Week 45

This week I did something a little different for my personal study. We had interviews with our Mission President a couple of weeks ago and he invited me to study Moroni 7, on faith, hope and charity. I decided to buckle down and spent the entire week working my way through the chapter. I learned some interesting things as I tried to figure out what Mormon was saying.

I realized what it meant to "lay hold upon every good thing" and what exactly it means to be a child of Christ. I was also struck by how merciful our Father has been in providing us with the scriptures and also with heavenly messengers to teach us about Jesus Christ, thus allowing us to learn about him and develop faith in Him, which we need in order to be saved. 

One thing that confused me but that I was able to somewhat get a handle on was the difference between faith and hope, and also the relationship between them. Moroni 7:40 says that we need hope in order to "attain unto faith," and verse 42 says that we must have hope if we have faith, "for without faith there cannot be any hope." So you need faith in order to have hope, but you also need hope in order to have faith. Seems like a bit of a paradox. 

That still confuses me, but I was able to look in the Guide to the Scriptures to see what exactly faith and hope are. Faith is confidence and trust in something- when our faith is in Jesus Christ it motivates us to obey his commandments. Hope is confident expectation and longing for the Lord to give us promised blessings. So faith seems to be confidence that leads us to act, whereas hope is specifically confidence based in the fulfillment of future promises, and thus geared towards the future. 

So hope is maybe a subset of faith? Or maybe it is hope, that desire and expectation that B will happen if we do A, that motivates us to Act (exercise faith) to cause A to happen. So we need hope in order to have faith, because faith is built and sustained by action (and not just passive observation). If we don't have hope in the result, we won't act in faith in the first place. Or maybe hope is the catalyst and faith is the reaction itself. They reinforce each other: the more hope you have, the more faith you exercise, the greater your confidence in Christ's promises, the more you act in accordance with his will. 

But then if faith can also come first to generate hope, then how does that work? I guess in order to have any confidence in Christ's promises we need to have confidence in Christ himself. I'm still confused. 

It definitely requires further study, and it's been slow going, but I've been enjoying it a lot. I'll keep you apprised of my findings. 

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This last Sunday we had Stake Conference for the Phoenix YSA Stake. There was a session on Saturday as well but in our prodigious wisdom as representatives of Jesus Christ, we forgot about it. So we didn't go. 

We did go on Sunday though, we got there very late because we had Missionary Coordination Meeting with our other ward during the first part of it and then we had to drive all the way up to the Glendale North Stake Center on 51st and Union Hills (my old church building, and where Apache Park ward still meets). 

We got there right as the congregation stood with the choir started singing "The Spirit of God." It was an electrifying experience, it was unique to be able to sing at the top of my lungs with hundreds of other Young Single Adults (as well as the Stake Presidency and Mission Presidency), and to feel the energy in the room. Our normal Sundays in the Glendale YSA have about 30 people show up, this was the entire chapel packed to the gills. I didn't even know there were that many YSAs in the Valley.

After the singing was over we heard a lot of good talks, both our mission president and his wife talked about seizing crossroads moments and the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion respectively. Then President Tuggle of the Stake Presidency got up and gave one of the best talks I've ever heard. 

He talked about our Eternal Nature and Destiny, and the importance of our choices and keeping Eternal Covenants in our lives. It kind of fits with my own recent study on our Eternal nature, it truly boggles the mind that we have always existed, and will always exist, and have experienced untold eons together. He made it clear that life is "not just a 'test,' but a blessing and an opportunity" afforded to us. We are not mere mortals, but "eternal beings having a mortal experience." 

It was perspective-changing, I wish that the meeting were televised so I could come back and rewatch it later. It's definitely a powerful and provocative doctrine, that man is co-eternal with God, but I think it has an ennobling effect on humanity in general. I definitely have started wondering more about who I was before, who the people around me were, and whether I knew them well. 

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Thanks for your emails, I appreciate them. From what little news I've heard from the outside world, something very important and historic happened last week....

I can't believe that there's a Kung Fu Panda 4 now. I hope it was terrible so I don't have to feel left out watching it.

Yours Faithfully,

Elder C. Calder

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Our ward mission leader, Brother Sturgiss. Here he is in his man cave, pictured with a prop rifle he had for some reason. He is a very interesting person, he's Hamm-certified and worked as a radio engineer for many years. He has a lot of custom gadgets and computers in his house, and his car is tricked out like the Batmobile. I'll see if I can get a picture for next time.

District Council photo. Elder Garcia, one of the APs, was on exchanges with Elder McMullin that day. The second photo is supposed to be everyone's best Chad face, I'm pretty sure I won.

We went to Waldo's Tacos, a tiny Mexican restaurant over in Westgate. The owner is a member (I think he's a Bishop actually), so missionaries eat there for free. It is really good, they have delicious meat quesadillas. I tried lengua (tongue) in mine the first time I went and it was actually very good. 

Interesting Vietnamese Catholic church in our area. 

We went on a hike this morning, it was another one of those "super easy hikes" that was not super easy for me. I got to the top though, and got a pretty good view of most of the valley. I could see the high-rises of Central Phoenix, very near to my first area in Biltmore/Country Club. If you look in the mid-top left, between those two hills you can see the Phoenix Temple.