Skip to main content

I love Jesus 8/25/13

So, this week, I was able to baptize one of my former investigators and see two other people be baptized. Baptisms are an awesome way for people to reaffirm their faith. I know this because it has helped to reaffirm mine. The covenant of baptism is one of the greatest manifestations of our faith. It is a promise to follow Jesus Christ.
 It is the gateway to the Celestial Kingdom.
One of the things I've been focusing on in my studies is the necessity of the Doctrine of Christ in applying the Atonement. Often when we teach the lessons, we teach them as individual units, somewhat disconnected, and our investigators don't really understand how each part comes together as a latticework of interdependent threads. Without one, the others have little effect. Each piece is important, and if we fail in some areas we may preclude ourselves from receiving the blessings of Eternal Life.
As many of you may know, Preach My Gospel mentions the importance of the Atonement as central to the Plan of Salvation. And many people understand the basic meaning of the Atonement, but it is the Doctrine of Christ that allows us to implement the Atonement in our lives.
Through Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End, we invite the savior into our lives and our hearts.
I've heard it stated often that we are not saved through our works, I've also heard it stated by some denominations of Christianity that we must only accept Jesus Christ as our Savior in order to be saved. While both of these contain some truth, they do not explain the commitment that is required for Salvation. If our works were not important in the sight of the Lord, he would not have taught us to do good. If we only had to accept and believe, Christ would not have expressed the importance of Baptism.
I'm out of time so I'll save the rest for another time but it's something to think about.
Elder Ryan

Popular posts from this blog

my feelings

The rest of my mission can be summed up through reading my posts sent via email. The purpose of this post is to sum up some of my final feelings and bring some closure in my mind to the events that led to me finishing my mission early. Earlier today I read a blog post by another missionary who served in the same mission that I did. She went through a similar experience. She was so open and honest, and through her display of courage, I figured that I could do the same. (Her post can be found HERE ) To provide a short disclaimer, the things expressed in this post are entirely my own thoughts based on my own knowledge and experiences. They may not always be accurate because I don't know everything, and I would encourage anyone and everyone to investigate and form their own conclusions. In August of 2013, 5 months after I left on my mission, an ugly beast that had plagued me most of my life, decided to manifest itself in the most forward and unavoidable way. For most of my ...
Read more

Pre-Story ( I love Context!)

My journey to becoming a missionary was far from your stock-standard, trial ridden, discovering of myself experience that it seems to have been for most of the missionaries that I served with. For me, the experience was pretty much just normal life, decisions, and an increase of trust and faith. Anyone who is familiar with the culture that exists in most LDS congregations (wards) will understand; missionary service is highly respected, and highly encouraged (even expected) of young men. At an early age, in Primary (Sunday school for children) I remember being taught about the great calling of missionaries. We would sing songs about hoping to serve a mission, color pages and write letters to missionaries serving from our ward. Growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the church) I don't ever really remember being confused about what it was that missionaries did -- Even if my original idea was that they came to people's homes ate dinner and shared scriptur...
Read more

I think I may have forgotten to write for a while... - 2/10/14

So, working in the mission office for the last few weeks has been an interesting experience. I've been able to use the skills that I've acquired from my previous work experience, and help out the mission in different ways. It's very interesting to see how the work in the mission field is affected by the decisions and things that happen through the mission office. When things run well in the mission office, things in the mission field are a lot more smooth in terms of operations. I have a lot of respect for all of the missionaries that serve in the mission offices worldwide, they do so much to make sure that we as missionaries have a pleasant mission experience. There is a lot of work that goes into flats, cars, supplies, transfers, zone conferences, visas, etc. I have a new respect. Much Love, Elder Ryan
Read more