This week I've been trying to be like John the Baptist. I just wish that this mean we had as many baptisms as he did, but more on that later.
For starters, shout out to the Martins for the Halloween card I got. As can probably be seen, the mail here takes a really long time to get to me. On the bright side, it´s a form of communication that´s a little bit older and not as common, so it´s really fun to get and obvious to the other missionaries when someone else receives a letter or package.
As I said at the start, I´ve been trying to be like John the Baptist. This one doesn´t have a long sermon afterwords, but just a simple update of what we´ve been doing. This week we´ve begun the light the world event in the church. For those of you that haven´t yet heard of it, or don´t fully understand what it is, it is an event of the church for the entire world. A few weeks ago, the church released an advent calender of service. Each day has a teaching of Christ that we can interpret in any number of ways to meet our own circumstances to provide service. For example, today´s scripture is honor your father and your mother. This could mean any particular thing, so long as we stay true to the spirit of Christmas. How though might you ask does this tie into John the Baptist? He was the forerunner for Christ. He was the voice that cried in the wilderness that prepared the way of the Lord. It was he that was given the honor of baptizing the Savior and helping people turn their hearts to him. By spreading the word of Light the World and living by the daily scriptures we get, I´ve been able to better act as his representative here in Mexico and help others prepare for when he comes the second time.
Also, following with the Christmas spirit, I've decided to share a Christmas message each week this month in my emails in edition to all of the other normal things. This week, I decided to share something from the Polar Express. For those that have seen the movie or read the children's book, the story revolves around a young boy as he begins to doubt if Santa really exists. The resulting story is that in the middle of the night, a train pulls up to the side of his house, and takes him to the north pole.
Through several twists and turns throughout the story, the boy sees several examples of Christmas magic in action. Doubtful though, he is still convinced that there has to be a reasonable explanation for why everything in this train is happening, and at times even goes as far to justify that this is all just a dream.
This goes right up until that fate full moment when Santa comes out to go to his sleigh. The boy notices two things about what is going on in this moment of importance. First, he is unable to see Santa thanks to the mass of other children and elves in front of him. Secondly, he is unable to hear the sound of the sleigh bells until one of them falls off the sleigh and rolls towards his feet. At this, he admits in what is doubtlessly a combination of defeat and a sincere change in heart, he admits audibly, though softly enough that he doesn't think that anyone can hear him two simple words: I believe. His confession of faith allowed him to hear the sweet sound of the sleigh bells.
Unknown to him at the time of his confession, Santa had been walking towards him this entire time, and had arrived just in time to hear him. Thanks to this statement, Santa chooses the boy to receive the first gift of Christmas, which becomes the sleigh bell.
It is later that Christmas morning, that the boy shows the bell to his family, and while his sister is able to hear the sound at first, his parents are unable to. The boy, now serving as the narrator of the story years later explains how as he later tried to share the joy of hearing the bell with his friends, many of them couldn´t hear. and in time many that originally could, lost this privilege. Even his sister in time found that she could no longer hear the bell. But the author proclaims at the end of his book, "but the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe."
What great eternal truth lies hidden in this simple child´s tale! Here we see a perfect example of how faith operates in the minds and hearts of all of God´s children. Here we see someone who has been taught in the traditions of a believer, but has reached a point in their life where believing may no longer seem popular, easy, or practical. At one point we learn about how the boy has become negligent in following with the traditions of his beliefs in things such as negligence to get a photo with a mall Santa, sending a letter to Santa, or setting out the milk and cookies. Likewise, we can at times feel the same way to our own christian beliefs. We may feel that the belief in Christ as the literal son of God, the Savior of the world who rose from the dead, and who now at this very moment is at the right hand of the father working to bring about the immortality and eternal life of mankind as a bit hard to swallow. Maybe we think that it's easier to just say that he was a great prophet or a good person. We can admit that we can learn things from his teachings to build our own moral character. While none of these statements are wrong, if we minimize the nature of Christ to these characteristics, we loose sight of his divinity, his atonement, and basically, the things that make Jesus the Christ.
God though doesn´t want us to be kept in this state of ignorance or deniablility. His plan is for all of us to come to a clear knowledge of the truth of his son. So he sends messengers like the train conductor. What we can see in this part of the story is that the train conductor´s arrival wasn´t by invitation, but was needed, and his mere presence was in fact a miracle. In like manner, God has sent us people here in the earth to help us overcome our own trials of doubt, the prophets, and at a more local level, the missionaries. While these messengers cannot give us their faith or their own spiritual experiences, they can help us by being a witness to the truth and help us know that we aren´t alone in believing things which aren´t seen but true"(Alma 32:21).
Finally, the real moment of truth comes to the boy. At this moment, he is able to see all of the evidence of what people are saying. He has seen the North Pole, he has spoken with elves. He has had experience after experience after experience that while don´t necessarily provide definite proof, for he can still say that all of it is just a dream, his reasoning to believe has increased. and now, the only thing between him and the blessings of seeings Santa are two simple words said with real intent.
Likewise we have our own bits of evidence and guides to help us. The Holy Ghost testifies of the truth of what we have seen or felt concerning Christ. The book of Mormon is another testimony of the reality of the Resurrection and ministry of Christ in both Palestine and the Americas. And not only that, we have all things on earth denoting that their is a God. But if we refuse to act upon these experiences- if we don´t nourish our faith- we can´t enjoy the blessings of the Gospel. As i said in an earlier letter, the principles of the Gospel rewritten in order, and we can´t progress to step two until we have completed step one.
The climax of the story is the ability to hear the bell and see Santa. Something that I find very interesting about the story is that the writer chooses to call the bell the first gift of Christmas. We all know that the first Christmas gift given wasn´t wrapped in a box with fancy paper or placed under a Christmas tree. The first gift of Christmas was given over 2000 years ago in the little town of Bethlehem. The reward of our faith is this same gift, the blessings of the Christ child. We get to feel the sweet presence of his redeeming love; we are blessed with the comfort of the knowledge that we will all rise again; and, dependent upon our willingness to endure to the end, we may live again in the presence of the father.
Echoing the words of the writer, I testify that the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe. Christ lives. He is more than just a fairy tail or an ancient teacher who´s lessons we often like to read to children. He is the great King Emanuel, who even now is at the right hand of the Father. He is the light, life and hope of the world.
That's all for now
Elder Gooden
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Some Pics from this week
