Ran into the Shaytards at Deseret Book!
They are an awesome LDS family, who make daily videos on Youtube!
They have like 3 million subscribers!!!
They live in Idaho, but were here in SLC for their anniversary :)
Gilgal Gardens!
An old Bishop back in the day (1940's)
sculpted a whole garden full of LDS doctrine.
Yeah, that's Joseph Smith as a Sphinx. Kinda weird. lol
Hey!!
Some days can feel
like weeks, but some weeks can feel like days! That was definitely the case
this week.
A lot of great work is
going on here in the downtown Salt Lake Pioneer YSA stake. Everyone is just
getting home from holiday and there is so much potential that we will make the
most of in the next few months! We fasted yesterday with a girl we are teaching
named Liz, from Vietnam! She is 18 and is currently going to LDS Business
College downtown. She lives with her sister who is a recent convert, so she is
surrounded by great people. We fasted with her in order to help her receive
that life-changing answer she is looking for. Good things are in store for her!
Yesterday at church, 6
of 7 recent coverts in one of our wards came to church yesterday and one of
them taught the Gospel Principles class!! It is great to see retention and to see
them progress in the Gospel! Brittany,
who was just baptized about a month ago, went to the Temple for the first time
to do baptisms for the dead this week! Darius, baptized in September, got the
Aaronic Priesthood yesterday. Like I
said, great things are happening! :) How blessed we are as missionaries to see
the conversion process of these individuals, first hand! I love it! It
strengthens my testimony and conversion.
Yesterday, I was
privileged to speak in one of the wards that we cover. Bishop told me I could pick any topic, so I decided to speak on the
subject of Personal Conversion. Over the
past 18 months or so, the Lord has made it very clear to me that only the
deeply converted with survive. Here are
a few points from my talk…
Why is being personal
converted unto the Lord even important?
In order to be able to
stand strong against the trials that life has to offer, we need to do all we
can to build our foundation upon Christ. I've seen many people out here in the field
who, when faced with a difficult trial, have nothing more than sand to stand
upon. When they do not have a solid
foundation to stand on when challenges come, there is a loss of hope and
courage. I know that as we do our best to become converted unto the Lord, he
will be able to help us through those trials. If we don't, unfortunately, we
are on our own.
Testimony and
Conversion, although both essential, are not the same thing.
"Knowing that the gospel is true, is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion. We should know the gospel is true and be true to the gospel." -Elder Bednar
Testimony alone will
not be enough to stand up against the adversary. We must be consistently true
and faithful to the light and knowledge we receive from God. That is how we
become converted.
May I suggest 5 simple
ways that we can help ourselves to become more converted unto the Lord:
1.) Use the Atonement.
Repent daily. We need to humble ourselves, get on our knees, say "Heavenly
Father I know I’m doing these things wrong, please forgive me and help me to be
better." Then change.
2.) Drop our
"weapons for rebellion" (Alma 23). Such as pride, disobedience,
selfishness, nasty habits. We can't keep fighting against the Lord with these
things. He can't help us until we are ready to help ourselves.
3.) Recognize and
remember your Divine Potential. We are each a son or daughter of a Heavenly
Father. We have potential to become as He. Every single one of us has this
potential! A missionary from China, in
our last Zone Meeting, gave an analogy in his broken English. He said, a puppy
grows up to be a dog. A kitty grows up to be a cat. What does a son or daughter
of God grow up to be?
4.) CPR. Visit the
Temple regularly. Family Home Evening. Be in places where God can work with us.
Do what you know you need to do and go where you know you need to be. Make
goals to accomplish these things.
5.) Strive to have a Christ
like character. Faith, hope, love,
charity, diligence, obedience, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility. Chapter 6
of Preach My Gospel outlines this very effectively. Study it!
I know as we all do
all we can to become personally converted unto Him, our burdens will be
lighter. We will have so much for power to overcome challenges that are thrown
at us. We will be able to prove ourselves worthy to return and live with our
Loving Father. The only lasting happiness available can be
found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Keep it up, the Lord
will bless you for it!!
Love,
Elder Carroll
My favorite scripture this week: "And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them—yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away." (Alma 23:6)
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