Synonyms for Joy

   

  Zone conferences just bring the greatest blessings. One of them was a sleepover with the AP´s, secretaries, and 12 other elders. So a house full of 16 people put the show Full House to shame. (You better know my shocker machine was a popular activity to prepare these Elders for Conference haha)

      But. Let´s just talk how good God is. Here I was worried about giving a training at the Zone Conference and trying to speak the best Portuguese I can, and to say the words my Mission President would want, AND try to get the missionaries to stay awake after a big lunch. Well, the miracles poured out when we played a classic game of Jeopardy about the new rule book for missionaries that became one of the biggest highlights of the day for me. I have never seen missionaries back up and defend that rule book ever before in this Zone Conference.

      As we were wrapping up our training, I had all the missionaries open up to page 8 of the Guide to the Scriptures (aka the word Joy). I ask them, "What are the synonyms/similar words for Joy?" In the Portuguese scriptures, the only synonyms are Obedience and Obey. When someone read that, literally every head just looked up just stunned that truly, that is written in the scriptures...(the scriptures speak the words of God...so therefore God said that)

      I didn´t have to say much afterwards to emphasize the fact that our Heavenly Father is more than willing, wanting in fact, to pour blessings upon on head WHEN we are obedient. Obedience truly unlocks the powers of Heaven and bounds our Heavenly Father to keep the promises he has made with each one of us.

      So if you end up asking yourself "why is it so hard to obey my parents..." or "why is the law of chastity or Word of Wisdom so hard to obey," or "why do I have to obey now? Isn´t there always repentance?"

     Well let me tell you that Satan is trying everything he can to limit our ability to choose--through addictions, physical strains, etc--therefore making it almost impossible to obey our Heavenly Father. Think of this. Someone who is addicted to alcohol...it´s hard to obey the word of wisdom because they gave up their agency to this extremely addictive substance. SO. When we are asked by the prophet to study the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon) every day, or the First Vision, or asked to recognize the patterns of how the Holy Ghost speaks to us, our prophet in all reality is giving us an invitation to OBEY to therefore widen our ability to CHOOSE.

     OBEDIENCE=AGENCY=FREEDOM.

Think about that. Then act with what the spirit has to say to you.

Love ya all! CHOOSE to obey the voice of the Lord!

Elder Gardanier