Hello everyone!
This is yet another weekly letter from your favorite missionary in the Mexican
MTC. Probably your only missionary in the CCM. I know this letter is long, but
I hope you read all of it. I hope you are inspired.
Well, Spanish has been
improving, and Elder Berry and I taught a full lesson in Spanish a couple days
ago. That was good. Honestly, this week was more difficult than normal. I guess
I just felt more tired and unambitious than normal. Hopefully, I'll be able to
get back in the groove this week.
This week's Spiritual
thought is about Enduring to the end. I believe I already talked about this,
but I have some additional insights.
Enduring to the end can
be defined as "staying valiant to the commandments during times of
exhaustion, temptation, and failure." It is hard to keep the simple
commandments, like be patient, long suffering, have pure desires, he full of
love, etc. etc. when life isn't going for you. When your friends seem to mock
you, and your family seems to criticize you, and your financial troubles seem
to overthrow you. But to endure to the end means that your obedience is
independent of your circumstances. You obey the commandments like be happy,
faithful, and hopeful, regardless if you feel happy or not. Or faithful or not.
Or hopeful or not.
A great example of this
endurance was Christ. The perfect example. Keep with me as I narrate a part of
his life in perhaps a new perspective. Christ has just finished the passover,
or the Last Supper, and brings 3 of his most valiant apostles with him to watch
him endure in the Garden of Gethsemane. Christ goes in, and when he returns, he
finds these apostles asleep. He wakes them, and goes back in. During this time
in the Garden, he endured the all physical pains, emotional suffering, broken
hearts, and shattered spirits of the human family. What awful pain that must
have been. And when he comes out, I can imagine that he'd be not angry, but
perhaps disappointed that his friends could not stay awake for him. Soon after,
another one of his closest friends betrays him into the hands of his enemies. How
hard would that be. You have spent your entire life teaching this man, and this
is how he returns the favor.
So then Christ is
taken, tried, and condemned by the priests and teachers of Israel. He is then
mocked, spit, beat, and publicly shamed. Here is the Savior of the world, being
laughed at and scorned by the very people he suffered for. And he knows this, yet
he keeps his peace. He is then whipped, beaten, and literally a band or thorns
is pushed into his head. Ouch. What awful pain. Then wounds still fresh,
bleeding, having been deprived of sleep, and certainly exhausted, the Lamp of
God is forced to carry his own cross, a type of alter, until he literally
collapses underneath its weight.
But did he ask why he
had to go through this pain? Did he plea for a break? Did he ask God what did
he do to deserve this? No. He would keep the commandments till the end. However
long that might be. However much pain he would have to face. And then he was
crucified. The nails driven through his palms. Have any one of us been stabbed
by something so that it pierces the other side of your flesh, and then forced
to hang by it? I can't even imagine. I just can't.
And, then, Christ's
final prayer was "forgive them, for they know not what they do." His
last and final thought was to bless those who had caused him all this torture.
And then it was over. The Son of God did it. He endured to the end. The bitter,
bitter end. And because of it, we can too. There is no pain, suffering, or
trial he can't lead us through. Because he did, we too can "stay valiant
to the commandments during times of exhaustion, temptation, and failure."
I hope that when we are
tired, and lonely, and sick, and angry, that we may have the courage and virtue
to endure. Even if it takes your life. Nothing will make you happier and
content than knowing that you did it. You endured to the end. Though adversity
and trials, though those times when you really really wanted to be selfish, and
though all pain. You did it! I cannot imagine the peace that the Savior felt
after his death. He did it, and now he would no longer have to feel any more
pain, ever again. It was over. Let us try. We may fail, but enduring is
continuing despite failure.
I miss you all, and
can't wait to see you again soon!
-Elder Goss
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