January 7, 2013

Dear Mom,

                Sorry the package got beat up, but luckily mostly everything survived. The beanie is for Riker, the Swiss knife is a fingernail clipper that is for you. And the book about Einsiedeln is also for Riker. I am pretty sure that is everything. So good that it all arrived.
                No, I haven`t seen my flight plans, and I don`t want to know them! As for being released, the longer I am a missionary, the better. Whatever you decide is the best. As well as for my talk. It doesn`t matter to me. 
                Well for New Years Eve.... of course we stayed up until 12! First we went to The Sannemanns, they are an older couple, and we had dinner with them, and they told us about their mission to Estonia. Then we went to Yuri and celebrated the New Year with him and his kids. 
                Anyways, stake conference sounds like it went well. Our week here went really well. We met with Bruno Leber, the guy from Colombia we found last week, and had a great appointment. We have another appointment this week, and hopefully everything will continue to go well. We also met with Andre, a cool guy from Switzerland again, (we had lost contact in the last few weeks) and we had a great appointment with him. He was super excited to come to church, but didn`t end up coming. We will have to see what happened. 
                Otherwise things are going well. Yuri is making progress, slowly but surely. We read 3 Nephi 17 with him last night. 
                Oh, we still don`t have much snow here. And by not much I mean none. But that is okay. I still love it. 
                So we have started to reread the Book of Mormon again this year as a mission, and I have chosen to study the themes of humility and pride. And today I read 1 Nephi 8. I was rather interested in the wording of verse 30, describing the people who made it to the tree of life. 
                30 But, to be short in writing, behold, he saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the ^arod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.
The words I found interesting  was the words "fell down". Normally, I was to talk about getting fruit from tree, I would say something about reaching up, or climbing, but apparently to eat the fruit of the tree of life we must fall down. That is because the tree of life is a representation of the Love of God. (1 Nephi 11:25) And ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonly begotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife.
                The tree of life represents Jesus Christ. Now the experience of the people in this dream is very similar to the events in 3 Nephi when the savior appears. 

                8 And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they ^asaw a Man ^bdescending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.

9 And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:

10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

11 And behold, I am the ^alight and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter ^bcup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in^ctaking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the ^dwill of the Father in all things from the beginning.

12 And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude ^afell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been ^bprophesiedamong them that Christ should ^cshow himself unto them after his ascension into heaven. 

13 And it came to pass that the ^aLord spake unto them saying:

14 Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may ^athrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may ^bfeel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the ^cGod of Israel, and the God of the whole ^dearth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.

15 And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and ^adid feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.

16 And when they had all gone forth and had witnessed for themselves, they did cry out with one accord, saying:

17 Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did ^aworship him.

                Now why is this even important to notice? And why are they falling down? I think it has to do with the meaning of the word Hosanna. It means "please save us" or "save us now".  Now combine this with our understanding of falling down, or coming short, missing the mark, not measuring up, or in the case of Peter walking on the water, beginning to sink into a sea of fears and doubts. The truth is that we all fall down sometimes in life, but as Moroni taught, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them."

                I know that if we will humbly "fall down" at the feet of our Savior, then we truly will be made strong, and we will be able say with the apostle Paul, "I can do all things through ^aChrist which ^bstrengtheneth me."

I love you, and hope you have a great week!

Liebe

Elder Terry

ps I suggest reading this talk. 

http://www.lds.org/ensign/1990/04/beauty-for-ashes-the-atonement-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng&query=%22beauty+for+ashes%22