Woodstock Letter #15

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Leshelle in her bridesmaid outfit

to wear on her sister Monica's wedding day.

Leshelle, in Woodstock, matched her mom and sisters, in San Diego!



President Fenn, our new mission president, shared TONS of awesome things with us. He is a great leader and a great man.

"Love is an acquired virtue. You don't always have it. It must be earned", he said. He then added, "it comes through prayer (Moroni 7:48); you acquire love as you are righteous" We receive power from heaven when we are righteous. Perhaps we can specify that we receive the heavenly power to love when we are righteous, and when we ask for it. The greatest things we can do in this life are to learn to 1-love as the Savior loved; and, 2-think as the Savior thought. In other words: Charity and Virtue. Virtue is a laser-like focus on that which is of eternal significance. It is the determination to focus on things that do not distract from faith, but develop faith. It is to be constantly, unceasingly trying to put our lives in harmony with the Savior.

As I was studying this morning, I was not able to continue past a particular verse: 3 Nephi 20:26 after I read it,  I was prompted to keep studying and pondering it. Knowing it was the Spirit, I went with it. I followed footnotes and the mental footnote to Preach My Gospel, page 4: The power and authority of your calling. I've always had a little thing for the words "set apart". It is far more than having hands laid on your head. Spencer W. Kimball covers some of my feelings about it: "The setting apart may be taken literally, it is a setting apart from sin, apart from the carnal; apart from everything which is crude, low, vicious, cheap, or vulgar; set apart from the world to a higher plane of thought and activity. The blessing is conditional upon faithful performance" (PMG, pg.4). In my copy of Preach My Gospel, I've added a few things. One particular addition is that we are set apart from ourselves; we are set apart from the person we used to be; set apart from habits, thoughts, words, or actions of the past that distract us from our ultimate goal of living in complete harmony with the Savior's will. We are set apart from who we once were, thereby beginning the conversion into who the Lord sees in us.

Spanish is what caught me up in this process: in Spanish, 3 Nephi 20:26 says "apartado" (set apart), while it says "turning away" in English. So, I combined the two, substituting the Spanish version of "set apart" in the following two scriptures:

3 Nephi 20:26
the Father "sent me [Christ] to bless you in SETTING APART every one of you from his iniquities; and this because ye are the children of the covenant"

Proverbs 16:6
"By mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord men are SET APART from evil"

As missionaries, we are not simply set apart so that we can wear a badge for two years or 18 months. We are set apart for life. For eternity. We are set apart from ourselves - our own evils and iniquities; set apart from anything which falls short of celestial glory. However, just as President Kimball said: "This blessing is conditional upon faithful performance". We need to do our part. As we follow the Gospel, and follow the Spirit's individualized promptings, we change our hearts -  thereby confirming the setting apart which we have received. Alma 19:33 reports such a group of people who took the action necessary in order to allow themselves to be set apart in the Lord's way: "their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil".

That was my fun study this morning. I've added these thoughts into my Preach My Gospel. I was not set apart to merely be a missionary for 18 months. I was not merely set apart for each of my previous callings in the Church. Each time, I am set apart to be more like Christ. We are set apart each time we attend the Temple, and every single week as we partake of the sacred Sacrament. If we will but follow Him in order to confirm this, we WILL be set apart in every way that He has designed.

Have a great week!
Love, Leshelle