The foolish things of the world

                                                   

    Do these five missionaries look foolish to you?  If you are thinking to yourself, "why yes they do!"  That is a correct answer, these five missionaries, myself included, are "Foolish" and I am so grateful to be called such.

    This past week in one of my studies I was reading from 1 Corinthians 1:27 in which the apostle paul says "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" As I read this I was thinking, "why would God choose foolish people?"  It became immedietely clear to me that he was reffereing to missionaries as those foolish things of the world.

   As a missionary, I am a living witness of this.  I am not that smart as to the things of this world, I do not know that much by the worlds terms, I am still in the process of learning these things.  There are a couple of things that I do know though;  I know that my Father in Heaven lives and loves me, I know Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, and I do know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I may not know much more, but luckily, I don't need too.  As a missionary I have talked to so many people with a higher IQ than myself and many that have much more knowledge, and yet I have been able to teach them and bring a joy into their life that they have never had before, and in turn they have thanked me for the blessings in they have recieved because of the gospel in their life.  This is direct fulfillment of that scripture.

                                                        

      Many people have asked me before, why do they send out missionaries when they are 19 years old?  Wouldn't it be better if they sent out missionaries when they were like 50 so they know more?  As I read and pondered this scripture I realized.  It isn't about how much we know.  It isn't our sophistication or our knowledge that gives us power to teach the gospel.   What gives us power is our faith and our humility, these are the great qualifiers. 

    I know that by "Small and simple things, great things are brought to pass." (Alma 37:6-7)  As we are willing to serve the lord, no matter how "Foolish" we may be.  The lord will take who we are and use us for his divine purposes. 

   

If ye have not charity

     A subject on my mind today is that of faith, this has been on my mind because we taught it 4 times today to different groups of missionaries.  I have learned so much about faith just in these past 24 hours alone.

                                                               


       Faith is a principle of power. God works by power, but his power is usually exercised in response to faith( see Moroni 10:7).  He works according to the faith of his children.  Doubt and fear are opposed to faith.  I have seen this so much in my life, and especially on my mission.  I think about the times when I have had great faith in something, there were small miracles wrought because of that faith.  There have been other times when I felt like something was too hard or too out of reach.  Because of this doubt, they were.  Without that faith I couldn't have Gods power and thus accomplish what he needed me too.

                                                         
         
     There are many examples in the Book of Mormon of people who exercised great faith and saw mighty miracles.  Ether chapter 12 sums most of these up   "For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead..." (vs. 7)  "Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth..." (vs. 13)  "Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost..." (vs. 14) "And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared..." (vs. 20)
These are just a few of the miracles in the Book of Mormon all wrought by faith.

                                                              

  There is however another principle that is essential to performing and seeing the miracles of God.  In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 it says "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of  prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."  I love this scripture because it teaches us what our motives must be in order to recieve have God's power to be with us.  Our greatest motivator has to be love, without it we are nothing.  I have learned this so greatly on my mission, I have truly developed a love for all the people I serve.  Because of this love, and my small faith, I have seen miracles.  I am so thankful for the lord and his love for me.