"It is by Obedience that we gather light into our souls"

Hola Familia,

This week we had a baptism in our District. The Hermanas baptized a muchacho and it was a good service. We had one of our investigators come and also President Thomas came! Also Elder It was good!

 Elder Romney came with me in Vista. Ok time for some fun facts. 

Did you know, that Elder Romney grew up in Chihuahua Mexico?

Did you know that His Mother's cousin is..... TODD HEAP? Yep, THAT Todd Heap.

Did you know that he had a scholarship offer from Oregon?

Lots of cool things. He's a great guy and we had lots of fun. I say had because he decided to serve a mission first, and well not too many schools are willing to wait that long. He will be going to another D1 school though I'm not sure which though. He also told me that his uncle Todd always told him that one of his biggest regrets was not serving a mission. I just thought that was cool that everytime the Steelers played the Ravens, we'd see Elder Romney's uncle and say how much we hated playing them. Other than that we haven't had too much stuff happen. We're still teaching Teresa and are hoping that we'll be able to make a more solid baptismal date with her. Still we are looking for more people to teach. 

President Thomas shared this quote at Zone Conference on Thursday, it's from a Talk by Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Obedience is the lifeblood of faith. It is by obedience that we gather light into our souls. 

But sometimes I think we misunderstand obedience. We may see obedience as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Or we may pound the metaphorical hammer of obedience against the iron anvil of the commandments in an effort to shape those we love, through constant heating and repeated battering into a holier heavenly matter.

No doubt about it, there are times when we need a stern call to repentance. Certainly, there are some who may be reached only in this manner.

But perhaps there is a different metaphor that can explain why we obey the commandments of God. Maybe obedience is not so much the process of bending, twisting, and pounding our souls into something we are not. Instead, it is the process by which we discover what we truly are made of."

When I heard this quote I thought about how sometimes when living in accordance with the commandments or church membership living in general can seem overbearing, a challenge, or simply too much in our lives. But this explains that when we are obedient and show Heavenly Father our love towards him to live worthily that we will be blessed and truly see why we live the gospel. It's not to make us into something we are not, but to show us what we are made of. 

Love you all!

Elder Emerick