Dear Mom and Dad,
It was so great to talk to you!!! It really does seem like yesterday that we talked at Christmas time, and yet that was almost 5 months ago!!! Time truly is flying by so fast! Please give my best to Elder Connor Yost as he goes into the MTC this week! I'm so proud of him, and I know that he'll be a great missionary.
Happy Mother's day to all the Mothers! Especially to you Mom! This week brought some good challenges and experiences. I feel like I'm really being stretched to my limit right now. It seems like one of the big themes I've seen this week is the need for us to pray to know, to really come to know the truth.
This week I was on exchanges and worked in another area. We taught a sister who has been taught by many missionaries and has yet to really commit to act. She says she believes the Book of Mormon is true and that she wants to be baptized, but her husband is against it and there's nothing she can do. We taught her about the Restoration, Book of Mormon and everything else in lesson one. We got towards the end of the lesson and I asked if she believed what we had taught her. She said, "Of course! How could it not be true! It's the word of God." I then asked, "Sister, have you knelt down, prayed, and asked God if this is his church?" There was a pause and she said, "Well I don't need to get baptized because God understands, and he loves me right? He knows I can't get baptized." Well, no matter what she says, it all comes down to the fact that she doesn't know because she has never asked. She will never progress until she kneels down, and asks God in prayer. This is God's set way! Every person needs to ask and really come to know and feel the truth.
God is a God of love. God is love! He is also a God of laws. For some people this is hard to understand, because they almost seem to clash, when in reality the both need each other. Many people like this sister say, "God loves me! I'm his child! He's sent Christ to atone for me, and he did that. He knows me and understands me and my problems. He understands that I'm not quite able to go to church, or that I'm busy and I don't have time to read the Book of Mormon. He knows my heart, and he'll save me. This is something I've struggled with a lot of my mission, how do you answer this and help them understand, and yet not offend them. Some of their argument is true, however, they're missing some key ingredients. There are two laws, justice and mercy. Justice requires that for every sin a punishment must be paid. Justice must always be kept, and if it isn't, as Alma said, "God would cease to be God". On the other hand there's mercy. Surely we believe in mercy! Of course we're not perfect, and there must be a way!
Christ is the Great Mediator, and has paid the debt in full. Justice has been justly dealt with. He as the new creditor, so to speak, sets the conditions for us to pay off the debt we owe, through obedience.
Watch this to better understand: http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/youth-curriculum-2013/03-march?lang=eng#2007-01-0005-the-mediator
I know that Christ is our advocate with our Heavenly Father. We all want him to advocate for us at the day when all the accounts will be settled. He has given us his Gospel and commandments to help us be worthy to receive his mercy. As we pray to God and know the truth of the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and the Bible we will come to better understand how to receive that divine mercy we all want and need.
Love,
Elder Yost
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