Miracles in the Driest Place on Earth: Copa America and the Question of the Week

Hola,

A week before I left on my mission I was deathly ill from the flu, lying in my bed watching The Lord of the Rings. Well, on Tuesday this week, the sequel happened. The difference was there was no TV to watch, no warm showers to melt away the aches, and no pampering mom to make me food. Good thing it was only for two days :P

From now until July 4th it is the American Soccer Cup. So.... people have been pretty busy with soccer madness. Vive Chile! Our mission president has allowed us to watch the Chile games with investigators. My companion is to soccer as I am to Disneyland, so he is very excited.

Since the missionary work has been a little on the slow side, we decided to do an activity with the branch called "La obra es dulce (the work is sweet)." We are making appointments with all the members to visit them, share a spiritual thought about missionary work, make cookies, and with them take the treats to their neighbors and friends to see if we can show them a quick video about Jesus and teach them. The moms seem excited, the dads not so much. We will see how it goes!

Missionaries teach, but we also learn a TON about the gospel, life, and ourselves. I tend to ponder about things on my 40 minute walks to the church, and lately I have been thinking about the responses people give us when we try to talk to them or teach them.

A super common response they give to us is, “No, I’m good. I think all religions go to the same place because we all believe in the same God, just in different words.”

I used to agree with people, that we do in fact all believe in the same God, but I was wrong. Maybe all the people who believe in God believe in a superior being, but most of the time that’s where the similarities end.

The God we believe in is a loving Heavenly Father with a body of flesh and bone, only perfected. He is all knowing; a God of perfect love and justice who has always been the same and will never change. He loves all of his children, but doesn’t control us or many things in this world because he has given us the ability to choose the path we want to take. He has also shown us the way back to him through His son, Jesus Christ--who established His church, gave men the authority to act in his name, and through his sacrifice provided a way for us to be perfected and live with our Father again.

He is a god of truth, of innovation, of timing, and one who does everything to help us grow, even if it sometimes means difficult challenges, tears, temporary darkness, and pain.

But many people believe in an easy God, one without a purpose or rules. What does it serve God to put us here on this earth just to let everyone come back and live in heaven? If that were the case, wouldn’t it have been easier just to put all of humanity straight into heaven and skip this whole earth thing?

It’s one of the hardest questions to answer: Who really is God to me, and how do I envision him? In my own life, I want to do the things I need to do so that when the day does come and I am face to face with Him once again, I will recognize and know Him.

And in the meantime I’ll be the gringo who tries to rip people away from their television sets to teach them about the true Heavenly Father we all have.

Everything is awesome,
Elder Phillips

PS: I saw the new Jurassic World trailer and about died of happiness....