March 23, 2015
BOM DIA!!!!
Well, I just wanted to start out telling you that I love you all.
This has been a good and super interesting week. A lot of huge lessons that I have been learning. Many from watching other people. It is incredible what we can learn from watching (not judging, but watching) other people. The lessons we can learn will change our lives. One of my first companions often said to me what his dad had said to him, "you can watch and learn from my mistakes, or you can learn from your own." the first option is much easier. We don't have to pass through unnecessary trials. We can gain a testimony without having experienced the bad. We may not know exactly how the "bad" feels, but we don't need to . We can know that it is bad and we should avoid it.
We had Mission Tour this week. it's where a general authority comes and talks to the mission. Well, last year, it didn't go down too well. We had an are seventy come in and frankly he was pretty rude. Was he right in the things he said? Yeah. Well, most of them. But it's in the way that you deliver it. I've learned that A LOT in the past 3 weeks. If there isn't love, people can feel that. You can be 100 percent right but if there is no love, no one cares what you have to say.
So, people were nervous that it was gonna happen again.
IT WAS THE OPPOSITE! It was incredible. It was an area seventy from Porto Alegre, Brasil. Down in the south where my President is also from! haha. He was incredible. I am also so grateful to be a zone leader. When I was called, that was the first thing I thought. "I'm gonna be in the leadership counsel for mission tour!" The counsel was AWESOME. He came in and just loved us. he was so loving. That was exactly what we needed. he talked a lot about the example we give and how we lead. he talked a lot about love and having the Spirit with us. he told the story of an axeman who was one of the best and was hired because he could chop a tree with one hit. After a time, he was still working just as hard, but his production went way down. The boss pulled him aside and asked what was wrong. He didn't know. so, the boss looked at his axe and they realized it had a lot of chunks taken out and wasn't sharpened. The boss said that he had to stay in and sharpen it before going back out. it took awhile to sharpen, but when he went back out his production was as before. so, we as members and missionaries, we can go out and work like crazy, but if our tools are not sharpened, or if we are not in tune with the Spirit, we will have poor results.
He also talked about gaining revelation and our divine purpose. He talked about how Abraham saw us all before this life and how we have been saved for this time. Why? Because we were valiant. We are valiant. the Lord knows our potential to be valiant now.
It was incredible. I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week. Thank you for your prayers and love and all you do.
Love, Elder Scott JACKSON Taylor
PS I'm super jealous of your D.C. trip this week. What in the world? that isn't really Annie is it? Holy. she's so big. hahah that's super weird!
