The Words of Elder Oswald, written by the keyboard of Elder
Oswald, on the cellphone of Elder Oswald, which doesn't have a SIM card
and so it needs Wi-Fi for everything.
THE
FOLLOWING ACCOUNT, though sent on this day Monday the 11th of March,
2019, was written on another day, Monday the 4th of March, 2019. As a
result of various unforeseen circumstances, such as a failure to foresee
some circumstances, though having written mine epistle in full, was to
my utter disappointment unable to send the very email which I had spent
so many long hours composing. And it is for this reason that I write
this paragraph, as a preface to the email which you are about to read,
in hopes that you might understand that some of this email, such as the
preface which I am writing now, were indeed written on this day, Monday
the 11th of March, 2019, and some were not. And so to make things less
confusing, I have taken the liberty of putting the words I write today
into italics.
And now behold having obtained some
Wi-Fi, it is with all the various emotions which I might be feeling,
that I end this preface, and bid you all another good week. Enjoy the
email.
~Elder Oswald
In
life, some things can fly and some things cannot. Generally speaking,
the things that can fly are physical things like dragonflies, airplanes,
and toucans. So one would logically think that therefore, things which
aren't physical, or non-physical things as I like to call them, such as
concepts, ideas, or dark matter, would not have the ability to fly.
However, there is one concept that, despite not needing wings, jet fuel,
or a fancy beak, does seem to do a very good job of flying anyway. And
that is the concept of time. And time has certainly flown this week.
So
we had a weird week. We did a lot of service. We helped a family move
on Wednesday and Thursday. Then on Friday we helped a lady who is being
taught by the Hermanas paint a wall thing. Then the lady made us some
delicious breakfast. The lady's name Is Nancy and the breakfast's name
is chilaquiles. I also bought a half dozen donuts all for myself that
day.
We also had exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday, and on
Tuesday I was in the Spanish speaking area. That was a lot of fun and it
was good practice for my Spanish speaking skills.
So
Thursday we visited with a lady named Trish. She's been going through a
lot and she loves board games but never gets to play them. So that
night we played Yahtzee with her and it was so much fun, and so good for
her. It has seriously been a miracle because she's just been in such a
good mood despite everything she's going through and will be going
through. Because before this, she has been understandably in a bad mood.
These last couple visits with her though have just been wonderful
though. It's just been really cool to see that change in her. So that's
really cool.
Now it's time for spiritual
thoughts with Elder Oswald, the part of the show where Elder Oswald
comes out and says a spiritual thought.
Today I want to keep
it simple. And what's more simple than the first principle of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ? That's right, faith. But not just faith, but
specifically faith in Jesus Christ. It's something we hear a lot about.
"I have faith" or "you just have to have faith." Things like that. But
what does that really mean? Well let's turn to the scriptures. Paul says
in the Bible that "...we walk by faith, not by sight." That's a pretty
straightforward scripture, and it seems easy enough. But it can be a
hard thing to do. It's a lot like trying to remember things. It's always
a lot easier to think you'll be able to remember something while you're
still thinking about it. But as soon as you're not thinking about it,
it suddenly gets a lot harder to remember that thing. That's when
forgetting things happens. Which unlike remembering things, is actually
really easy to do.
But I think a similar idea applies to
faith. It always seems like it's a lot easier to have faith when you can
actually see and understanding everything that you need to. But as soon
as doubts or trials or anything happens that clouds our view, suddenly
faith gets a lot harder. And that's where people fall. Which unlike
having faith, is actually really easy to do.
There's an
awesome story in the Book of Mormon where a man named Lehi has a dream.
And essentially, in the dream he sees the Tree of Life, which pretty
much represents the place where we want to be, our end goal. It's
heaven, eternal life, or living in God's presence, all of those things.
It's the tree of life. And he sees people journeying to try and find the
tree of life. But soon a mist of darkness comes. So now everyone's
super lost and they're trying to get to the tree of life except they
don't know where to go. Luckily however there is an iron rod that leads
to the tree of life. And the iron rod represents the word of God. It's
all the words of the prophets both in ancient and modern times that lead
us to eternal life. So people just need to have faith and hold onto the
iron rod til they make it to the tree of life. And I've always read
this and I guess it's always seemed pretty easy. You just hold on. It's
simple. But I guess it seems a lot easier when you're not the one
actually experiencing that mist of darkness. Every time I've imagined
this story, I imagine people walking and whatnot. But I've never really
imagined the scenario from the perspective of the people in the
darkness. Because that mental image isn't anything but darkness.
And
that's what it is sometimes in life. Sometimes we're in the darkness.
We can't see everything and we can't explain everything and we don't
know everything. But we have been given a lot. We've been given an iron
rod. By that I mean we've been given words and teachings of Jesus Christ
that guide us through our lives. And even though we've got a mist of
darkness around us that makes it so we can't see with our eyes, we have a
lot of light that we can feel when we just have faith in Jesus Christ,
when we hold to that iron rod. And that's how we will make it to the
Tree of Life.
Til next week my friends!
