Elder & Sister Ferney: Action Packed!

The Quezon City Philippine Mission is action filled! Last week we had two Zone Conferences, two days of Apartment checks, Sister Abraham’s (a senior missionary)parents past away within 1 hour of each other in Caldwell, Idaho, and twice we were headed out when we discovered we had a dead battery in the car! However, we were able to accomplish the work at hand and prepare for the next Transfer on April 4th. Yep, chaotic!!

Dad learned a new way to jump a car battery without jumper cables. The 1st time we were at the gas station when our car died and a mechanic there brought over a used battery, two steel wrenches and voil-la it started right up.. The next day we drove out to church and again in the church parking lot (after 3 hrs. Of church and a 2 hr meeting), it was dead again! There just happened to be one car left in the parking lot besides ours and we used the same method. It worked like a jewel. Tomorrow we will be getting a new battery.

In this country, we do not really have a change of seasons, we just have transfers every six weeks. You can imagine with 155 missionaries how hectic it can be. Hopefully we will get everyone on the right van to the right terminal, and on the right flight. Not to mention we bring in all the exiting missionaries to the Microtel just before they leave and do a three day workshop! We plan classes, activities, and meals. When the temple re-opens we will also take them there for a session. We make packets for each one and then we also welcome in the new missionaries that arrive with another packet. We have been working until 6:30 the last two nights, but it is a lot of fun! We have sooo much fun with the missionaries!!!

We taught our last temple class today and I also taught Relief Society. I would like to share with you a short story from my lesson in order to help you increase your understanding of the Atonement in addition to the repentance part.

A Young Woman leader recently learned about the strength we receive as we strive to thoughtfully partake of the sacrament. Working to complete a requirement in Personal Progress, she set a goal to focus on the words in the sacrament hymns and prayers.

Each week, she conducted a self-evaluation during the sacrament. She recalled mistakes she had made, and she committed to be better the next week. She was grateful to be able to make things right and be made clean. Looking back on the experience, she said, “I was acting on the repentance part of the Atonement.”

One Sunday after her self-evaluation, she began to feel gloomy and pessimistic. She could see that she was making the same errors over and over again, week to week. But then she had a distinct impression that she was neglecting a big part of the Atonement —Christ’s enabling power. She was forgetting all the times the Savior helped her be who she needed to be and serve beyond her own capacity.

With this in mind, she reflected again on the previous week. She said “A feeling of joy broke through my melancholy as I noted that He had given me many opportunities and abilities. I noted with gratitude the ability I had to recognize my child’s need when it wasn’t obvious. I noted that on a day when I felt I could not pack in one more thing to do, I was able to offer strengthening words to a friend. I had shown patience in a circumstance that usually elicited the opposite from me.”

Now here is the part I hope you all understand.

From a talk entitled The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality given by Elder David A. Bednar, He says, “It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.

Grace is the divine assistance or heavenly help each of us desperately needs to qualify for the celestial kingdom. Thus, the enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and to serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity.

Nephi is an example of one who knew, understood, and relied upon the enabling power of the Savior. Recall that the sons of Lehi had returned to Jerusalem to enlist Ishmael and his household in their cause. Laman and others in the party traveling with Nephi from Jerusalem back to the wilderness rebelled, and Nephi exhorted his brethren to have faith in the Lord. It was at this point in their journey that Nephi’s brothers bound him with cords and planned his destruction. Please note Nephi’s prayer: “O lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound”.

Nephi did not pray to have his circumstances changed. Rather he prayed for the strength to change his circumstances. And I believe he prayed in this manner precisely because he knew, understood, and had experienced the enabling power of the Atonement.

I do not think the bands with which Nephi was bound just magically fell from his hands and wrists. Rather, I suspect he was blessed with both persistence and personal strength beyond his natural capacity, that he then “in the strength of the Lord” worked and twisted and tugged on the cords, and ultimately and literally was enabled to break the bands.

The implication of this episode for each of us is straightforward. As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon.

The journey of mortality is to go from bad to good to better and to have our very natures changed. The Book of Mormon is replete with examples of disciples and prophets who knew, understood, and were transformed by the enabling power of the Atonement in making that journey. As we come to better understand this sacred power, our gospel perspective will be greatly enlarged and enriched. Such a perspective will change us in remarkable ways.

We hope and pray that your week will be filled with the spirit of love and harmony. As you prepare your hearts for General Conference, we pray that a you will recognize the truths that are spoken and that your capacity to recognize the Holy Ghost will be enhanced.

Birthday Card For Elder Ferney From the Missionaries