Dec. 9, 2019

 From Elder Trezise:

Hey family! This week was... interesting. As y'all know, on Monday, we lost our keys. That was super stressful. Generally, I'd like to think I'm not an anxious person. Anxiety is worrying about the future, depression is living in the past right? Well honestly, I don't worry about the future too much. I feel like I've got a grip on things. But losing the keys has been super stressful. And on top of that, we got a brand new car on Thursday... like BRAND new. A 2020 Toyota Sienna. It's super similar to our van bar home. But I'm not the driver. Elder Brown is. And literally after 1 day he wrecked the front bumper. So that's stressful too. The man is the worst driver on the planet. Like seriously. 

But things will work out. It's been hard, for sure, but nothing I can't handle. That's actually what I wanted to talk about. Trials. Because this week has sure felt like a trial. Everything is going wrong. It's insane. And at the beginning of the week I found myself asking, "Why?!?" At first in an angry way, and then in a pleading way. But on Tuesday, when I was in the temple I realized I shouldn't be asking why. I should be asking, "WHAT can I do to fix this?" Or, "How can I make this better?" And from that I've learned a lot. I've learned that our trials don't determine our happiness or sadness levels. As President Nelson said, "Joy has little to do with the circumstances of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives." I stopped focusing on myself so much. And my trials so much. I started serving my companions. I make their beds every morning. I wash their dishes. I cook them breakfast. Because if you're struggling, you need to focus outward. Not inward. Now, this isn't some magic pill that'll fix everything. I am still struggling. I pray for patience and for charity every single day. All the time. But things have gotten easier. And I can say that I see a very visible impact in my stress levels. I'm not constantly stressed out. And although things are hard, I see myself growing. And I see how much more growing I can do.

 

I often relate this to a glass. Let's say our testimony is water in a glass. You pour the water in, and it gets pretty close to the top of the glass. But as you go through trials, the Savior says, "Okay, you're getting close to filling your glass. Here." And He takes a pitcher and dumps it in their. It's the same amount of water right? Your testimony is the same. But the glass is bigger. From the inside you look up and see this mountain of a cup that you have to climb. You were doing so good. Why did He pour you into a bigger one? Because unlike us, the Savior can see our divine potential. He sees our ability to keep climbing and growing daily. He sees the outside. But we just see the inside. He knows us better than we know ourselves. But as we look up, we have a choice. The choice to either say, "That's way too high! I can't do that! How am I going to get all the way up there?!" Or, we can look up and say, "I better start climbing. It doesn't matter why the glass got bigger. What matters is that it is. And what am I going to do about it?" 

 

Spencer W. Kimball, who had an incredibly hard life once said, “There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, ‘Give me this mountain,’ give me these challenges.” He understood that when we our poured into a bigger glass, we can progress. When we get to the top of 1, we feel so accomplished. We just want to stay there, right? But the Lord knows we can go further. He throws a mountain our way. And then we can climb again. When we get to the top of that pitcher, what would happen if we poured it back into the original glass. It would overflow. We have progressed so much that the point that we were so content with before has become miniscule. Inconsequential. That is the amazing thing about the Gospel. "Improvement and progression have one eternal round." I know life is hard. I know things are rough. But understand that everything happens for a purpose. And the Master can see the bigger picture that we can't see. Our faith shaking trials are really just bigger glasses, letting us move our way up a little bit more, and a little bit more. 

 

I urge each of you to view your trials as a refining fire. As a way to grow. A way to become better. Never ask God "why." It doesn't matter why. Accept the fact that He knows a lot more than you, and knows what He's doing. It's up to you to use your agency in the way that'll let you grow. It's up to you to choose positivity or negativity. I love each of you. I am grateful to you. Y'all are amazing! Keep pushing! Climb those mountains! Pour a little bit more water into that glass! I know that everything happens for a divine reason! Love ya! Talk to you next week!

-Elder Trezise