Yes, things are happening here, but doctrine is what really makes me excited. But I'll try.
Very few people were being taught when I got here. And by no work of my hands, we now have
investigators galore. Well, not really, but we had three at church, one on-date, another that has
said yes to baptism, but not on-date, and few more that are interested and learning more.
Actually, I've been amazed by how some people just want to learn more, and others don't.
Continuing on with stories, we did some service this week. We helped a recent convert change
a tire on his bike. We also helped put up dry wall and sheet rock on a make-shift house that a
member was building in their machine shop, because their current house got sold and they are
endeavoring to build their new house as fast as possible.
Okay, now I want to talk about doctrine. We had zone conference this week and it was amazing. We learned about a lot of Hebrew writing styles, because they are everywhere in the Book of Mormon. You have parallelism, chiasmus, and other things (like saying "river of water" instead of just "river"). Chiasmus are poems that start with some point, and then move through a series of points to the main idea of the passage, and then works backwards through the points before. It can be as short as, "I need milk, so I go to the store to get the milk I need" or as long as the book of 1Nephi. That's right, all of 1 Nephi is a chiasma. So is the book of Mosiah. Single chapters are as well, including 1 Nephi 8, and Alma 36. Let's look at Alma 36. First phrase, " My son, give ear to my words." Last phrase, "This is according to his [God's] word." Verse one "Keep the commandments" Verse 30, going backwards, "keep the commandments." V. 1 "Ye shall prosper in the land," V 30, "Ye shall prosper in the land." V. 2 "remembering the captivity of our fathers" end of V. 29 " retain in remembrance... their captivity." Do you see the pattern? And the most important part of any chiasma is the center, the main point. All of Alma 36 revolves around verse 18, when Alma turned his heart to Jesus Christ and cried to Him for mercy. That was the main message Alma was trying to teach Helaman in this chapter. Turn unto Christ!
Wow, that's a lot, and I'm not even into what I wanted to write about today. First off, I have a question. How many of you reading this are of the bloodline of Abraham? President Dymock asked us this my first day here, and I had no idea if I was. He said, "Four of you raised your hands. This is the saddest part of our church. The members don't know who they really are." And I have learned so much about the House of Israel. First off, 95% of the world can trace their family line to Abraham. All of you are part of his family, of which God said "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" by this family. As children of Abraham, we are all part of the Abrahamic Covenant. All the promises that God made with Abraham are ours as well. Everything going on in the world has to do with the scattering, and now, the gathering of Israel. If you read all of 1 Nephi and look for the one thing that was on Nephi's mind the whole time he was writing, it's the scattering and gathering of Israel.
I can't explain all this nearly as well as President Dymock, but I hope you can in part feel what I've felt the last few weeks. These are the last days. Israel must be gathered. That is why we got the Book of Mormon. It was revealed on September 22, which is the beginning of the harvest season in ancient Israel. Why was it given then? Because the Book of Mormon is the tool God has chosen for the gathering of Israel. In D&C 4, it says to thrust in our sickles. That is the Book of Mormon. God told Nephi that the words that his seed would right would be the means of gathering scattered Israel. We need to get people to read the Book of Mormon. Only through it can we bring our family back together.
Now, I know this has been going on a lot, but what good is me teaching a bunch of doctrine if nothing changes? No, no, no. After you teach, you always invite. So here is my invitation to you. First, read Ezekiel 37. Read it, ponder it, and email me what you think it means. If you do this, next week I'll give you a prize of sorts. Secondly, I don't want reading missionary emails to be the full extent of anyone's exposure to missionary work. If it's a choice between reading my emails, and doing missionary work yourself, do the work! Talk to people! Look for and pray for opportunities to share the Gospel. People need it. They don't know it, but they do. Anyone who has a missionary experience in the next week can email me about it, and they will also get a prize.
There's also a secret hidden in this email. If you find it, email me, but don't tell anyone.
Okay, I'm done. Here's a bunch of pictures of stuff.
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