Choose God's Plan

Elder Scott loves his scriptures. Every week he
sends home reading challenges to the rest of
us so we can learn some of the same things.

He is literally feasting on the  words he reads and 
learning so much in the process.

Elder Scott was at the slow internet cafe again this week so not many pictures were able to download before he had to sign off, but from what I saw and read he's had a couple amazing days paired with a couple rough days. Luckily, the amazing days always trump the rough ones, and he has a good knack of focusing on the positives around him and not dwelling on the negatives.

One amusing thing is more and more of his journal entries are a mix of Spanish and English and he wrote home saying  he's not sure if he should be sad or if it's more awesome that it's starting to get easier for him to think and write in Castiano than it is in English. I for one am loving the transformation. It shows he's fully immersed in the people and culture Perú offers. With that being said, I'm know I'm going to need to live with Google translate by my side and hope his Spanish spelling is better than his English so I can understand what he writes home lol.

As I was thinking about what to add to the blog today, I was reading one of the letters Elder Scott sent home about the Pride Cycle. Have you heard of this? You read about it all the time in the scriptures and it goes something like this.

Here are Elder Scott's thoughts about it: "It never seems to take people long at all to fall into sorrow and pride and sin. I always liked learning about the pride cycle in seminary. The scriptures show a constantly repeating pride cycle pattern. People are good. They are blessed. They start to take their blessings for granted. God has to remind them and they are condemned for their sins. Times get rough. The people humble themselves. They start to rely on God once again so they are blessed and start to be good again. It is a constant cycle; quite interesting to read about and so very, very true".

The reason pride is a sin is because it is the absence of humility which is a Christlike attribute we all strive to exemplify. Pride sets people up in opposition of each other. It has us act on our own will rather than God's will. It can start off small and subtle and appear seemingly insignificant, but will quickly escalate into something greater, more damaging, and inherently bad. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "Pride is a deadly cancer. It is a gateway sin that leads to a host of other human weaknesses. In fact, it could be said that every other sin is, in essence, a manifestation of pride."

Elder Scott also wrote home about a few things he wished he had done differently before leaving on his mission; pay more attention in seminary, not only read but ponder the teachings found in the scriptures, spend more time with family, work a little less, devote more time to the things that matter long term, "It's funny how powerful hindsight can be, but I can only change the future now so I'm trying to do that as best as I can". I think Elder Scott's above quote goes hand-in-hand with the pride cycle. If you look back on your life and all the choices you've made up to this point, instead of living in regret over bad decisions, vow to make better ones today. Luckily God is forgiving. He let's us have do-over's. He's not a "one strike and you're out" disciplinarian. He gives us chance after chance after chance. The thing we learn with hindsight though is we will see a pattern. The times we followed Him are the times we were the happiest, the most productive, and the times we were filled with peace because we were following His way instead of our own. He paved the way for us already, we just need to take His path rather than try to machete our way through an overgrown jungle of darkness. The effort has already been done for us, all we need to do is decide to ACT on His teachings, on His ways, and let him Him lead us down the chosen path. He has promised the end result is worth it. It is truly a Plan of Happiness. A Plan of Salvation. A Plan of Exaltation. We cannot come up with something on our own that is greater than His already perfect plan.

Elder Scott was able to go on a missionary
exchange with Elder Willard and loved every
minute. They had an outstanding day filled
with teaching and learning from each other

There was a slight delay in a
Christmas box of goodies we sent him
which worked out perfect because he
was able to share all the treats with
Elder Chapman and Elder Willard

The after-math once they tore through
the box and ate the Chocoton,Oreo's and
some of the cookies. You gotta love Elder's
and their appetites :-)

He ended P-day with Papa John's pizza. What a special
treat that Hermana Desiree and Hermana Elsa helped me
pull together. I love these Sisters and the love they
show the missionaries.