Our ADORATION of Him, produces a desire to EMULATE Him.

21 August 2017

Happy Monday everyone! How has your week been? Dang time goes by so fast; it’s already Monday! Miracles happen every day and last week they continued to come! What miracles happened in your week? 

 

My invitation last week was to 1) to identify something in your life that is ungodly and keeping you from coming unto Christ and 2) to remove or deny this from your life so that you may be perfected in Him! I really hope that this week you were able to do this!

"If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses." - Joseph Smith

I read this during the week and I started thinking about Jesus Christ and the His attributes.

For the serious disciple, the cardinal attributes exemplified by Jesus Christ are NOT OPTIONAL! They are FOUNDATIONAL! These developmental milestones take the form of traits, traits that mark our trail to be travelled. 

King Benjamin said "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, an will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19)

Alma said to the people in Gideon "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks to God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that y have faith, hope and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works." (Alma 7:23-24)

These attributes - the attributes of Christ are eternal and portable! Being portable to the degree developed, they will go with us through the veil of death, and still they will rise with us in the Resurrection  when all else stays behind.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do no break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:19-21; 3 Nephi 13:19-21)

The qualities of Jesus Christ that we must develop are made clear again and again in the scriptures; so is our need to follow the developmental path.

"For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I (Jesus Christ) have done to you." 

(John 13:15

"And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he (Jesus Christ) having set the example before them." 

(2 Nephi 31:9)

These qualities are not only developmental destinations, but if developed significantly, they also provide us with the balance urgently needed for travelling on the demanding narrow path! It is so easy to fall off one side or the other!

Divine direction is clear! "Behold I am the light; I have set an example for you." (3 Nephi 18:16)

And the development clue is given! "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matthew 11:29)

By being yoked to the Saviour, we can best learn of His perfected qualities.

Our ADORATION of him, produces a desire to EMULATE Him.

"The nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; and like the ancients he arrives at that point of faith where he is wrapped in the power and glory of his Maker and is caught up to dwell with Him. But we consider that this is a station to which no man ever arrived in a moment." - Joseph Smith

It is only in the bright light of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that we can see the truth as to who we really are and what our possibilities are! The Lord loves each of us too much to merely let us go on being what we are now, for he knows what we have the possibility to become!

It is all part of our journey home to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! Developmentally, we are all prodigals. When we really come to ourselves, spiritually, we too, will say with determination "I will arise and go to my Father." (Luke 15:18)

My invitation this week is to take upon yourselves the yoke of our Saviour so that we can learn of him and develop his perfect attributes! I promise that as we do this we will come to know him more and we will be closer to reaching the person that he knows we have the potential to become!

I love you all!

Sister Roos xx (: (: 

The light of the Saviour

Monday 7th August, 2017

Heeeeey everyone! Happy Monday! 



Miracles happen every day! How grateful I am for the amazing week that we have just had! Being in a trio is the greatest! The miracles just keep on coming! The greatest miracle of the week was seeing two of our investigators have their baptismal interview with our Zone Leaders. The joy and the light that you could see in their eyes - their whole being was something that words cannot describe! Sister Maere and her son Dwayne are the greatest people you will ever meet. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about change. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about eternal happiness. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about families. And we are so grateful that we are able to help this beautiful family be one step closer to eternal happiness. Their baptism is this Saturday so keep them in your prayers! I love you all! 
 


Last week I invited you all to reflect on counsel that we have received from our living Prophet Thomas S. Monson and to ACT on it! I hope you were all able to do this because the blessings of following our prophet are greater than you can imagine! 

Just wanted to share another poem with you all again!

I stand once more below the peak,

Awaiting still the rising sun,

And with the quiet moment seek

Assurance from the Holy One

What with the waiting hour comes?

Will light assail the darkness here?

The earth unveiled, as ripened plums

Drip colour as the day draws near?

Sweet light in radiant softness glows,

Ethereal canvas painted bright;

O'er tiered horizon sunlight flows,

Dismissing doubt and dark of night.

We speak of hope, of faith unmoved,

And yet forget throughout the day

The light revealed, the promised proved

When dusk returns and dims the way.

But One true source of light remains,

A single lamp, a rugged path;

The Son, who suffered all our pains

To give us all His Father hath.

I've yet a mountain peak to climb;

The journey's end is distant still;

But trust in Him and in His time

Renews my strength to do His will.

LIGHT. Light is essential! And Our Saviour Jesus Christ is the only source of light that will guide us through the ever-darkening world that we are living in. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the light that shines in all of us. He is the one that we can trust. His light will guide us home. His light will lead us to safety. His light will allow us to brighten ours. His light can never be dimmed. His light swallows the darkness, heals our wounds, and shines even in the midst of the deepest sorrow and unfathomable darkness. His light surpasses all understanding.

Light is essential. I invite you to allow the light of the Saviour to bless you in your life throughout this week! Cast away the things that prevent the Light of our Saviour from flowing into your life!  I promise you that this His light is the only way to true and everlasting happiness. I have experienced this myself. I know Our Saviour's Light is essential.

I love you all!

Sister Roos xx (: (: 

ACT on the counsel that we receive from our living Prophet, Thomas S. Monson

31 July, 2017 
Wattle Grove

Happy Monday everyone! 

Hope you all had a great week! Wattle Grove is still going strong! Being in a trio definitely has its benefits - one of them being that now there are three voices to sing -a duo is awesome but with three you get to have more harmonies haha; so we are working on having our harmonies on lock hahhahahhahaa.

Last week my invitation to you all was to look at your life, look at yourself and look at where you want to go. And to reflect on the changes that you can make to be better! I hope you were all able to do this!

A couple weeks ago, Sister Taeu and I were driving to one of our investigators homes. On the way there, there is a massive intersection that controls the traffic from two streets - traffic coming from the motorway (very busy) and the other, a really busy main road.

At this specific time that we were driving to our investigators home, the traffic lights were not working! 

So you can just imagine what the traffic would have been like on two of the busiest streets without functioning traffic lights! Chaotic, unorganised and confusion. We were sitting at the intersection for ages waiting for people to figure out how to organise moving across the intersection without working lights.

On the way back from our appointment the lights were back on! Order was re-established, everyone knew where they were supposed to go and when.

We live in a world that is full of confusion. We live in a world that is chaotic and unorganised. But just like at this intersection with the working lights, that allows order, guidance and protection, we have a living Prophet to provide those very things for us!

We have a living Prophet on the earth - President Thomas S. Monson, who has been called of God to lead and guide us in this day and age. It is through following him and heading his counsel and direction that we know we are following our Saviour Jesus Christ!

The Lord has revealed that the simplest way to measure how well we follow Jesus Christ today is by how well we follow His living prophets. The implications of this are powerful. This means that to follow the prophet is to follow the Lord. 

If we want to know if we would have faithfully followed Christ in New Testament times or if we would have rejected him, we only need to ask ourselves a simple question:

How do I respond to the living prophets the Lord has sent to speak and act in his name? 

My invitation to you all this week is to ACT on the counsel that we receive from our living Prophet Thomas S. Monson. Reflect on how you respond to the messages that our Prophet shares with us. How do you respond? Do you act on the counsel that we receive? Our personal discipleship to Christ is measured by how well we follow his living prophets in the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve apostles.

Let us resolve to follow the Saviour and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become. Let us listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As we do so, Heavenly Father will reveal to us things we never knew about ourselves. He will illuminate the path ahead and open our eyes to see our unknown and perhaps unforseen talents.

I love you all!

Sister Roos xx (: (: