Dear everybody,
Sorry I missed you last week but I skyped with most of you anyways. Merry late Christmas and happy late new years. It has been a great couple of weeks out here in Tamatave for sure.
Life is just awesome.
So this week was great. We had a solid week teaching some way awesome people. I actually didn't spend much time in my own area just due to the fact that we had a lot of baptismal interviews to be done in preparation for Jan. 7. It should be a great baptism for the whole zone. New Years was great. We taught some awesome families. I think one of my favorites still is Clovesil and Jacqueline and their 3 kids. They are amazing. They have been learning from the missionaries for quite a while. The kids come to church every week and are basically just members. The parents are also great but have been really hesitant in leaving their old church. Anyways, on christmas they finally came!! All together as a family!! It made me way happy. They came again this week, and I think they are finally ready. The only problem left is that they are not yet legally married. Also, everything they need to get married is a week long trip in a bus all the way across the country. No big deal right? Yeah, we're still working on figuring that one out.
So I have been thinking a lot the last couple of days about a conversation that I had with President Foote a couple of weeks ago about culture. You see, the culture here in madagascar is pretty diferent from the culture over there in utah. Thing is, our old Utah culture is very different from anywhere else in the world, even anywhere in the states. That's because what The Lord says is ok and what The World says is ok are 2 very diferent things. President Foote explained it like this. He first drew a straight line on a piece of paper. This is The Lord's culture. It never changes. Ever. He then drew another line very close to the first that was parallel to it for a little bit and then slowly veered away, making a big gap. This line represents the world's culture.
Fifty years ago it was fairly close. Now it has become pretty far apart, and it just keeps getting farther and farther. It's hard to be a latter day saint, people think we're wierd. To be honest they're right. We are weird because the things we do aren't the things that society says are "cool". As time goes on we're going to keep getting weirder and weirder. It's not that we are changing, it is that the world's views are getting farther away from The Lord's. As the gap gets bigger, it's going to keep getting harder and harder to be a Latter Day Saint. The only true and lasting happiness comes from doing things The Lord's way. Hold to the rod folks. I know the church is true, and I am so very grateful that I was able to be raised the way I was and to know things that I know. Love you all,
Fifty years ago it was fairly close. Now it has become pretty far apart, and it just keeps getting farther and farther. It's hard to be a latter day saint, people think we're wierd. To be honest they're right. We are weird because the things we do aren't the things that society says are "cool". As time goes on we're going to keep getting weirder and weirder. It's not that we are changing, it is that the world's views are getting farther away from The Lord's. As the gap gets bigger, it's going to keep getting harder and harder to be a Latter Day Saint. The only true and lasting happiness comes from doing things The Lord's way. Hold to the rod folks. I know the church is true, and I am so very grateful that I was able to be raised the way I was and to know things that I know. Love you all,
Elder Jensen
Scripture of the Week: Isaiah 55: 6-9
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