Practice What You Preach

November 8, 2010

Well this week we had a Zone competition. It was pretty fun. We had a point system for the different work that we did. Ended up that we tracted A LOT last week... and we had a lot of people tell us to come back. Out of all those people that told us to come back, I think one actually meant it so I think our week of tracting was worth it (it is pretty rare that you start teaching somebody because you tracted into them). At the end of each day we added up the points in the District and submitted that to the Zone Leaders. The District with the most points at the end of the week would get breakfast cooked by our Zone Leaders. Our district was ahead the whole week until Saturday night because we all had to go to Stake Conference. And the Zone Leaders decided to help out the other district (the one that won) earlier in the week, so... we should have won, but we didn't. But, it pushed us to work a little bit harder than normal and it was pretty fun.



We taught a lady from Korea for the first time the week before last and taught her again last week. She is great. Her sister moved here to America about 10 years ago and joined the Church. Seo Young has been coming to Church for a few weeks now and in our last lesson we committed her to be baptized. She has been looking for a Church that actually tries to practice what they preach and she found one. The wards here are pretty good. We should probably warn her that there are some hypocrites in every Church. But I was thinking about it last week and I think the members of this Church generally try harder to live the Gospel more than others. It then led me to wonder why that is. I came to the conclusion about the reason; the Gospel that is taught in this Church is 1.) Absolutely true, therefore it has power to change lives more than any other gospel taught by any other Church (true doctrine understood changes behavior quicker than a study of behavior changes behavior- Pres. Packer) and 2.) Members have a better understanding of their relationship with God and with their savior which motivates them to be better than they are and 3.) The Church requires them to be more involved in their religion with callings and such which helps to keep them humble and seeking God's help. I realize that these are generalizations, but as I was thinking of those things, it is clear to me that the Lord directs his Church (which is designed to help us grow closer to him). Churches set up by man do not have the same influence on personal lives as the Lord's Church. It helps me have greater faith in what I am doing and the organization that God has set up for us. The Church has helped me to be a much better person than I otherwise would be and has helped me grow closer to my Heavenly Father.



It is still weird that the ward got split. But Conor, Matt and I are still coming home to the same wards, so that is ok. :)



I have a lot of respect for Bishops and what they do. I think it is probably one of the hardest callings in the Church. I didn't realize that until I have gotten here and worked with them fairly closely.



I love all of you and I wish you all a good week.

-Elder Blakemore