up to us to choose to accept the Gospel or not. Alma and the sons of Mosiah changed because they knew it was the right thing to do. Elder Bednar once was talking to a group of missionaries when one of the missionaries asked, "Sometimes during a lesson it's clear that the Spirit is there. However, the investigator STILL won't accept the message...why?" Elder Bednar answered by saying, "By teaching with the Spirit we can bring a message, or truth directly TO someone's heart. But, they have agency, and it is up to them to accept the message or not." We need to choose to grow. No matter how difficult it is. After Alma the younger repents of his sins he states,

"17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more

20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy."

A harrow is a farming tool that is basically a large grate with barbed wire around it. Alma, during his conversion process felt the weight of all his sins on top of the harrow, ripping into him. That intense, destroying pain is only a sliver of what Christ felt. We need to choose to change.

I never got to post the video on facebook I wanted to, but it is a video from Elder Holland and President Eyring. Elder Holland, in the video is talking to a group of mission presidents, so you can't find the video elsewhere I don't think, but he says,

"Presidents you will have occasions to ask, and your missionaries will have many occasions to ask, "Why is this so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can't our success be more rapid? Why aren't there more people joining the church? It is the truth, we believe in angels. Why don't people just flock to the font? Why isn't the only risk in the mission field pneumonia? Just being soaking wet all day and all night from being in the font? Why isn't it easier President? Why don't they understand President? Why do they reject us President? Can't they see this?" These are things that a 19, or a 21 year old will ask. They're things that I've asked. I've thought about it a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling, it's not church doctrine per say, it's just my feeling to you as you prepare to go into the mission field. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because SALVATION IS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE. Salvation was never easy! We are the Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth. He is our great eternal head. Why would we believe, why would we think, that it would be easy for us when it was NEVER easy for Him? In turn, how could we possibly bear any moving, lasting testimony of the Atonement, if we've never known or felt anything of such an experience. As missionaries we are proud to say we are disciples of Jesus Christ, and we are! But mark my word. That means you must be prepared to walk something of the path He walked, to feel something, SOMETHING, a little, of the pain He felt. To at least occasionally, sometime during your mission, shed one of the tears of sorrow that He shed. Now please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that we have to look for sorrow, or that we are going to experience anything anywhere NEAR what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and frankly sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, missionaries AND investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to come to repentance, to come to know something of the price that has been payed, have to pay a token of that same price. It'll only be a token. But it has to be payed. I don't believe that missionary work has ever been easy. Nor that conversion is. Nor that retention is. Nor that faithfulness in the Church is. I believe it's supposed to require something of our soul! If Jesus could plead in the night, falling on His face, bleeding from every poor, and crying, "Father, Abba, Papa! Remove this cup from me!" Well little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for a missionary. This is the Living Son of the Living God saying, "Isn't there some other way?" So, Presidents, if your missionaries wonder why this isn't easy, they should remember they're not the first ones to ask that. Someone a lot greater, and a lot better asked it a long time ago. He asked if there wasn't a less excruciating way. And for Him, there wasn't. And so perhaps for us, in token symbolism, there won't be an entirely easy way either. Now Presidents, if they can come to love and appreciate it, the Atonement will carry them. Perhaps, even more important than it will carry their investigators. You let them know that when they struggle, when they are rejected, when they are cast out, and spit upon, and made a hiss and a byword, they are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life this world has EVER known. The only pure and perfect missionary that ever lived. They have every reason to stand tall, and be grateful to know that the Savior and Redeemer of the world knows all about their afflictions. And for a moment or two in their lives, they will understand what He went through."

The Atonement carries me every step I take. I love my Savior, and understand that He had to feel EVERY PAIN, EVERY SORROW, EVERY SIN, EVERY PIECE OF GUILT, SADNESS, AND AFFLICTION THAT ANY OF US HAS TO FEEL. I love this Gospel, and know it to be true. I could continue for hours, but I have to go. I love you and the whole family, and KNOW, with an absolute surety that I am doing what my Savior wants me to do. And that is all that I ever want to do.

-Elder Trezise