Dear Family,
Well, here I am again... Sitting in front of this computer like I never left. Time is so bizarre out here on the mission. I know that I have said it before, but it really is like weeks pass like days, days like hours, hours like minutes and minutes like seconds! Except for when I am spending too much time on the toilet .. Then time kinda slows down. Haha, lost a little weight this week! But I’m doing good now thank goodness. It sounded like you guys had quite the MANTI MILLER MADNESS!! (Family Reunion) The second and last one that I will miss! I will be there next time! That is a promise. Unless Thomas S. Monson extends my mission another year... Then that would just be depressing! Thank goodness that that will not most likely not happen... I loved all the pictures that you took as well! You guys put a lot of thought into it! I give props to Jordan for making those relay activities! It's a bummer that the rain put a little damper on things... But that didn't stop you! That is funny that Grandma told you not to tell me all the fun stuff that you guys did! You can tell her that that made my week in hearing how much fun you all had! Big booty number 5! That is my turn..
My week was pretty good! On Monday we had another Family Home Evening at Frère Jou Jou's house and it was probably the coolest FHE that I have been to! Just think of the tree in The Lion King, and a bunch of Latter Day Saints sitting under it in moonlight and you pretty much have the picture right there! It was so awesome!
I can't wait to show you guys the pictures Even though I am not in them.. I don't like to give my camera to anyone now. You just never know what is going to happen if you do. Haha either you won't see it for like an hour because they go off taking more pictures, or something breaks and you have to do all you can not to get mad. Because "les missionnaires ne se fâchent jamais!"(missionaries never get angry) That is what Kobongo used to always say... I don't know why to be honest. But yeah. Or my camera will just be stolen right out of my hands like what happened a year ago... Haha. But we don't really think about a year ago do we!? Always looking forward.
On Thursday, the Zone Leaders were called and were told to tell their whole Zone not to go outside because of elections! This week was elections week and people were going crazy! So they thought that there might be some riots going down.. So just to be safe they wanted us all to stay inside. There was nothing at all that happened... I think maybe a little manifestation here and there, but nothing like the last time that we were told to stay inside! All of the missionaries were of course excited to get an "off day"! It was a perfect opportunity for me to write down some thoughts about my Jacob 6:12 scripture! I will copy it down here.. I wrote it in kind of a talk sort of format. I didn't know how else to do it haha. But yeah here you go... Since you asked for it!
"O be wise; what can I say more?"
Just after Jacob, the brother of Nephi, finished teaching us about the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees, one of the most famous and precise allegories that the Lord has reveled to us by his prophets, Jacob talks to his brothers and wishes then to understand the importance of doing the will of God. He continues to tell them, "O then, my beloved brethren repent ye, and enter in at the straight gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. O be wise; what can I say more?" Among some of the last words that are recorded in the Book of Mormon from Jacob is an invitation to us to "be wise". Dear brothers and sisters, what could he have said more?
The Guide of the Scriptures translated from French tells us that "Wisdom in the capacity or gift of God permitting to judge correctly. We gain wisdom by experience and study, and in following the instructions of God. Without the help of God, man does not have true wisdom" Every human being on this Earth has their free agency, which is the gift God gives us to be able to choose between good and evil. In order to use this gift to our advantage, we must use it wisely.
In searching to obtain wisdom, there are things that we must do, and things that we must avoid. The Apostle Paul gives us this counsel, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For The wisdom of this world in foolishness with God. for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." 1 Corinthians 3: 18,19 Modern day prophets and Apostles as well are constantly putting us on guard of the temptations that Satan is throwing at us on a daily basis to become wise in worldly things. Elder Robert D. Hales said in the past Priesthood session of General conference to young men that, "your fathers and grandfathers never faced the temptations that you face on a regular basis. You are living in the last days. If your father wanted to get in trouble, he had to go searching for it. Not anymore! Today temptation finds you! Please remember that! Satan desires to have you, and 'sin lieth at the door.'" How many times do we look at the "popular" or "wise" people of this world and wish to have money as they do? Or to have the "happiness" that they poses? Or to have the knowledge of worldly things? Those are things that will wither away with time, give us temporal and partial pleasure. But "the truth abideth forever and ever." Let us always remember the invitation of Jacob to "be wise", and to avoid the temptation of wanting to be wise in the eyes of the world. "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7
Now, what must we do to receive wisdom from God? How can we avoid being misled by worldly ideas and temptations? The scriptures are FULL of wonderful examples of prophets and scriptural personages receiving wisdom or testimony of truth. Nephi desired to know the things that his father has seen of the tree of life. As he was pondering in his hear, he was "caught away in the spirit of the Lord", receiving his own visions of the last days ans the apostasy that would sweep the land in perverting the doctrine of Christ and that men would act for the "praise of the world". In loving and keeping the commandments of the Lord, the Kind Solomon of Isreal received from God "a wise ans understanding heart." and received as well "wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore." And Alma gained wisdom and a testimony of the plan of salvation. He said, "Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself.... for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by His Holy Spirit."
