Elder Ian Rich: June 3: Elder Bednar

We had a super fun and busy week. I got an infection in my armpit this past week. It was the weirdest thing ever, it swelled up super huge and turned hard. It looked like a giant cyst on my armpit it was the worst thing ever. Luckily now I'm on an antibiotic and it's feeling a lot better.

We had the privilege of having Elder David A Bednar visit our mission on Tuesday. He spoke to us for almost 4 hours about a ton of stuff, of course, because he can't speak Spanish he had a translator translate, which was a blessing so I could actually understand him. He started off by expressing the difference between an object and an agent. He explained that the Book of Mormon is an object, and like every object, it cannot be acted upon its self but needs to be acted upon. Because we are human beings we are Agents. We choose what we want to do, we choose our path in life and because we have the option to use the atonement we can be made free. Because we are agents we accept to follow the Savior and to be baptized and make covenants with him. When we choose to follow the Savior we exercise our agency to represent him in all things and all ways.

He explained that he didn't want us to take notes, because it's pointless and we won't be able to catch the still small promptings of the holy ghost. I really liked the way he explained this. He explained that the Book of Mormon has 2 types of plates, the large plates, and the small plates. The large plates contain all the travelings and wars and unimportant things in the Book of Mormon. But the small plates hold all the revelations, spiritual experiences. He said when we take long notes while people speak we are writing in our own personal Large plates which are useless and we will forget and lose them. But, when we listen to the holy ghost and write down simple things we write in our own small plates which are precious and we have and keep them forever.

He said something that I really took to heart "The Savior doesn't expect us to be perfect now, but he expects us to try and to become perfect"

Really, this has a ton of value that we can apply to our lives. God knows that we are imperfect people and that we always will be. He knows that we have hard times, and we have our own agency to choose what we want to do. He doesn't expect us to be perfect nor will he ever because it is impossible. But he expects us to try always, to always get back up when we fall, and to set goals on how we can better improve our self. How we can rely more upon His son Jesus Christ for help when we have problems, and addictions in our lives? There is rest in Jesus, and there is hope in him that one day we really can become perfect.

Love Elder Rich