ปกติ

This week was a pretty normal missionary week. Which means it was filled with teaching repentance and talking to a bunch of people about salvation and Jesus Christ. It's a time to step back and appreciate the work that is going on here. It's crazy the Lord trusts a bunch of 18-20 year olds to spread the Gospel. And the cool thing is that the work is increasing and growing and it's not stopping. When it's God's restored church on this earth, of course it's gonna spread across the world. But yeah the week was good. I don't know what to say 555. We met a cool investigator name Brother A. He's pretty dope he came to church yesterday. He's 17 and looks like he's 30. At first he was interested in English but I told him learning about Christianity is a lot more fun and now he's way solid. Miracles.

This week I want to share a little of a talk from October 2013 General Conference again by Elder Russell M. Nelson. It's called Decisions for Eternity. This is a part that stood out to me. The whole talk is way good but this is a part I liked.  

Your Heavenly Father has known you for a very long time. You, as His son or daughter, were chosen by Him to come to earth at this precise time, to be a leader in His great work on earth. You were chosen not for your bodily characteristics but for your spiritual attributes, such as bravery, courage, integrity of heart, a thirst for truth, a hunger for wisdom, and a desire to serve others.
You developed some of these attributes premortally. Others you can develop here on earth as you persistently seek them.
A pivotal spiritual attribute is that of self-mastery—the strength to place reason over appetite. Self-mastery builds a strong conscience. And your conscience determines your moral responses in difficult, tempting, and trying situations. Fasting helps your spirit to develop dominance over your physical appetites. Fasting also increases your access to heaven's help, as it intensifies your prayers. Why the need for self-mastery? God implanted strong appetites within us for nourishment and love, vital for the human family to be perpetuated. When we master our appetites within the bounds of God's laws, we can enjoy longer life, greater love, and consummate joy.

He is talking about decisions that could affect our Eternal Happiness. He also talked about how we were developing spiritual attributes before this life which I thought was way interesting. Never thought of it before. Before this life, we were learning and changing and growing and developing and it continues into this life. We're still changing. We're still trying to have self-mastery where we can face a temptation, and overcome the human part of us and chose the right and not give into temptation. 

As it says in 1 Corinthians 10:13  "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 

We can't be tempted beyond our capabilities. If that was possible, we wouldn't have agency. We can overcome all temptation and become more Christlike and do what God wants us to do, not what we want to do. It is pride, when we think what we are doing is right even though it's against God's will. In the end of the day, as much as you reason with yourself that what you're doing is right, in the eternal schemes of things it is not. If it is against the commandments of God it is not right. Pretty Simple. Fasting will help us overcome these temptations and trials in life. We just need to humble ourselves and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, change our lives for the better. Through prayer, scripture study, and much fasting and prayer, God will help us overcome all temptations. I know that only when keeping the commandments of God can we feel the joy and happiness that comes with living a Christ centered life. 

I love you all and miss you all!!!

Pics: Some of the translations for English make me laugh, the park was filled with dogs, the bros at the water market, some temple somewhere here, and one of the biggest pigs I've seen. It's like a horse.

Elder Decker
เอ็ลเดอร์ เดกเกอร์
Thailand Bangkok Mission