Prologue

      The rest of the posts in this blog (or email chain) will be letters describing what is happening on my mission.  The kind of experiences I’m having, what I’m learning, and most importantly the kind of service I will be aiding in.  But before I go I felt it would be appropriate to share the kinds of experiences I’ve had the last few weeks that have helped me prepare and feel ready for the two years ahead of me.  So there ya have it.

     I had an odd dream a few nights ago that made me think a lot.  I was in a place that resembled heaven, it was completely white and architectural but there was no ceiling, the architecture simply stretched forever skyward.  I saw two people that looked identical standing side by side.  Though originally I assumed they were the Father and the Son, I had the distinct impression that one of them was Jehovah and the other was Lucifer.  I approached them and one of them said to me “It is time for you to choose whom ye will serve, God or mammon.”  I replied “Which of you are Jehovah and which of you are Lucifer?” to which the other replied, “That is for you to determine.”

     I know, of course, had this been a real life situation that God and Satan would not be difficult to tell apart.  God has such glory that one needs to be transfigured in order to see Him, and Satan does not.  Also Satan most likely doesn’t make a habit of going to heaven to chill with God.  But regardless of these obvious impossibilities in the dream, I think that this dream highlights an interesting element of truth.  In everything we do, we must determine which we are serving:  God or mammon.  Though Adam and Eve partook of the fruit giving them knowledge of good and evil, it is still our responsibility and our right to determine through our own experience which is which.  The only way to live the law of consecration – that is to consecrate all you have to the Lord – is to serve God in every action and thought.  In some cases it’s very difficult to determine how to serve God rather than mammon, these cases are when we ask that question.  However, these cases are also when we receive divine assistance.  Though we are asked to determine what is good and what is evil, we are not asked to do it without help.  It’s a very simple doctrine, that we need to find how to serve God in every action in thought, but I believe this dream may have been a message to me on how to live my mission.  With perfect obedience comes blessings, and living the law of consecration is the higher law of obedience.  Though the question I asked in the dream seems silly, I now feel prepared to ask it my entire mission, and hopefully my entire life.

     I had another experience a few weeks ago that did teach me, but more so inspired me with confidence.  I had decided that day to take the frontrunner and trax to Salt Lake City to go to a session at the Salt Lake City Temple.  After the session I sat at the trax station in City Creek waiting for a tram going to Salt Lake Central.  Next to me were two men who I’d guess were in there 40’s or 50’s.  They were clearly very poor, as their clothes were worn and they were both filthy.  They were both eating lunches that they had just gotten from a Catholic church down the street.  One of them got on a trax heading to Sandy and the other asked me if I knew if the other train pulling up to the station was headed to Salt Lake Central.  I replied that I wasn’t sure because Salt Lake City and the trax are a maze.  He said that he had just come from Denver and that he was unfamiliar with everything in the area as well.  As I’m sure all of you know I’m a pretty shy person, and because of that, conversations with random people don’t come easily with me, much less conversations with random people about religion.  But I got talking with this man, and that conversation is one of the most treasured experiences of my life thus far.  Upon discovering that I was LDS he told me he was devout Catholic and later ended up telling me about his relationship with God and how much He means to him.  I got an impression that he wasn’t prepared to hear the message restored gospel quite yet, but that I could help prepare him.  So I told him that in the kind of mess we live in today that I was just very glad to meet a devout Christian.  I told him that regardless of what some people think and arguments some members have over doctrine, we’re all on the same side because we’re fighting for the same goal.  He agreed with me wholeheartedly.  The trax came about then and we both got on the train facing opposite each other and resumed our conversation.  We talked about my mission call, some of his life experiences (of which he had many, he was kind of a vagrant) and all kinds of things.  The best part though were the sniggers we got on the train, I was dressed in a suit and he was filthy and at least 3 decades older than me but were talking like best buds.  It’s funny how wealthier people think that people of different classes shouldn’t be friends.  When he left the train, he wished me luck on my mission and I wished him luck finding a job.  He then told me “God Bless You” through the window before disappearing out of sight.  I’ve put his name on the temple roll of every temple I’ve gone to since. 

     I’m sure I’ll have hundreds of similar experiences on my mission, and that makes me more excited than anything.  I realized after that experience that the Lord has blessed me with more of an ability to talk to people I don’t know than I previously thought.  I know I was helped throughout that experience too, and I know that I will be helped throughout my mission as well.

     Well I guess that was only two experiences but I’m getting lazy.  I’ve had more these past few weeks, but they don’t make as good stories.  I feel prepared for the two years that are going to be coming up.  A big part of that preparation has been going to the temple as much as I possibly could.  It has made a huge difference in my life, and it has made me feel more prepared than anything else.  With that I bid adieu.  I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the restored church of Jesus Christ.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God called to bring up Christ’s church in the last dispensation of the earth.  I know that he translated the Book of Mormon and that the Book of Mormon is an inspired book written by holy prophets for our day.  I know that our prophet and apostles are prophets, seers, and revelators, and thereby receive prophecy, vision, and revelation on behalf of all people.  I know that the power of the Priesthood is the power of God given to us to bring about the salvation of all people.  I know that Jesus Christ lives and is the Son of God and atoned for all of God’s children so that death has no sting and grave no victory, that we may all be justified, sanctified, and resurrected.

  Farewell, see ya in two.