Hello Friends and Family! The title of this e-mail, “For Your Safety – Please Hold On”, comes from the transit busses I ride every day here in New West. As we were on our way to the Justice Institute to email this morning, I looked at and pondered on these words. In a temporal sense (and especially on busses) it just makes sense. The busses here are pretty unpredictable when they are in motion. You could be cruising along one moment, and then violently stopping the next so you don’t destroy the car in front of you. If the bus is full (which it tends to be a lot of the time) and you don’t have your hand on a bar or one of the loops hanging from it, you might just find yourself slamming into another person or super-awkwardly falling on someone sitting down. Either way, it usually doesn’t end well. So it is of the utmost importance that you HOLD ON at all times!
I’m not sure why those words struck me so much this morning, but I felt prompted to talk about them for just a bit. We are all familiar with the vision of the tree of life recorded in 1 Nephi 8. The Iron Rod, representing the word of God, is what led the righteous to the tree of life so that they could partake of the fruit–eternal life. When Elder Daniel L. Johnson of the seventy visited our mission, he trained on this vision. He called it a “white knuckle experience”. Those, holding so tightly to the rod that their knuckles turned white, were the ones that made it through the mists or temptations of the adversary, and were diligent with the word of God that they might win the prize. I know for a fact that God loves us. That is why he begs and pleads with us to “Please Hold On”. As I have gone through trials and tribulations on my mission (because they definitely don’t just stop when you’re on your mission!) I have prayed for guidance, direction, strength, you name it, I’ve probably prayed for it at some point. But the strongest and most common answer that the Spirit has brought to me has always been, “Keep your faith.” Or in essence, “Please hold on.” “Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee… fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:9)
My Brothers and Sisters, I love you so much. And He does too. He loves us so much that he’s given us the Atonement and the Gospel which revolves around it. That, to me, is his true expression of love to us. He has made it possible to change, to be forgiven of our faults and sin, and to eventually be perfected so that we may live with Him again. I testify that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of salvation to all who will come and partake of it. We are saved through the mercy of Christ and through Him we are cleansed from sin. I love the Lord and that knowledge has stuck with me amidst trials of every shape and size. Everything that happens to us is for our good. For our safety from this world of sin, I pray that we may all hold on and grow our faith in God. I testify and add my witness to the redeeming power of the Atonement, to the truthfulness of the Gospel and to God’s love for us. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
–Elder Rushton
This week was really good for us here in New West! Although it rained a LOT near the end of the week, it was pretty warm and nice for the most part! We had a huge miracle with an investigator named (who is from Nigeria I believe) and her three kids coming to church!!! That was sweet. Our other friend who was doing so well —kind of fell a little bit, so hopefully this week we can strengthen his faith again. We also had a good exchange with the Burnaby Elders where we talked to LOTS of people around Metrotown and taught some good lessons in the food court! It may not be the greatest environment for the spirit… But at least it’s a place to sit down and be dry. One of their investigators we taught, is probably the most prepared East Indian guy I’ve ever met! He’s so cool! And his kids will probably be getting baptized with him whenever that happens. We also had a great ward conference on Sunday too where the Stake President threw down on the trinity!! It was extra crazy, because one of our investigators, who came, is SUPER catholic! But luckily, she didn’t seem to mind at all. One step closer to the water!
Those are the cool things that happened this week. We met a lot of crazy people too (as always). Apparently Scientology is creating Artificial Intelligence that will destroy the Catholic Church… Yep, pretty typical week in New Westminster haha. Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all! Talk to you later!
–Elder Rushton The Third
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