The 2nd Great Commandment

Hiya Errbody!

This past week has been a good one. We went to Singapore for MLC, and it was once again a spiritually uplifting experience. Being able to see old friends is awesome, and being able to be spiritually fed by President Mains is always awesome.

This morning I was reading through the Bible and studying more about humility and pride. I happened to come across Romans 12-14--these chapters are AMAZING! It's pretty much Paul's guidebook for how to keep the 2nd Great Commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." I am far from perfect at this commandment, and so I got to learn lots about it this morning. Truly reaching outward, forgetting yourself and your vain pride and your anger and hurt, and just helping other people, even and especially those that it's hard to love. I've never been super awesome at this, so I'm excited for the chance that God has given me to repent about it. 

I know that Christ is there to help us. These past few weeks I've focused on keeping my eye single to His glory during the day-to-day trials and labors of missionary work, and I've been so much HAPPIER and EXCITED to do His work! As we are led and guided by the Spirit, things are always so much better. Our good times shine out, our bad times are illuminated--we're never alone in the service of our God!

For now I'll go ahead and close. Like I said, this past week's been great. There was a pretty big rainstorm that we got caught in...but at the very end there was a rainbow! Take a look at it! Very symbolic if you ask me--there will always be that light, that presence, that constant reminder that, no matter what and no matter where, God is there :) We also got to eat some sushi this past week...it was very....interesting. And expensive. Oh well. Here's to the experience! :)

I love y'all so very much! Have a great and grand week! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

Irons and Feasts--CHRISTMAS 2014

Well, it's come and gone, but Christmas 2014 was the best!!!!!!!! On Christmas Eve we had two baptisms that went super well. Louisa and Erin--they've both been learning for over a year, but they've finally made the decision to make covenants with their Father in Heaven. The services went super awesome. It was great to be able to see how happy they were, how nervous they were, and how much they've changed in the time that I've known them! :) 

We had SO MUCH FOOD on Christmas Day. First round=All of the American Christmas candy that packages from home brought. Second round=Feast at the Schollenbergers. Totes delicious :) Third round=Christmas Party at Brian Che's, where the elders were requested to sing. We'd sung "Silent Night" the night before at the baptism, first two verses Chinese, third verse English, and at the Christmas Party at Brian Che's we performed it again. I'm so grateful for the chance that we have at Christmas to be with awesome friends and family! Christmas is the best :)

A couple weeks ago, as I was ironing a shirt/pondering Christmas, I got a nice little realization. So the iron I was using is one of those kinds that has a little area for water. If you fill it up with water, the iron works 100 times better. The steam helps speed up the ironing process and makes the shirt look so much nicer and cleaner and less wrinkled. It also helps to magnify the heat. Without the water, the ironing job isn't much good at all.

The same is true in life. We all know that we're going to have trials and hard times--the almost unbearable heat of Life's Iron. But when we add the Water of Life--even Jesus Christ--our trials take on a very different nature. They still exist, to be sure, but they're different. They're not there just to make us miserable or destroy us--they're there to refine us and iron us out. With that Water present, the heat seems to be magnified, but the resulting steam enables us to smoothed out. It enables those trials to flow by quicker. It allows us to see that there is actually a reason for Life's Iron. It's not just something to heat things up--it's something that's meant to make us better.

Thanks to Christ, we have purpose in life and we find purpose in trials. Do I like trials? Not one bit. But do I know why I have them? Or rather, do I know why I need to have them? Yes. I know that they're there to help me be better. Thanks to Christ, they're not permanent. They're not fatal. They're refiner's fires, the irons of life that mend and make us. Thanks to Christmas, we have Christ, and thanks to Christ, we have everything else :)

I love you all so much and hope that you had a magnificently great and grand Christmas! Keep on keeping on! Happy New Year! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

God is Not Dead, Nor Doth He Sleep

Another Zone Conference week has come and gone. This past week has been so good spiritually, but man, it sure has done a number on my physical self. I've been combatting a return of foot fungus as well as a nasty little head-cold, but ne'er you fret! The work of God continues to roll forth!

