Exact Obedience

Hi! Again I didn't leave much time to write you this week! Sorry! Lots of people are writing me haha but I will try to fit everything in. Everything you listed I did get,  just forgot to tell you haha. One thing I didn't get were pencils...? But the rest yes. Jeez I don't need anymore packages haha You can hold off for a bit. 

Yes I have read about dad putting money in the account I just didn't say anything about it. I am thinking of ways to use it still...

The temple today was great! 

I have been wanting to write to Pres. Doman but I just don't have time! Tell him I say hi!

I´m glad everything went well at the funeral. Sounds like it was beautiful. 

I am so excited for James! I bet Brad is super jealous! Will he get to meet Brads President? That sounds like the perfect place for him and I am so proud! Ya he will be teaching the other elders in his district in the MTC haha. There is no better training than in the field!

Everything is going well here in Mexico! For thanksgiving I ate quesadillas and forgot that it was thanksgiving until later haha. But we ate with the Ponce family and I love quesadillas so everything was great! Brads girlfriend is pretty. Can he wait 18 months!?!? Elder Arcela left on Friday for his surgery and everything went well. He will stay with the secretaries for 10 days and then come back with us until the end of the transfer when he goes home. Pres wanted to send him home but Elder Arcela wanted to stay. 

Have fun in Disneyland! I was actually thinking this week that you should invite grama to come with you to Disneyland haha! I'm glad you did!

I don't have much time but I wanted to share something with you that I have liked a lot this week.

I really like the book of Ether, but there is one part in particular that I like a lot. If you read the last Ensign it will sound familiar, but I think of it in a different way.

Read Ether 2:16-18

The Jaredites needed to get from point a to point b, and the Lord instructed them exactly how they should build their boats to get there.

We want to get from this life to eternal life, and the Lord, through the scriptures and Prophets, has shown us exactly how we need to "build our boats" to get to the other side.

Now read Ether 6:5

To make it to the other side, the Lord sent a furious wind. That wind tossed them ALL OVER the sea, but without it, they wouldn't have made it across. It was necessary.

We all have trials and difficulties in our lives, but they are necessary in carrying us to eternal life and exaltation.

Now read Ether 6:6

It describes the waves not just as little things, but MOUNTAINS! These waves, in our lives, are like our trials. We cant control them, they come from God, and they push us down into the depths of the ocean or the depths of sadness or whatever you want to say.

BUT, now read Ether 6:7

Even when they were sunk in the water, below the surface of the ocean, surrounded completely in their problems... No water entered. Why? Because they had followed EXACTLY the instructions that God had given them to build their boats. EXACTLY. What would've happened if Jared had wanted to put a window so he could see the ocean, or something else that God had not instructed him to do. What if he had cut corners and not made the ship so tight? THEY WOULD HAVE DIED! They still would have been sunk in the depths of the ocean, but the water would have entered and they would have drowned. But that didn't happen, because they followed exactly the instructions from God.

We will always have problems. We will always have trials. Even as big as mountains. BUT, they can only hurt us if we have a weak spot in our ship. A window that we wanted to put in. Something that God told us not to do. That's the only way they are going to hurt us. But if we are tight, and if we follow exactly the instructions of the Lord, we will arrive at the promised lands.

Now think... What are your windows? What are the things in your life that are against what the Lord has instructed us to do? It doesn't matter how big or how small. It could be a drinking problem, or it could be keeping the sabbath day, or it could be not magnifying your calling, it could be not doing family history, it could be any little thing.

I love this story and I love inviting the people to think about the little things in their lives that they need to patch up, and I love doing it with myself too. I make the same invitation with all of you. To think of the little things that we are doing (or not doing) that are against what God wants for us.

That's my spiritual thought for the week :)

Love you!

Elder Skalla