It's awesome Kade is heading out on the mission in Finland . He'll kill it. I couldn't imagine talking to white people all day. I taught English to the Military again. They're cool. It's a way neat experience teaching people that are attentive and willing to participate in the lesson. I found out today some of my students from English Class are actors in a play that they do in the water market here. Way cool. A guy lowered the price to take a picture with a tiger because our nametags said Jesus Christ. It was cool. I can't really remember. I can't separate the days and the weeks. I'm getting old.
General Conference is coming up. I'm pumped. I've been reading in the October 2013 General Conference and it's way good. I recommend it to everyone. Way solid reads. I wanna talk about one of the talks this week which is by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, You Can Do It Now! I actually remember it which is way cool and it was even better the second time reading it. There's a part in it that I want to share. It talks about wordly sorrow and Godly sorrow. It says
The Apostle Paul taught that "godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation … but the sorrow of the world worketh death." Godly sorrow inspires change and hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Worldly sorrow pulls us down, extinguishes hope, and persuades us to give in to further temptation.
Godly sorrow leads to conversion and a change of heart. It causes us to hate sin and love goodness. It encourages us to stand up and walk in the light of Christ's love. True repentance is about transformation, not torture or torment. Yes, heartfelt regret and true remorse for disobedience are often painful and very important steps in the sacred process of repentance. But when guilt leads to self-loathing or prevents us from rising up again, it is impeding rather than promoting our repentance.
The whole talk is way good but this is the portion I want to talk about today. I've been teaching about Godly Sorrow when we teach about repentance but it also let me realize there is also another type which is worldy sorrow. Repentance is such a great thing. It's a gift from God that yes sometimes is very painful, but it's way better than the guilt and sadness that comes from not fully repenting. The relief you get and the happiness and joy you get is waaaaay better than feeling guilty and sad. Don't feel worldly sorrow. You can always repent. You can humble yourself and rely on the Savior and use his Atonement. The word for Repentance in Thai is การกลับใจ which literally translates to returning or flipping your heart. It is a transformation to something better. That is life. We are always striving to be better. We shouldn't be striving to be worse. It just doesn't make sense. The Gospel makes sense. Everything else doesn't. Walk in the light of Christ's love and repent. He'll be with you every step of the way. We can always return to the Savior. There's no unreachable point. Now is the time to start though. As the scriptures say don't procrastinate the day of your repentance. Once you head off the path it just gets easier and easier to sin, but that whole time you'll know it's not the right way. The Light of Christ is in all of us. We know right from wrong. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and is the Messiah that prophets have testified of from the beginning. He suffered for our sins, died, and lives again so that all of us can have Eternal Happiness. He loves us and the way we show love for him is to keep his commandments. I love you all and miss everyone! Have a superb week!
Pics: Some pics of the Floating Water Market here. We went to a member's house and they make cacti that are pretty dope looking. Some cows. A temple
Elder Decker
เอ็ลเดอร์ เดกเกอร์
Thailand Bangkok Mission
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