Well this week has been great! We started off with having zone conference on Tuesday and Wednesday which was so fun! We did one of the workshops and ours was on that purification challenge that I mentioned 6 weeks ago! I can also see now in hindsight that I was not only lead to that paper during studies for my benefit but for the whole mission! We came up with this cool idea since a transfer is 42 days that we as a mission will do a 42 day fast! The logistics of it is that we will have at least one companionship fasting for one of the days of the transfer we will be fasting for 42 days! How epic is that! We will be starting it on the 15th of September. It was amazing to see how the missionaries responed to it! We used the example of purifying water (I will attach the photos that we used. Then we related it to us and how we need to go through the same process to get rid of our imperfections.
I guess this week I gained even a stronger testimony of the Atonement. However, usually when this happens it is because I have fallen or have messed up. It was different this week. I just saw others applying the atonement as they saw the need to purify their lives. Many may think that missionaries are perfect and that we don't make mistakes but that is far from the truth... This week I have seen some missionaries that really need to make changes start making those changes. I can also see how proud Heavenly Father is of them for their effort. I think when we see one repenting we have a tendency to look down on them and think how could they ever do that... What we really need to see is that they are now changing and how hard it must be for them especially if all they see is criticism from others.
When Alma was explaining the repentance process that he went through to his son Helaman, he said in Alma 36:21 "Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy." This week I have seen missionaries that are going through the first part of repentance and I know that if they work through it with patience, diligence, hope, and the Atonement they will eventually feel that joy.
When we realize we are all sinners and that we all need the atonement we will start to see those that are imperfect are actually on the same road as us. We are all trying to make it back to our Heavenly Father and we may be taking different routes but I believe that we will all make it back there as long as we don't give up and lean to the atonement. This is a spiritually famine world full of sin and darkness but that doesn't mean that we have to be full of sin and darkness.
I guess this email is just for the sinner and the saint and to remind the saint that they were once a sinner. Hopefully I didn't step on any toes from this email.
Elder Olson
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