We recently heard the first few
words to Adele's new song, and it makes us laugh a lot! We feel this
way EVERY DAY when people don't answer the door, our calls, or our
texts. But, it's all good, that's why we have humor!
This
past week has been pretty awesome, like normal (it feels so good to say
that my normal is awesome; oh that makes me happy!). The major thing
for this week was obviously New Years!
As a mission we were
asked to be home by 6pm or in a member's house with our district from
6-9pm, due to the nature of New Years. What my companion and I did was
really cool. That day we had a couple lessons and then we went birthday
shopping for a family who recently joined the church. The young boy just
turned 8, which in our church, is a pretty big deal.
We
believe that children under the age of accountability, or 8 years old,
are not held accountable for their actions because they do not
understand the difference between right and wrong. If anything happened
where a child died before they turned 8, we know that they are
automatically saved into the Celestial Kingdom (the Celestial Kingdom is
the highest degree of glory that we can obtain and it is where God
lives and families can be together forever). This is because children
cannot sin.
"10 Behold I say unto you that this thing shall
ye teach - repentance and baptism unto those who are accountable and
capable of committing sin; yea, teach parents that they must repent and
be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they
shall all be saced with their little children. 11 And their little
children need no repentance, neither baptism. Behold, baptism is unto
repentance to the fulfilling the commandments unto the remission of
sins. 12 But little children are alive in Christ, even from the
foundation of the world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a
changeable God, and a repecter to persons; for how many little children
have died without baptism!" - Moroni 8:10-12
The question was
then raised, what is the age of accountability; when do children become
capable of committing sin? Through a modern day prophet, the prophet
Joseph Smith, God gave His answer that it is when we are 8 years old or
older. This is found in Doctrine and Covenants 68: 27 "And their
children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight
years old, and receive the laying on of the hands."
Baptism
is the first step we take to return to our Heavenly Father, to enter
into the Celestial Kingdom. We know of its importance because Christ
Himself, who was perfect (see 2 Nephi 31:5) was baptized, and we want to
follow His example. He was also baptized by someone holding proper
priesthood authority, or the right to act in the name of God for the
betterment of His children. We need to have that same authority to be
baptized, and although it was not on the earth for a time, it is once
again here having been restored through the first modern day prophet,
Joseph Smith.
I know that we have been asked to be baptized
into Christ's true church and by the proper means. I know that we have
the priesthood authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, because this is the same church that Christ Himself established
and brought back. As a representative of Christ and His church, I have
that same authority, albeit I don't hold the priesthood (please see this
website for more information regarding the priesthood: https://www.lds.org/topics/priesthood?lang=eng )
We
weren't excited just to spend time with a family we love, or to see him
on a happy day, but rather we were excited because we see where he is
going. He will be taking the first step to eternal life, the greatest
gift of all (D&C 14:7).
For the rest of that night, we
spent time with the members we live with. For 2 hours we just talked
with them and got to know them because we don't have a lot of time to do
that. Then their friends started showing up and we played a game called
"Pirate's dice", which is based off of the dice game from Pirates of
the Caribbean. It was a LOT of fun, AND I got to go to bed a little bit
earlier than normal. Overall, a really great day!
The
rest of the week has been fairly uneventful but good as we find and
teach people. I love this work and I love my responsibilities. There are
times when I wonder if I'm making any difference, if I'm doing the best
I can. At those times, I pray and ask my Father and I always get an
answer. He loves me, and He loves the people here. He guides me in who
to visit, where to go, and what to say, so that I may help as many
people as I can. There is nothing I'd rather do right now than to be a
missionary.
I love you all and I hope that you're doing well!
I hope your New Years was great and that you have made some awesome
goals! I love you! Remember who you are. =D
Love,
Hermana Lindh
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