April 6, 2020

Elder Legas (now home) facetiming with Elder Trezise and Elder Garrison

Notes that Elder Garrison made regarding pride

Letter for the week:

Hi family! This week was really good! I'm trying to remember everything that happened, haha. It was very eventful. I hope you all had the chance to watch General Conference. And I hope you all went in to conference with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, ready and willing to learn what it is the Lord needed you to learn. I know personally I felt so much hope. I felt so much peace. I don't think I necessarily felt anxious or afraid before the conference, but I know that how I feel now is different. I am so confident and sure that things are going to be okay. I hope that y'all can feel the peace that the Gospel brings. 

I invite each of you to reflect on the Conference. Look back at your favorite talk and listen to it again. Why was it your favorite? What stuck out? What made it different for you? I also invite you to look back at your LEAST favorite talk. Listen to it again. Why do you feel you didn't learn as much from it? What was wrong in your heart that was blocking you from hearing the message the Savior prepared for YOU? 

This week I had a lot of good experiences, most of which came during my personal Gospel study. I read a talk from Elder Utchdorf named, "We are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down." As I read this talk I was filled with the Spirit, and realized that I needed to make some changes in my own life. As I share some quotes from the talk with you I ask you to reflect on your own life and see if your heart and mind is focused on what matters most. Elder Utchdorf says, "Pause for a moment and check where your own heart and thoughts are. Are you focused on the things that matter most? How you spend your quiet time may provide a valuable clue. Where do your thoughts go when the pressure of deadlines is gone? Are your thoughts and heart focused on those short-lived fleeting things that matter only in the moment or on things that matter most?  What grudges do you bear? What excuses do you cling to that keep you from being the kind of husband, father, son, and priesthood holder you know you should be? What are the things that distract you from your duties or hinder you from magnifying your calling more diligently?"

 

The Savior wants us to be happy. He wants us to enjoy life. And the way to do it, or at least to do it with a FULNESS of joy is in and through Him. When we focus our lives around Jesus Christ, when we build our foundation on Him, is when we find true peace. And true joy. But please do not feel guilty if you are not there yet. Elder Holland teaches us that, "the past is to be learned from and not lived in." Whatever shortcomings you have, and whatever mistakes you have made, you can move past. That's one of the amazing gifts that focusing our lives on Christ offers us. We begin to apply the Atonement into our daily lives. And we can feel at peace even for the mistakes we have made in the past. I cannot express the amount of joy this Gospel brings. I cannot tell you how much better our lives are because of it. Turn to Him. Let Him take your burdens. Let Him ease your pain. And when life gets hard, and when you are tempted to turn away, Elder Utchdorf tells us exactly how to respond. Answer by saying, "I am doing a great work, and cannot come down."

 

Remember, 

"It is easy to become distracted—to become focused on one burned-out lightbulb or the impolite acts of unkind people, whatever their motive may be. But think of the power we would have as individuals and as a body of the priesthood if, in response to every temptation to lose focus or lower our standards—the standards of God, we responded, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

We live in times of great challenges and great opportunities. The Lord is seeking men like Nehemiah—faithful brethren who fulfill the oath and covenant of the priesthood. He seeks to enlist unfaltering souls who diligently go about the work of building the kingdom of God—those who, when faced with opposition and temptation, say in their hearts, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

When faced with trial and suffering, they respond, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”  When faced with ridicule and reproach, they proclaim, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

 

Our Heavenly Father seeks those who refuse to allow the trivial to hinder them in their pursuit of the eternal. He seeks those who will not allow the attraction of ease or the traps of the adversary to distract them from the work He has given them to perform. He seeks those whose actions conform to their words—those who say with conviction, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down."

 

My dear family we are all privileged and blessed to have the Gospel in our lives. Don't take it for granted. Don't let the power of the Savior and of His Atonement be negated in your life. Be a part of His work. The Work of Salvation. Do what you were created to do. Find peace in serving something beyond yourself. And when you're tempted to turn selfishly inward, respond to the adversary by saying, "I am doing a great work, and CANNOT come down." 

 

I leave my testimony with you that this is God's church. This is His work. I bear testimony that the Savior lives. That He offers us that which the world cannot offer. I testify that the Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Reading it will bring you more happiness than anything else. I promise you that God is mindful of you. He knows you. He loves you. And He wants you to feel that love. So don't shy away when it comes. Don't forget the past experiences that you've had that express His love. It's far too easy to mistake something as coincidence. Remember, "the tender mercies of the Lord are real. They do not happen by random or by mere coincidence." I love each of you and pray for you daily. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Trezise