Let's Get D&C With It

Whattup Heralds,

Inner Peace

In the best Kung Fu Panda movie, Po learns about having peace in spite of- or perhaps in and because of- his trials. The climactic resolution of this lesson is when, after the entire Kung Fu squad has been decimated in their fight against the fascist peacock Shen and floats in the waters hopelessly awaiting their destruction, the resolute Po stands in defiance to Shen and finds true peace within his soul, unlocking the historically accurate Kung Fu technique of deflecting cannonballs and single-handedly obliterating Shen's entire fleet in one of the greatest scenes in cinema. It's in the very midst of what should be defeat and despair that Po finds peace and quite literally turns the tide against his foes. 

That... doesn't make sense. Peace, by definition, cannot come from death, destruction, or dire struggle, right? That kind of peace defies logic. Dare I say that that kind of inner peace is a peace which is not given by the world, but which surpasseth all understanding.

Now. I would not compare even the greatest of my trials here on the mission to what Po went through. Actually, now that I think about it, having to wait 2 years in order to read Waybound is pretty close. But it is just... hard. And trials here, of all species from physical, emotional, to spiritual, crop up faster than Zubats in Mt. Moon. But I can't even complain about it, because for some reason this week I have found that any time I am finding myself placed in front of another trial, when I should be drowning in Kung Fu Panda's 'waters of defeat', as it were, if I take even just a moment to re-center and remember, I find myself completely and bafflingly overcome with peace. I have no explanation for this other than that it's certainly not my doing, and I'm quite grateful.

So yeah. That's how I would describe this week. I'm at peace.

We'll see how long that lasts!

Spoiled little eggs

We already checked the box, but we're gonna get like 3.5 more spiritual thoughts this week because it's getting hard to pretend like I still have any hobbies other than 'advancement', to put it in Cradle terms. So I really have nothing much else to write about. My emails are like the opposite of Elder Staker's lol

Also rather unhelpful in my quest to deliver interesting stories into the world is that my frontrunners have kind of... died. We tried to negotiate with that one gang and talk to the boss but they just kind of... let us work in that area without bothering us. Also, our neighbor has yet to do anything else besides this annoying and loud construction project in her house. So there has been no more negotiations nor detectiving nor demon slaying, and I am left with just... teaching people and personal growth. Also, I made a bunch of yakisoba and a huge pot of jello this week. So that's cool.

Justice is Patient

Our teaching pool is going absolutely nuts and I'm not really sure how. A majority of the people we find through our own efforts go molly on us and we cut them, but then we have people showing up out of nowhere or stopping us literally in front of the Church to ask if we're Jehovah's Witnesses and then accepting the invitation to go watch Sacrament Meeting. But my favorite thing is seeing a bunch of old investigators who I contacted with my trainer return out of nowhere and want to get baptized. Like, the guy who we stopped teaching cuz he broke his foot and couldn't come to Church? Turns out he bought a car, and all it took was one tiny spiritual prompting to pass by his house and now he's showing up to Church every week an hour early (and will get baptized this week, fingers crossed). The nephew of our hippie recent con who didn't show up to Church for two weeks so we cut him without talking to him or his parents and I definitely was not super ticked off about it absolutely not? Well, talk to him once at the youth soccer game on Thursday and he'll ask you to baptize him cuz he only didn't come to Church because his parents didn't want him to walk in the rain. Even Aluiso from a couple weeks ago showed up out of nowhere when it could have theoretically happened any time in the last 4 1/2 months.

Now, this could be construed as coincidence, or even just that Elder Medeiros is better prepared to teach these people so the Lord gave them to us now. But I'm not even gonna pretend that I don't feel very vindicated for my suffering during my training. I mean, literally all our prime investigators phased through time out of the hands of my fubeca trainer and into the hands of Elder Medeiros. There's not a 100% correlation between obedience and baptizing- go read the Riccardi letter- but to me, right now? Justice tastes very sweet.

Ardent

I got to witness one of the legendary Elder Medeiros 'burnings' this week and wow. It was awesome. He's actually started calling it "ministering with love and the Holy Ghost" now, and let me tell you: you would be surprised how firm you can be with people while expressing genuine love for them.

A couple notes for other Missionaries:

-Alma 5:38-39 is a secret weapon to be devastatingly (lovingly) used against people who aren't keeping commitments

-Personal experiences bring the spirit

-You're allowed to clearly and accurately explain through doctrine the consequences of people's actions. Ie: if you are not baptized you will go to 'Spirit Prison' (Hell; see Mosiah 3:24-27), if you don't get baptized your faithful wife will not be able to inherit the Celestial Kingdom with you, etc.

