Week Seventy-One

Hey guys!

This week was really great. We got some great new investigators and our current investigators are doing well also, some people just learn the gospel quicker than others. It depends on how long it takes to feel the Spirit touch your heart and inspire change. Even after teaching for weeks and months some people still don't get baptized, but we can always be a positive influence for good in their lives.

Things in Delhi are great, the evenings and mornings are much cooler now as winter is coming soon. It's actually probably 70 degrees when I think it's cool, but I’ll take it over 100 degrees any day. This time of year the pollution starts to get an all time high...here in the coming weeks it will be so bad. Diwali is coming up and there will be so many crackers going off and the pollution is going to be terrible, of course I am super excited! Indian festivals are so fun. Overall, Indians as a whole are a very fun people....they absolutely love having a good time. It's one of my favorite things about being here. This week there was nothing exciting or crazy. We had our monthly leadership meeting again and that went really well. Elder Openshaw and I gave a training on how we can create a Christ Centered Culture in our missionary lives. Next month we get to have our MLC meeting with Elder Funk of the Asia Area presidency which I am pumped for. I love giving talk and trainings and I'm really excited to learn from him!

This week as always in India we watched General Conference a week late. There were many good talks that I loved including Elder Ellis who talked about "Hard is Good", and Elder Callister who defended the Prophet Joseph Smith and talked about how he translating the Book of Mormon was through the power of God. But of course my favorite and the one that I feel I learned from the most was Elder Holland’s talk. He is awesome, and I thought I would write a little about his talk.

Growing up I fell in love with the sport of Wrestling, although basketball had always been my first love in the winter time I quickly learned that Wrestling was my sport. Wrestling was right up my alley because of one thing. Competition. There is nothing better than going out onto the mat, having trained your guts out, literally, to be in the best position to win a match, and being right across from a kid who did the exact same thing so that he could beat you. In wrestling there are a lot of factors, but ultimately, the best man wins. Being me and as competitive as I was, losing was never fun. I hated it. But in time I learned how to react to losing, and learned that the more upset and down on myself I got, the worse I got as a wrestler. I lost focus of the good and worried too much about the bad, and that led me to making more and more crucial mistakes. And when Elder Holland talked about the Lord's commandment to be perfect, this is what I thought of. Too often in life we want to be perfect so bad, we do so many things right, we prepare, we learn, we keep commandments, to prepare ourselves well against the enemy of us all, Satan. That desire is a wonderful thing, and we should never lose that, especially after defeat. Because the truth is, Losing is Understandable, but it is never Acceptable. Just like in wrestling its okay if every once in a while you lose a match, things happen, nobody expects you to be undefeated, that's rare. But you should never be okay with losing when it happens. In life we will fall, Heavenly Father knew that, that's why we have a Savior. He Understands that some battles we will lose. But while he understands that, we learn in the Scriptures that God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Falling to Satan is understandable, but never acceptable. It is about how we react too when we fall, do we storm off the mat and into the locker room like an 8th grade version of myself would do. Or, do we step off the mat, talk to our coach, watch the film, and improve. Knowing that we control the outcome of the next match. Life is a lot about how we react to our struggles, and I promise you if you keep striving and keep fighting you will see a day where the wins stack up and Satan literally cannot take you down.  

There is a lot at stake in this life; it's much bigger and broader than state championships. It's Eternal Salvation, and every day we have to wrestle our way back Home. But true disciples, just like true wrestlers, know how to come back from a loss. We will never be perfect in this life, and just as Elder Holland said perfection and Eternal Life with our Father will only come to us eventually...as a gift. We will not earn it. But we can prepare for it, we can train for it, and the only way that is possible is through the Savior Jesus Christ. The only one who was ever Undefeated, and he's in our corner as our coach, and that makes me pretty confident. But we have to listen to him, and rely on the best source of strength he has given us. The Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

Texting an investigator while training with Pakistani elders.

October Mission Leadership Council