Skip to main content

week seven


Hello all,
 
Preparation day has changed to Wednesday. The MTC is changing to accomodate the soon to be massive influx that will happen as all of the graduating seniors start flooding in.
 
How are all of you doing? How has life been? What have been your greatest successes and greatest challenges since we've spoken last? While life here after 6 weeks gets pretty routine, there are a lot of really cool things that happen here all the time. The devotionals are always amazing. Classtimes are consistently frustrating as I try to master a tonal language, but rewarding when you finally "get it". I'm currently working on memorizing the words of the prophet Joseph Smith for his First Vision, in which he saw God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. Because it's tonal, it's sounds like I'm singing a song as I rehearse it.
 
My biggest obsession right now is really trying to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ in a greater sense.Some words I would encourage all of you to look up and pray for understanding are , Salvation, Justification and Sanctification.
If you can understand these basic terms of the Atonement, it will create a greater understanding of the Grace and Mercy extended to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I'll tell you my basic understanding of these terms, and would encourage you all to turn to the scriptures and study it out.
 
Salvation -
Salvation from phyisical death is a free gift given to all through Christ being ressurected from the dead. But we have to accept this gift through faith.
 
Justification -
Because God's laws are eternal and unchanging and have no room for error, our actions must be justified (made to be correct before the law of God). Justification comes through faith in Christ, because He has already paid the penalty of our sins, He is able to act as our advocate to the Father and jsutify our deeds if we have faith and belive on him.
 
Sanctification -
Sanctification is the act of cleansing us from our sin, through Christ's blood, we are able to be washed of our sins through repentance. After we repent of our sins and become converted unto His gospel, we are baptised unto repentance. This baptism is a symbolism of death (as we are burried in the water) and ressurection (as we come up out of the water) following the pattern of the crucifiction, death and ressurection of Christ. As we continually repent of our sins and our imperfections we are continuosly cleansed as we renew our covenants as we partake of the sacrament as instituted by Christ in his last supper.
 
I wish to make a small disclaimer, while many people may associate faith with just belief, faith is so much more. Faith comes from acting on belief and receiving a witness of the doctrine through our obedience. Salvation doesn't come through belief, it comes through having faith and continuosly exercising it. Through our faith we can recieve Salvation, Justification and Sanctification by way of the great and wonderful sacrifice of our brother Jesus Christ.
 
I miss you and love you,
 
An Uncommon Elder
 
Elder Timothy Scott Ryan

Popular posts from this blog

7/14/13

So, Australia is not the US, and there are a lot of things here that are cool, but also very different. 1 - Aussies talk differently. Not only do they have an accent, but they say things differently. 2 - A gas station is called a SERVO... 3 - Mexican food apparently isn't very good here, but they have a chain called Taco Bill 4 - The equivalent of a Burger King is Hungry Jack 5 - People don't regard some common profanities as impolite in public settings The work here has had a lot more rejection this week. Of 12 appointments that we've had with investigators, 3 actually came through. The ones that came through were awesome, one is Catholic, the other is Buddhist, one learns from us in secret so as not to upset their family ties, the other is just wanting to learn. Once again, I don't have much time to write, but I'll keep you all posted. Love, An Uncommon Elder, Elder Ryan
Read more

Preparation

Sorry for not writing for a fairly long while. the plans I had to write regularly kind of went up in smoke. Despite my best intentions, and my several recurring attempts, I never seemed to manage converting the thought and intent into reality. ...Continued As I left the temple that day, I was riding in the passenger seat of my friend's car. I pulled out my iPhone 4 and called my boss at the time. In a concise way, I informed him of my decision to quit, that I felt it was right, and that I'd be willing to work it out to make it as smooth of a transition as possible. We decided that it would be best for me to give it a few weeks, and I decided that it was okay not to be hasty. When you quit a job without a contingency plan, it can be a very stressful experience. All of a sudden you have bills that you know you're not going to be able to pay, the things that you've become accustomed to will vanish. But despite all of these fears and worries, I knew everything would b...
Read more

Spiritual Insights (9/2/13)

So, this week I had a little more time to study independently (and unlike other weeks, I remembered to bring my notes to the library) so today, my blog post is going to be mostly on how to answer the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Many people have asked this question, and many people have used it as grounds to disprove that there is a God. Don't let yourself get caught in that trap. God is real, he loves you! If you don't know it now, seek him out and I promise you will find him. In my studies, I have found a few scriptures that helped prove this in my mind. In Joseph Smith's adversity he was comforted by these words from the Lord, "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;" (D&C 121:7) and was later counseled, " 7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if th...
Read more