Be An Agent That Acts

Good day mates! Well another couple weeks have flown by and it is time for another email! Hopefully, I can summarize everything that has happened! 

Fun Australian things:

-They have some big salt flats….just like the salt flats in Utah. There was a road named “Salt Lake Rd”. 

-There was a dangerous drop bear on a store (look at the pictures) 

-Average speed zones where they average the speed during a 10-20 km section of road. It is very annoying because if you even average 1km over the speed limit then you get fined. 

Weekly Highlights:

-Well we are revamping the mission's social media page. It has been a lot of work and I am excited to finally publish the revamped page in a couple weeks! 

-We spent time planning transfers with the President. After, the President took us out to dinner with all the STLs. That will be an experience I will never forget. It was a fun night and great food. Then there was “48 flavors” ice cream to top the night off. 

-The next morning we woke up at 4:20am and drove ourselves and President to the airport for our flight to Alice Springs. We arrived in Alice Springs and had zone conference and we ran a mini exchange with the zone leaders before having a quick dinner. Then we got dropped off at the airport for our 7:45pm flight up to Darwin. So we were in Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Darwin in one day! We were so excited to sleep that night! 

-Alice Springs weather was perfect! But as we hopped off the plane in Darwin, we were hit with humidity like a ton of bricks.

-The following day we did two mini exchanges in Darwin. It was kinda rough. Nothing was going through and it was tough going. But we made it through the day finally and ended up having a long chat with a senior couple before getting gyg for dinner. They forgot our order so they gave us extra food which made our day! 

-The next day was zone conference and that went well! The most smooth and tech issue free zone conference we have ever had! I was so happy! Lunch was good and we got to spend some good quality time with the Elders and Sisters. Then we got to have some yummy dinner all together at an outdoor restaurant. It was good fun! 

-Sunday was great! We attended both Darwin and Palmerstons sacrament meetings. After church, we counseled with the President about many things for a couple hours. The STLs also joined us and they had some very insightful comments. It was an edifying couple hours where I learned many things. 

-We then went to the airport with the President and got to go inside the Qantas lounge with him. Such a fun time chatting with him. It was a long 4 hour flight back to Adelaide. And of course they fed us the classic spicy beef noodles on the plane. We were happy to make it back to Adelaide! 

-The next week was still very hectic! We had President and Sister Lund and Elder and Sister Wakalo come and speak to us! That was amazing! We took the office senior couples out to ice cream one night and that was a blast! Then we had a ZLC call for Darwin and it went well until the very end of the call where someone ended up crying….

-Then we packed up our bags again and headed out to Port Pirie and Whyalla. Drove the 3 hours to Port Pirie and spent half a day with those Elders and ran an exchange. We then drove another 2 hours to Whyalla the next day and ran an exchange with those Elders. It was fun times.

-We had a great day and so many wonderful lessons! I love the little community of Whyalla! The spirit was so strong in those lessons! There is really no other experience than teaching by and with the spirit. There is no other experience than being filled with the spirit and having the spirit bring words and scriptures to your remembrance. There is no other experience than inviting, promising, and testifying with the spirit. And there is nothing better than to see someone feel and recognize the spirit. I LOVE TEACHING!! I LOVE THE SPIRIT!

-Sunday we attended the Whyalla branch and that was great. Then we drove the 5 hours back to Adelaide! Got some beautiful pictures on the way back. 

-This transfer has been wild! So many exchanges!! We have been to Darwin, Alice Springs, Berri, Broken Hill, Mildura, Robinvale, Adelaide city, Marden, Mawson Lakes, Modbury, Playford, Murray Bridge, Whyalla, Port Pirie, Fulham Gardens, Noarlunga, Victor Harbor…The Lord has truly magnified our efforts. I am continually amazed at what the Lord can do with our lives when we humble ourselves and turn everything over to Him. It is remarkable! Miracles happen!

Spiritual thought: 

Today, I want to share a principle that I have grown very passionate about. It is something I have learned on the mission. Namely: Be an agent that acts and not acted upon. 

God has given us the gift of agency and it is such a precious gift. We must learn to exercise it righteously.  The question that always arises with agency is that God gives us commandments and therefore takes away our “agency.” To quickly resolve this question: “when God gives us a commandment, He is not taking away our agency but giving us an opportunity to exercise it, by either obeying or disobeying. Those options are not available if we do not have commandments.”

Here is a quote from Lloyd Newell “While sometimes we resist commandments because we mistakenly think our agency is being limited, at other times we seem to have the opposite problem: we too readily resign our agency to some predetermined fate. This attitude manifests itself, for example, in a self-defeating attitude in which we seek to blame our circumstances or character traits on other things and other people. 

