I've Got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

To paraphrase our branch president yesterday during Sacrament Meeting: The Gospel has many principles...just like a Korean drama has lots of different episodes.

Boom.

So this past week has been a good one. We had transfers, and I am now with Elder Chong, a native from over in West Malaysia! I've spoken more Chinese in the past five days with him than I have with any of my other companions in the field, maybe even the mission. Who knows? In the words of a great song: "One way or another, I'm gonna [speak it], I'm gonna [speak it, speak it, speak it]." (That was probably a little Babylon-esque. M'bad :) ).

I've had a chance to contemplate the principle of repentance this week a LOT. This morning, as I was doing so, an analogy kind of clicked in my mind. My brain functions in such a way that I understand things best when they're put into real-life situation examples. For instance: Many people (myself included) sometimes have the false assumption that repentance--or rather, the Atonement--is like a dishwasher. You just throw in a dirty dish and hope for the best, essentially. In actuality, it's more like handwashing dishes. The Atonement is very personal and thorough. The Lord takes the plate of our lives into His hands, and, using the power of the Atonement, scrubs and rinses and washes and scrubs some more, wearing away the weaknesses, the faults, the sins, the trivialities that impede us from entering His presence. He does it individually--you certainly can't wash more than one dish at a time if you're doing it by hand (trust me, I've tried). He does it with a purpose--He will have a clean dish, not something that's half-washed. He knows our potential, and He will not rest until we have reached it. Thank heavens that we will never reach that potential in this life! Thank heavens that we are being cleansed by that Atonement and by our Master each and every day! Thank heavens that we have a Father in Heaven who loved us so much that He, desiring to make us as He is, sent His Only Begotten Son to pay the price, to wash us clean, even through the blood of the Lamb. 

I love y'all very much, and hope that the Lord will watch over you this upcoming week. 

Keep on keepin' on,

Mai Zhanglao