Dear everyone,
So, I started this week driving around missionaries who have
been transferred early, which meant a lot of trips all around Tana, mostly in
the middle of the night. Have I ever told how scary driving is in this country?
Well when you drive at night you have about a 200% higher chance of getting
stopped by the cops. They don't really have any reason to stop us, but they do
anyways. Then they look through every piece of paperwork we have while I
pretend to have no idea what he's saying (they don't speak English and we are
really good at pretending we don't speak Malagasy). That language barrier is
usually enough to frustrate them in to letting us go. They really have no
reason to stop us, they are just looking for a bribe. If anything is wrong with
the paperwork they just start asking for money and threatening to arrest us
(which they also can't do), but they like to act all big and powerful. For the
most part they are no problem though. I've only actually been close to being
arrested once, and that was a long time ago. After all of the early transfers,
we have been on the road a lot this week. I am currently in a place called
Mahajanga. It is the northern most place in the mission. That also means that
it is the hottest place in the mission and I am dying here right now. We are
here going on splits with the elders and trying to help them boost their
programs, also trying to sort out some things with the struggling branch, that
sort of stuff. It has been a great couple of days out here and I am sad that it
is coming to a close, but hey, there are more adventures ahead.
So this week in studies I have continued my study on
repentance. Earlier in my mission I talked about a talk given by Brad Wilcox
called "His Grace is Sufficient", which gives a very different spin
to the final judgement, and through studies this week I have come to understand
what he meant. You see the the atonement has 2 parts, the cleansing power and
the enabling power. Christ suffered for our sins, and therefore we can be
cleansed. However, through this same act he enables us to overcome our sins ourselves.
That is repentance. It is us overcoming our sins. Our final end goal is to live
with our Heavenly Father again in the Celestial kingdom, to become like Him. He
won't force us, but we are enabled to choose that as we choose to repent and
overcome our own sins, to become better people. If you spend lifetime in a dark
room, an entire lifetime, before finally stepping in to the light, all it will
be is blinding, and you will want to return to the dark. If we live our entire
lives in the darkness of the world, being distracted by this and that, it won't
work. We will come to the judgement bar at that last day, and the glory of Our
Father will be blinding. I don't think it will be Him casting us away. Rather,
it will be each of us asking for a glory that we are able to handle. Our loving
Heavenly Father would never force us to be with Him, especially if it hurt us.
Therefore, He created the other to Kingdoms as a place where we can dwell and
be happy in spite of our love of the dark. One of the things that I have
learned out here however, is that the greater joy is from the greater light.
Let us all choose to change, repent, and turn unto the light.
Love you all so much,
Elder Jensen
Scripture of the week: Mormon 9:3-4