At Zone Conference this past week we learned about how to work better with members-we are on the SAME team, after all--and then we also learned about the love of God, as exemplified in Christmas. If you haven't yet, I highly encourage you to take some time and watch #SharetheGift that the Church just barely came out with a week or two ago. So good! It gives me the chills every time that I watch it :) 

As I've reflected on the birth of my Savior this past week, I've been able to really think about His love for me and for all of humanity. He really just wants us to come back and live with Him again. He's always offering us the opportunity to make covenants and promises with Him. What's the point of these? To bind us closer to Him, to inspire us to aspire to celestial heights, and to help enable us to become more and more like Him each and every day :) He lives--He was born in mean estate, He lived a simple but humble life, He died on a cruel cross, but now, RIGHT NOW, He lives again! The bonds of death have been snapped; the chains that would encircle the world have been severed! As the words of one of my all-time favorite Christmas hymns says, "God is NOT DEAD, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with PEACE on earth, GOOD WILL to men." ("I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day", Hymn No. 214, emphasis added). 

How have you seen Him active in your own life? How have you felt His hand touching, leading, guiding, and influencing you? He's so real, and He's so amazing! The fact that He loves us enough to have been born, lived, and died for us is remarkable in and of itself; but now He lives for us again! He's not going to stop loving us, and He will always been working with us, until that perfect day when we are like Him. I know that's true :)
For now I bid you a wonderful rest of the day and week! I love y'all lots!

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

p.s. We went to Zone Conference this week. Look what I found....The caption for the second pic is "'Nuff Said" :)

Where is the Love? What's the Matter with the World, Mama?:):)

Hello Errbody!

These past few weeks have gone by quick! Thanksgiving was wonderful, and Christmas is coming! HOORAY FOR CHRISTMAS! It is, after all, the most wonderful time of the year :) And when we're filled with the Spirit of Christmas, we're living the most wonderful life :) So today I want to quickly share a quick thought with you from yesterday.

We met with a recent convert and her family yesterday at the church to talk about the Importance of the Family. It was the perfect lesson for her--she has a husband that's super controlling, and that essentially is very restrictive of what she and her kids can do. She let off some steam with us, and made mention multiple times how she doesn't love him and how she doesn't want to be anywhere near him. It was sad, but really enlightening. We left her with the commitment to fast and pray and seek for opportunities to develop charity for her husband. Hopefully she'll take our challenge to heart and rely upon the power of the Atonement to be able to love her husband the way that Christ loves him.

This encounter brought tears to my eyes--the point behind families is to be happy and find joy in this life. It's helped me see what type of man and future husband I'd like to be, as well as help me appreciate all the more my own father for the wonderful example he's given to me and for the love that he's shown to us kids and our mom. I know that families truly can be forever, if we will put in the work and effort, the tears and the love, that the Lord asks of us. Everything will work out in the end, as we hold on to each other and on to the Lord. :) I'm so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whose simple teachings and sayings truly are the pathway and guidelines for this life. If we'll simply learn to love and to forgive, to have faith and to repent, to remain true in hard times--these things will surely carry us out of life's hard times and help us truly magnify the sunshine days that God has planned for us. Sure, it's super hard, but it's also worth it. Courage, then, and on, on to the victory! :)

I love you all! Keep on keeping on! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

#GodOurStrengthWillBe

So, turns out that the world's greatest hashtag is the one that you see in the subject line :) It was pioneered for our mission by some of our mission leaders, and I really like it a lot. So there :)

This past week has zoomed by! It feels unreal that we find ourselves at the beginning of another week! This is the last P-Day of November 2014! There will never be another one! Where did November go!? Aiyo!

We got to go on exchanges this past week to the Masai area. One of my kampung homeboys, Elder Capener, is serving there, and we got to reminisce old times and talk about all of those peeps we know and love back home. It was incredible to see the faith, diligence, and hard work that the Masai elders are putting into their areas of labor. It truly is faith that precedes the miracle, and they've got LOTS of faith.

