paradigm shift

June 16, 2014

Okay, so the following is a bit from my journal. Sorry if it’s a soap box, but I had a real change this week in the way I look at my mission...

Who, in the scriptures, is given the title of Beloved?

You can look all you want, there are only 5 people.

John the Beloved

The 3 Nephites

The Beloved Son - Jesus Christ

What do these 5 people have in common? Obedience, faith, love...etc. Yes. What more?

They each fulfilled their missions, then asked to do MORE.

John asked to stay on the Earth bringing souls to God, the same as the 3 Nephites. Christ, after completing His mission and realizing the Atonement went to the spirit world to continue to teach.

I read Doctrine and Covenants 7 this week, and it made me rethink my life a bit. There are two types of missionaries, two types of disciples. The Peter and the John.

Peter´s desire - return to the presence of Christ, happy and whole

John´s desire- bring everyone with him to the presence of Christ

The Lord accepts both desires. He commends both Peter and John for their righteous works. Both are good, righteous desires. But one is BETTER.

´I say to thee, Peter, that this was a good desire; but my beloved desires to do more.´

Everyone says that we, the modern-day army of Helaman, have the same power and authority of all of our heroes in the Book of Mormon. The only difference is that they have more faith. But I’m here to propose a different theory: they had more DESIRE.

They cared more about the people they saved. They were more anxious about the people they served. They literally couldn’t bear that any human soul should perish. (Mosiah 28:3)

Greater desire = greater faith

When we are really, truly desperate for something - especially something seemingly impossible - our faith gets stronger because God is our only way out and there has to be a way out.

Think about it.

When an investigator begins to fall, we can think - oh next week he´ll be better, oh, i was just here to plant a seed, oh, he isn’t who the Lord wants in His kingdom, oh he wasn’t ready to accept it anyway.

Don’t judge, everyone has thought along the same lines at some point.

But if we really, truly desired their salvation then none of these excuses would mean a thing and we would work and pray with a faith so great that our miracles would exceed that of Ammon, Aaron, Alma, Amulek.

So, who am I? Am I seeking to be more like my Savior and longing to return to His presence?

Yes, yes I certainly am.

But what about my sincere desire to help these people?

Maybe it’s taken a backseat to my personal salvation.

I bear testimony that THE ONLY WAY to know our Savior is by helping and serving other people. When we lose our self in love for others, the Lord changes us and teaches us what we need to know to live with Him someday. And we have the potential to do so much more than just return one day. We can bring thousands with us. I pray that you can all seek for ways to help other people along the gospel path. There is always something more for us to do.

I love you all! -Sister Carroll