May 20, 2019

Here's the letter for the week:

Hey Fam! Life is good, things are going really well and I am really enjoying my time in Shelley. I feel like it's drawing to a close soon though, and that's sad. But we'll see. I'm making sure not to take my time for granted. 

Anway, I don't have a ton of time, so I wanted to jump into the message I was thinking about sharing. I wanted to talk about trials and perseverance. I've been getting a lot of emails from friends who are preparing to serve missions soon. They are struggling a lot. And in the one I got today, they were talking about how they just can't feel the Spirit at all. They can't feel anything. Sometimes life is like that. About a month or so ago, I was struggling a lot. I wasn't able to feel the Spirit. I was in a Spiritual lull. I didn't know what to do. I was really struggling and I couldn't feel the Spirit, and I didn't know what was wrong. I struggled for a while in this lull, and didn't know how to fix it. I couldn't deny the fact that I know the church is true. But I had felt this before. And by "this", I mean a lack of any feeling. I have felt nothing before. I was so scared. I studied motivation and dedication non-stop for a week. I read the scriptures more enthusiastically. One day I decided to go in my room, with the quad that I had used to gain a testimony originally. I opened to Helaman 5 and reread the chapter. I felt the Spirit again. I felt what I had years before. I felt God's love. I don't know what's so special about that chapter. And I don't really believe it was entirely because of that chapter that I felt it. I think it was the week leading up to it that did it. The week of constant study. I showed the Lord I cared enough to try harder despite the fact that I wasn't feeling it. And He blessed me for it. Elder Holland, in a talk he gave about some trials he's been through said, "Don't give up. Don't you quit. There is help and happiness ahead. A lot of it. Some blessings come soon. Some come late. And some don't come til Heaven. But for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." My advice is the same. Don't give up. I know you're struggling. But there are so many people rooting for you. Your friends, your family. Angels are surrounding you, cheering you on. God Himself, and His Only Begotten are watching closely, there to catch you when you stumble. So push forward without fear of falling. 

 

Often times fear is what does that to us. Fear of something. As a missionary I'm sure I struggle with different fears than the ones I had back home. My biggest fear? Talking with everyone. There's a talk we read that has helped me, which says,

"Second, consecrated missionaries leave their fears on the sacrificial altar and open their mouths with everyone. This will be one of your great challenges in the mission field. It sometimes separates the consecrated missionaries from the good missionaries. I recognize there may be multiple reasons why someone doesn’t open his mouth at all times and in all places – why he holds back a part of the offering. It could be a timid personality, or a fear of man, or a streak of laziness, but whatever the excuse may be, it must eventually be overcome. It never outweighs the Savior’s command which states: “And thou must open thy mouth at all times.” (DC 28:16). This injunction is repeated again and again in the scriptures. 

On another occasion the Lord said, “At all times and in all places he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump both day and night.” And then comes the promise to those who do: “And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men” (DC 24:12).

 

Sometimes in life we just have to square our shoulders and do it. There is no magic pill that makes us courageous, no passage of time that strengthens us, no memorized approach that emboldens us. We are left only with the compelling counsel of King Benjamin: “And now, if ye believe all these things, see that you do them” (Mosiah 4:19).

If I could as a Mission President, I would have exempted some missionaries who struggled with opening their mouth. I knew how hard it was for them, but I couldn’t. The command to open one’s mouth is not my command. It is not the command of Preach My Gospel, it is not the command of the missionary department, it is the command of the Lord who has spoken on this subject again and again through his living prophets. Sometimes we have to be like Nephi and say, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Ne 3:7). Eventually we must do more than tell the stories of the Book of Mormon; we must live them"

I realized it is the same back home as members of this church. We have covenanted with the Lord to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all places and in all things. Why don't members act like the missionaries they've covenanted to be? Because it is hard. Especially for members. More so for members. They don't have a training center. They don't have councils to help them learn to do missionary work. It is fear that holds us all back. This section of the talk has a favorite quote of mine.

"Sometimes we have missionaries who are so worried about offending people that in the process they never ever save them."

Are we so fearful to open our mouths, so afraid to offend somebody, that we cost them their exaltation and salvation in the end? If so, their lack of knowledge is on our heads. It is our fault. We are responsible. So put your fears on the altar. Cast them aside, and minister to your brothers and sisters. Stop procrastinating out of fear. Let love triumph fear.

-Elder Trezise