With that in mind, I'd like to share a scripture from my Personal Study yesterday morning. It's essentially a promise that Jesus Christ is giving to all those who commit themselves to working alongside Him. It's a promise to those who are willing to DO EVERYTHING THEY CAN to hasten the work of salvation:

"And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem.

"Yea, the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father to prepare the way whereby they may come unto me, that they may call on the Father in my name.

"Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance.

"And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward" (3 Nephi 21:26-29).

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ stand in the MIDST of us! They're at the helm of this work, right in the thick of it. They pull and tug and turn on the little threads of our lives, weaving a great tapestry of life that connects all of the spirit children of the Most High. This is Their work--They can do it by Themselves if They want, but instead we all have been enlisted to help prepare the world for the return of the Messiah! Isn't it an amazing and wonderful and awesome thought all at once? As we DO EVERYTHING WE CAN to push that work forward, we will begin to see the little signatures, the miraculous traces of Divine Interference that enable the work of salvation to move at all. I know that They live and that They love us; we are children of our Heavenly Father, and we are recipients of the Atoning love of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love ya lots! Keep on keeping on :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

Choose the CPR

Hello to errbody! :)

This past week has been awesome. A little hectic with transfers and getting missionaries from here to there, but all in all a super awesome time :) We also had MLC this week, so we got to receive instruction and counsel from President Mains again. It was awesome! One of the things that he emphasized during MLC was the importance of establishing that focus on God. How do we establish that focus?

Simply put, CPR. When a person is drowning and is full of water, they need CPR in order to save their lives. Similarly, spiritual CPR keeps us afloat and helps us to build faith and repent (the two basic building blocks of the Gospel of Jesus Christ). So, what is spiritual CPR, then? Church, Prayer, and Reading Scriptures (CPR...get it? :) ). Anywho, these three simple things are so simple and so small, but they are SO CRUCIAL! Daily prayer and scripture study allows us to keep open the channels of communication between us and our Father in Heaven. We plead to, implore, and thank Him through prayer; He responds to, guides, counsels, chastens, and blesses us as we open up the words of ancient and modern prophets.

And Church attendance? What's so important about that? At Church we renew the covenants we've made by partaking of the Sacrament. We take part in remembering the single greatest event of all time--even the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Weekly immersing ourself in this experience is SO PIVOTAL! 

These three things are so simple, and so often overlooked. But if everyone understood the potential of CPR, the work of salvation would hasten tenfold faster than it currently is. By living these simple things, we build our faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We are prompted to repent of our mistakes and continue holding true to the covenants we've made by keeping the commandments we've been given. We would be on a sure and steady course to the celestial kingdom; the gates of hell could not overpower us, despite the winds and trials and turbulations that life surely will bring. Our testimonies will burn bright, and we will come to know and understand the purpose of life and the relationship that we have the potential to have with our Savior and our Father.

I invite all y'all to do everything you can this week to daily pray and study the scriptures, and to attend church, partake of the Sacrament, and learn the Gospel next week at Church. God will not leave us helpless :)

I love you all! Have a marvelous day! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

Cleaning Gutters

Hello errbody!

This past week has seen some BAPTISMS! It was super awesome, and they are so good! As I've been thinking about them, and what an incredible journey they have in store for them, I can't help but think of an adventure that I had on Friday. We had some amazingly torrential rain, and there was part of the street that was swamped with water. The reason? There was a gutter that was clogged. Me, my companion, and a random guy from Bangladesh went to work cleaning it out. It was a little gross, but fun at the same time. By the time we were done, the street was drained and looked a lot better.

The point of the Church is to help each other clean our spiritual gutters. Sometimes we are in  the midst of torrential rain. Sometimes we're drowning in the trials and challenges that we have to face. But as helping hands are extended, on behalf of and in the name of the Savior, we come to understand that the Lord really is aware of each of our needs, and He continues to lead and guide and direct us. We are meant to help each other. We're meant to lift each other, all in the direction of our Savior, Jesus Christ. (For further info, see Moroni 6 :) ).

I love you all, and hope that you have an incredible week!

Keep on keepin' on!
Elder Mitchel

p.s.  My name is Mitchell, not Mitchel.  Now I look like a fool......