Algernon And Franklyn Baptized

We woke up Elder Teuscher and me (Saturday was Franklyn and Algernon's baptismal day) and we checked the phone. We had a text from Franklyn at 3:30 am saying, "I'm awake," so Elder Teuscher and I thought, "Oh perfect, Franklyn is awake and he's ready for his baptism." But that's a little early to wake up. We drove to the beach (Brandywine Bay) and waited for both Algernon and Franklyn. Algernon showed up right on time, so we were all standing there waiting. Then we decided, "Okay, it's been a minute since we've been waiting here, let's call Franklyn and see if he is coming." No answer. We were so confused. So we called the member who was supposed to give him a ride, and he said, "I was sitting there waiting from 6 am to 7 am, and I didn't see him." So we were really confused at this point. Did he hitchhike? Is he on his way? So we called Franklyn again and asked him where he was. He told us he wasn't going to make it. We were very confused, but we proceeded with Algernon's baptism. Algernon's baptism was amazing. Algernon is literally the most elect person I've ever met on my mission when it comes to reading the Book of Mormon. You know those people that you wish you could teach and find and just give them like a chapter of the Book of Mormon to read, and they end up reading the whole Book of Mormon? That's how Algernon was. We gave him a chapter, for example, Moroni 10, and he read the whole Book of Moroni. It always just blew our minds away. We gave him a talk from Russell M. Nelson, and the talk was laminated. Anyways, we did Algernon's baptism, and we ended up calling Franklyn afterward and asked what happened. He heard us say 3:30 and not 6:30 am for his ride, so he was up and out by the main road waiting in the middle of the morning, just waiting. And he waited there for three hours, then went home. So we called, and we were like, "Franklyn, what happened?" He tells us, and we are like, "One second, we will call you back." We called the branch president, and he's like, "I will find him a ride, meet me on Beef Island at 3:00 pm, and we will baptize him." So we did, and everything went smoothly, and God prevailed in the lives of two of our dear friends this weekend.

So I have been having some pretty crazy personal studies this week, but something I was studying was premortality.

"Satan cannot seduce us by his enticements unless we, in our hearts, consent and yield. Our organization is such that we can resist the devil; if we were not organized so, we would not be free agents. The devil has no power over us, only as we permit him; the moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power." - Joseph Smith

As I was reading this, it got me really thinking about what it means to let God prevail and what temptation and all these things are. And a scripture came to my mind from 2 Nephi 2. It's at the end when Lehi is kinda telling his final testimony to his son Jacob, and he's talking about agency. And he goes on to tell Jacob that he should hearken unto the commandments and the great word of the mediator.

Now, when it comes back to this, we always have a choice to do good or to do evil, to follow Satan or to follow Jesus Christ. It's literally always up to us. So, back to my main point, it's so easy to choose good or evil if you are doing the right things and letting God prevail. You have to search for hunger and thirst after righteousness, and it becomes so easy to just choose good and choose to be happy. But if you are not doing those things to let God prevail or your spirit have more power over the flesh, it's not easy, and you will keep choosing wrong. It's like an old radio. You tune it, and when you get more on the right channel, it becomes easier and easier to hear, the same thing with agency. So, it's like you can choose to fix yourself and be happy, or you can be miserable all your life just because you choose to be, and until you humble yourself enough to listen and yield to your spirit and not your flesh, you will always be unhappy. Always.

As I was reading another day, before, I was reading in Alma about the story of Ammon, and I came across something really intriguing.

"King Lamoni had been brought up with a belief that there was a God but that whatever the king did was right. He had been specifically taught false doctrine that might have made him impervious to feelings of guilt. Do you remember that when he heard where Ammon was, a feeling of guilt, of fear that he had done wrong in the killing of the servants, came over him?" (see Alma 18:5)

"I have always focused before on how mixed up Lamoni was in his doctrine, without seeing the miracle. The miracle was that a spiritual need was created in a man, that he might be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. His heart was broken. He felt guilt. And it came from the temporal things that Ammon had done. ...

Never, never underestimate the spiritual value of doing temporal things well for those whom you serve.

"... Be their servants, and you will love them. And they will feel your love. And more importantly, they will feel God's love." - Henry B. Eyring

And I was thinking about this quote this morning, reading all of this about agency and why people continue to choose to do evil, why they continue to choose unhappiness and sin. And it seems to me they cannot feel the guilt of their own wrongdoings because, well, we are in earthly tabernacles (our bodies) and we have a veil drawn across our mind, so we can't see spiritual things naturally, obviously in special events. But that's the exact case: special events. You think about all the people who have seen God. It was at a special event to show them something huge and big, not just everyday life. So we have to use our other resources - thoughts, hearing, feelings, etc. - every day. We have to choose to let our own spirit grow and prevail, and how do we do that? By letting God prevail.

So these people who continue to choose evil and wickedness have no idea because, firstly, they have an earthly body. Secondly, they are so caught up in the world that they can't even hear their own spirit. The natural man has taken over so much that they only choose the world. Going back to the radio, they have tuned out so far that all they hear is static, and they don't understand. So, they use their agency to choose evil, and they get a sense of pleasure for a moment, and they think that's happiness. Their version of happiness and definition of it are so much different from what it actually is because they don't know what happiness really is. So, they continue to think they are happy while truthfully they aren't, and they don't know because they don't know what happiness actually is. So, when they go on a vacation, or buy a new car, or do some fun activity, they think that's happy because they feel different from usual. And they become so used to being miserable that it starts to become normal, and then they are so wicked, Satan just keeps leading them down the road long and far, and they stray from the straight and narrow path, all because they firstly yield to the enticings of the natural man, because it is an enemy to God, causing them to choose Satan and then falling into this cycle of fake happiness that lasts about 5 minutes, then they are all confused and lost, all because they choose the natural man and Satan, and it's all up to them. And we, as the righteous, need to figure out how to create a spiritual need in the hearts of men so they start letting God prevail.

I've come down to the fact that to get the natural man broken, you have to pull something like Ammon. His heart was broken, he felt guilt, and it came from the temporal things that Ammon had done. ... and it was from the temporal things that Ammon did.

So we can all ponder on why the prophets and apostles tell us to flood the earth with social media messages and service because on a day like today, the temporal things are the only things that will break down the wall for those who won't listen. Let us all be like Ammon. His only desire was the salvation of man. He let his spirit prevail, and when Satan tempted his natural man four times with riches and a kingdom - he was offered to be a king/kingdom four times - he always said no and chose to be a missionary. His only desire was the salvation of others; he only wanted them to be happy because he wanted them to yield to the spirit and have joy.

"All persons are entitled to their agency, for God has so ordained it. He has constituted mankind moral agents and given them power to choose good or evil, to seek after that which is good by pursuing the pathway of holiness in this life, which brings peace of mind and joy in the Holy Ghost here, and a fulness of joy and happiness at His right hand hereafter.

There are a lot of people scared of sharing the Gospel, which never makes sense to me because if you truly love someone, you'll want them to be happy. And if you don't invite them to be happy, do you really love them? Do you have charity? If you don't want to share the gospel or your testimony, then you are using your agency to choose the natural man and cause yourself to lose out on the blessings of joy as well. Interesting how it works that way.

By using our agency to not serve and bless others, we lose out on our own blessings because we are already too focused on our own lives that we are already choosing Satan.

I think this is why Jesus said, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

Selflessness is the key to happiness and eternal life.