A favorite target for this blame is the adversary himself. And ironically, he probably gladly accepts that blame, because if we believe that the devil can cause us to sin, then convincing us that we are powerless to improve ourselves becomes easier. This direct contradiction to God’s declaration that “the power is in them” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:28) is one way Satan attempts to “destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3). The truth is that the devil cannot compel us to choose evil, just as God will force no one to heaven. The Prophet Joseph Smith observed, “God would not exert any compulsory means, and the devil could not.” In all the commands and expectations of God, as well as in the enticements of the adversary, we are free to choose and act for ourselves (see Helaman 14:30–31).”

Now moving on to being an agent that acts….

This scripture  illustrates the point of being an agent that acts 

2 Nephi 2:16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

Here is another scripture discussing this same thing. 

D&C 58:27  Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; 28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

What does it mean to act for oneself? What does it mean to be acted upon? I never understood  these scriptures until I watched other missionaries and people be acted upon. They choose not to act. 

Here is a simple example. A missionary struggles to sleep because his bed is facing a little annoying light. If the missionary doesn't do anything, the light is "acting upon" the missionary. However, if the missionary acts by turning his bed so he is facing the other way or if he finds a way to cover the light....he becomes an agent that acts and not acted upon. It is so crazy to see how many things act upon people when they have the power to act and change their circumstances.

This principle can be applied to more serious and complicated situations. 

For example, Many times life doesn't go the way we want or think it should go. Instead of letting “life” act upon us, we must be an agent that acts and changes our circumstances in whatever way we can. We can't change life but we can change how we act and respond. Many people have a life challenge thrown their way and they automatically give up and let the circumstances act upon them. However, God has given us the power to act! The power is in us! We can choose how we will respond to our circumstances. Instead of becoming or transforming into an object to be acted upon, we must remember that we are agents that have the power to act and choose how we will respond. 

This is why when we pray, we should not pray to have our circumstances changed according to our will but pray to have the strength to act, change, learn, or accept our circumstances according to God’s will. 

One of my favorite talks from Elder Bednar illustrates this point further: (“Bear up their Burdens with Ease”)

Many people are offended by others. This happens all the time in church and society. You hear story after story of people being offended and leaving the church. We must remember that when we choose to be offended, we are being acted upon. However, we can choose to act and not be offended. 

(Elder Bednar gives a great talk about this subject titled “And Nothing Shall offend them)

Whenever I feel sad, depressed, angry, annoyed, or any other negative thing, I think about if I am being acted upon by something or someone. If so, I choose to be an agent that acts in whatever way to make my circumstances or attitude better. We can choose! It is a glorious truth!

President Nelson clearly illustrated this point when he said “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” The focus of our lives should be Jesus! When we lose sight of Him, we lose sight of the eternal perspective! We must act and change to keep Him at the focus and center of our lives! 

Now after all of this: I want to iterate a very important point! The only reason that we are able to be agents that act and not be acted upon is because of Jesus Christ! He is the reason that this is all possible! What gives us power? It is that we can choose for ourselves! We fought a war in heaven over this principle of agency. If you can't choose for yourself, then you are powerless. Jesus makes this all possible! It is His atoning sacrifice that allows us to have agency! Without our Savior and His sacrifice there would be no power to choose and act for ourselves. We would become lifeless objects that are continually acted upon. We have been given agency from Heavenly Father because of Jesus. And Jesus showed us how to use agency righteously, so we could eventually learn, know, do, and become what our Father and Savior are! When we keep the commandments, we are using our agency to obey God’s laws. When we understand and obey God’s laws, we become like Them! When we choose to act in accordance with God's commandments, we are using our agency to align our will with God's will. 

Remember, if you ever have any questions about the gospel, the answer is always found in Jesus Christ.

I want to end this with a happy scripture from 2 Nephi 10: 23 Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.

It is up to us. We are free to choose.

I want to invite everyone who reads this to become an agent that acts. Act in faith. Pray to have the strength to change to your circumstances instead of praying to have your circumstances removed. Evaluate your life and find one thing that is acting upon you and use your God given agency to act and overcome that thing. I promise you that as you righteously use your agency and become an agent that acts in accordance with God’s will, you will find more peace and happiness in your life. You will feel less hopeless and you will feel God’s power flow into your life one righteous choice at a time. I testify that I have seen this principle bless my life both in the big situations and also the little silly situations of life! 

Hope everyone has a miracle filled week. Here are the photos from the last couple weeks: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HncQpKkgtxTPQijq7

Love you all! 

Cheers,

Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)