-You're a missionary. You're allowed to promise people both mad blessings and mad consequences including guaranteeing them a response to certain prayers, like the promise at the end of the Book of Mormon. You can get even crazier with it if you're faithful enough

So how did it go? Well, we prayed together in silence for literally 30 minutes straight while we were in his house (I fell asleep lol) and now he has a testimony that Prophets yet live, the Book of Mormon is true, and we as missionaries are authorized representatives of Christ on the Earth. He made it to church yesterday, is 2 days free of alcohol and smoking, and will hopefully be baptized on the 26th.

So yeah. Elder Medeiros is a madlad.

Duh duh duh duh duh duh (it's the opening of Crazy Train)

Read too much Neal A. Maxwell and Doctrine and Covenants in one week, and this is what you get. Let's see if any of this makes any sense.

So. Omniscience is one of the classically accepted traits of God. As Joseph Smith puts it, Omnipotence is a trait which God must have for us to have faith in him. D&C states that God lives inhabits a "great Urim and Thummim" (Urim and Thummim being "Light and Truth", or revelatory instruments to obtain knowledge) and is described as a "globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future." Thus, God has all information and exists in an eternal "now" which has no beginning or end. "If God were on some sort of postdoctoral fellowship and not quite in charge of everything... still searching for additional truths and key data," to quote Elder Maxwell, "God might, at any moment, discover some new truth not previously known to Him that would restructure, diminish, or undercut certain truths previously known by Him. Prophecy would be mere prediction. Planning assumptions pertaining to our redemption would need to be revised". Crucially, God cannot or rather He has no need to learn new information; as already described, this would introduce the possibility of him learning some kind of new information which would frustrate the Plan of Salvation.

Now. The point I'm getting to is that God, thus, derives no joy from learning new information. We as humans derive a lot of joy from new experiences and new skills- in a sense, these things bring us more in tune with our eternal heritage as we approach God's state of knowledge ever so slowly- but God cannot derive joy from these common experiences. His eternal round has no need to avoid tedium or repetition because that is all that is left for a being with complete experience. In a way that is difficult to imagine, God has no need for variety because variety literally cannot exist to him, and thus God must derive all of his joy from routine. Or, to finish that Elder Maxwell quote: "God derives His great and continuing joy and glory by increasing and advancing His creations, and not from new intellectual experiences."

That's why all this jargle about omniscience is important. God's omniscience is a testimony to His motives and His plan, because He has literally nothing to do except help aid other beings to reach the same exalted state which He has obtained. That's why the title which He has reserved for Himself is "Father"- because our mortal families, the joy of raising and elevating other people, is the closest echo we have to understand His divine reasoning- His divine reason for being. Also, it is a strengthener to us that God's greatest objective in the universe is our salvation. It truly is His work and glory.

For us to reach his same state of joy, it is expedient that we should be separated from Him and lose our perfect knowledge of His being. To once again quote Elder Maxwell: "Without the veil, we would lose that precious insulation which would constantly interfere with our mortal probation and maturation. Without the veil, our brief mortal walk in a darkening world would lose its meaning—for one would scarcely carry the flashlight of faith at noonday and in the presence of the Light of the World. Without the veil, we could not experience the gospel of work and the sweat of our brow. And how could we learn about obedience if we were shielded from the consequences of our disobedience? And how could we learn patience under pressure if we did not experience pressure and waiting? Nor could we choose for ourselves if we were already in His holy presence, for some alternatives do not there exist. Besides, God’s Court is filled with those who have patiently overcome—whose company we do not yet deserve."

God will never use His power to interfere with our agency. He will never part the veil on our terms, but He has promised to part it on His. When we know that He has all power and all knowledge, and is waiting for us to use our agency to accept what small embers of His glory we can presently handle so that we might 'overcome the world', we can take strength in our faith. And when we feel that we are alone, we need only remember that God and all His powers are leveled for our success; for truly, His course is one eternal round, and He "dwells in everlasting burnings, and sits in glory... enthroned in everlasting power."

End of a pretty long email

Ok that's probably enough for today. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember that you are not alone! There are lots of people, many you don't see, pulling with you. Keep it up!

God is Good,

Elder Ebbert