As Children of our Heavenly Father, we are entitled to receiving divine guidance in our lives by personal revelation. If we follow the examples of these ancient prophets, in pondering in our hearts, keeping the commandments along with sacred covenants and praying accompanied with fast and reading the scriptures, we too can receive wisdom from the whispering of the Holy Ghost. I know that if we do these things; God will give unto us, the children of man, "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little;" The Lord promises us in 2 Nephi 28:30, "...blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel; for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more."
Christ continues to warn us in verse 31 of 2 Nephi 38 that we must not put our trust in man, or "hearken unto the precepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost." I think that it is safe to say that the Lord knew very well what the world would one day turn into. Returning to Elder Hales talk, he gives an example that illustrates too well where the gospel and doctrine of Jesus Christ is, and where the world has been moving over the years. In 1982, Elder Hales talked in a devotional on the BYU campus where he invited the students to imagine that the church was on one side of the podium, and the world was just on the other side. He said that this represented the "very short distance between where the world was and where the church standards were," when he was in college. Then, standing in front of the students 30 years later, he held up his hands in the same manner and explained, "the world has gone far afield; it has traveled; it is nowhere to be seen; it has proceeded way, way out of this building..." And I can personally testify, after just about 32 years after he gave that talk at BYU in 1982, that the wisdom and standards of the world have moved as far away from the church as to reach the little countries of Benin and Togo of West Africa. But I can also testify in the same manner that the fullness of the gospel, and the principles of the doctrine of Christ are the same even out into the sticks of the quartier rouge of Attiegou in Lomé. This gospel in eternal, it is never ending, it is what will lead us to salvation and eternal life.
There is a story that I have become pretty familiar with over the last 20 or so months of my life. A story that shows the courage of a brave young man who needed to know the truth, needed to know which church was the true church of Christ. In his 15th year, Joseph Smith was reading in the bible when he fell upon James 1:5 that we all know so well. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Let us never lose sight of the importance of this counsel that the Savior gives us the Apostle James. Sometimes when I hear something so many times or say something so often, it seems to become mundane or even cliché. But I have learned that clichés are what they are only because they are true, and apply to almost everyone. Joseph continues to testifying of his need of guidance saying, "if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know..."
How often in our lives do we find ourselves at what we believe to be a "dead end"? Or how many times in our lives have we had too many overwhelming decisions to choose from at one time that we have absolutely no idea what to do? In my life, more than a couple, and I'm only 20! I testify of the faith that Joseph Smith exercised in asking Heavenly Father in humble prayer that which he was to do. I testify that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. And I testify that through Joseph Smith, we now have the fullness of the gospel in these latter days that we have all the Priesthood keys here available for men to receive and bless their families and other loved ones around them. I testify that the stick of Judah, the bible, and the stick of Ephraim, the Book of Mormon, have "grown together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace." They have become one in our hands. Now it is to us to "be wise" and search and pray to know the mysteries of God. If we do this, God will help us understand. Maybe not on our time table, but his. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in this life. But one day, we will have wisdom of all things. This is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
So yeah... There is it. My 2 cents on what I think about wisdom! That is why I think that Jacob 6:12 is going to be the scripture that I base my life off of... Just gotta be wise! I love you all, and I hope that you are all going to have a great week! You are always in my prayers and I love you so much!
Love your son,
Elder Landon Dean Layton
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