Hey ya'll! :)
IT IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY. The sun is shining, the tank is clean....
But seriously, it`s a great day. It`s like 70 degrees Fahrenheit outside (I have started thinking more in Celsius so that conversion was difficult for me) and I have been walking outside without a coat or sweater on for the first time since like August. It`s wonderful. Canadian spring is really something.
Well, we have had a kind of crazy week. We had lots of meetings and then some exchanges, and our schedule got thrown out of wack almost every day this week. It`s been insane. I am convinced that the Lord is trying to teach me to roll with the punches that life throws; I guess that`s part of what all of us need to learn sometimes.
I had an interesting experience this past week on the métros. Elder Valencia and I were going to a meeting on the opposite side of the island, which is about a thirty minute metro ride. So we were talking to some different people as each metro station passed. When we were nearing the end of the line, with a few stations to go, I heard someone yell and looked over to see two teenagers talking to a middle-aged man. They all looked pretty angry. The situation escalated quickly, and as they got into each other`s faces, the older man shoved one of the teenagers and he fell backward against on of the seats. Everyone quickly moved away as the fight broke out. Quickly another man shoved his way between them, as they continued to scream at one another. Finally the teenagers got off the train and the older man stood back. The anger and pride on the faces of all three was so evident, and as the metro pulled away, I was struck by a thought.
As missionaries, we have been sharing the #PrinceofPeace initiative all the time recently. (For those of you who haven`t seen it yet, go to mormon.org
right now and watch the video because it`s amazing). The basis of the initiative is that, in a world so full of pride and sin and anger and hate and war and famine and a thousand other terrible things, the promise of Jesus Christ is peace. True, lasting, heartfelt peace.
The contrast between the message we were striving to share and the fight I had just witnessed was so evident. I realized just how much peace has been brought into my life by the Savior; how much He has changed the way I think and the way I feel. I react so differently in so many situations than I did in the past. I`m not perfect and I still have my prideful moments; but I can confidently say that I have found great peace in the Prince of Peace.
Sometimes we can get so busy and frustrated that we neglect to stop and think about what we`re busy doing, to prioritize the gospel of the great Peacegiver. My favorite definition of the gospel of Jesus Christ is this: God`s plan of happiness, applied individually to each of us. Christ`s gospel is not a series of arbitrary rules, given to inhibit man's free agency, but rather a perfect and carefully thought out set of directions, which, if we choose to follow with that gift of free agency so lovingly given by our Heavenly Father, will allow us to obtain and preserve true peace and joy, as much in this life as afterward. How foolish we are when we choose to disobey, thinking that we can navigate this life without a guide, or ignore a certain direction because, somewhere in our minds, we think "we know better." We`ve only known ourselves since birth; our Heavenly Father has known us for much longer than that. He knows what will make all of us happy; thus, through His Son, and through prophets ancient and modern, He has given us commandments.
Let us live the gospel! Let us keep the commandments; in this there is safety and peace!
En avant!
Elder Bryan McOmber
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