If you all haven't noticed, I really don't know what to put in these emails, so I hope something in here is interesting to you all.
This week was good. It was hot. We walked around a lot. I had my first in-field interview. I practiced Portuguese. We only have one investigator, and he's on date for baptism, and the only difficulty is that he's nine and has a very short attention span. And the more I think about, the more I realize that the Gospel is more important than any other thing we could possible study. It's kind of sad that no one wants to listen. But conversion is a process, and God will never stop working on getting His children to turn to Him. And so, we continue onward.
Since I don't have any cool stories from this week, I want to talk about something I've been learning about and will be learning about more on Friday (if I don't get sent off to Portugal before than). It's the symbolic use of numbers in the scriptures. In Hebrew, most (if not all) numbers have a meaning with them. A few examples are: 1 - God's uniqueness and singularity 2 - Opposition 3 - Also symbolic of God (like the three members of the Godhead), also refers to being consecrated 4 - Mortality, man 5 - Mercy 6 - Incomplete, unholy 7 - Complete, holy, covenants (because 3 is God, 4 is man, 3+4 is 7, and covenants connect God and man). 10 - spiritual perfection. There are a lot of others. Another one I want to mention is that 14 is the Messianic number, always referring to Christ. And how does this apply to the scriptures?
In Alma 31, Alma and some others visit the Zoramites. They listen to their vain praying, and then, Alma offers his own prayer (v.26-35). Count how many times he says "O Lord" or "O God". He does it 14 times. He is calling on the powers of Christ to come upon the Zoramites and bring them back into Christ's fold.
Now, Alma 7:23. Here, Alma lists some things to do and attributes to acquire to be more holy.
1 - humble
2 - submissive
3 - gentle
4 - easy to be entreated
5 - full of patience
6 - long suffering
7 - temperate
8 - diligent in keeping the commandments
9 - asking of the Lord for things you need
10 - giving thanks to the Lord
Ten suggestions. And what does ten represent? Spiritual perfection. This is a path to spiritual perfection.
Matthew 1. Matthew here gives a long list of the family history of Jesus. Look in verse 17. The list of names is broken into three sections. Fourteen generations between Abraham and David, fourteen between David and the Babylonian conquest, and fourteen between getting taken to Babylon and Jesus. Three sets of fourteen. Three is consecrated, fourteen is Messiah. Matthew is using Jesus' genealogy to show that He is the consecrated Messiah!
There are tons of examples of this. When the scriptures are talking about the ways the Lord will be merciful, it usually has five parts to it. When it talks about wicked people, it usually has six parts. Everything denotes that there is a God, and all things testify of Christ. Even the numbers used in the scriptures.
I hope this wasn't too deep or crazy. I was just learning about this and thought it was super cool. If any of you want to start counting things in the scriptures and seeing is this works, feel free to tell me how it goes. I don't have the list with me right now, but if anyone wants, I can tell them what the most common number symbolism is.
I hope you all have a good week! Remember, everyday you need to make sure your testimony is bright. Soldiers check their weapons multiple times a day. When Satan comes, you need to make sure that your testimony is founded on Christ, and ready to stand against the onslaught.
I love you all!
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