Elder Holland Came to the TMM!

So this week has been great but it's all dwarfed by the fact that Elder Holland came to the mission and spoke. I pray that maybe a sliver of what he has taught me might be able to be expressed over email in such a short span of time. 

As the meeting began we took a photo with the whole mission, Elder Holland, and Elder Robins of the presidency of the seventy. It was incredible! The very first thing he said to us was que pasa? Which means what’s up? That man has a sense of humor! All throughout he was cracking jokes, moving us to tears, and shaking our souls. He chose to just wear a mic and walk throughout us and talk rather than from the pulpit, it was powerful! 

Elder Holland talked about how he knows us to be a good mission, he said it’s because I interviewed you all. I don't really care where you’re from and I sure as won’t remember you names from when you shook my hand. I shook your hand so that I could look you in the eyes and interview you. Other than the little trails of life you are a good mission. He told us he wishes he could sit with us and help us with our family problems or companion problems or even those deep down battles and struggles we fight but that he couldn't because there is too much to do and too little time. He blessed us individually as if he were laying his hands upon our heads and gave us a very specific promise of healing. 

He went to 3 Nephi 17:5-10 we are all sick he expressed he promised us that Christ will not leave us until we are healed. He stayed for the Nephites. He will not leave us, he will dry every tear (trial) of every eye. We must go too, he expressed how he would fight his way to Christ because he too is afflicted, yes I don't have blindness I may not be as deaf as others but I want to be healed. I would run to him I would do all possible to get to him that he could heal me!  We are all afflicted! We must run to him, not leave until we are healed. Our mission will heal us. Don’t Miss this Opportunity. 

The healing isn't just limited to the mission. He said this is real life! This is as real as it gets! You don’t regress in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You don’t go from Celestial to Telestial you only go up.  And on or off the mission that is what God expects of us. He talked about how when the Nephite crowd had assembled together on the second day waiting for their Savior to appear again and teach them. He was not there and so they began to pray for the spirit (3 Nephi 19). If you cannot have the Savior in your regular everyday life then you have to have the second best thing. The Spirit! He said you can no go even a day without the companionship of the Spirit. He said he can’t live without it, nor Thomas S Monson and neither can we. We are telestial beings in a telestial world and we need that bit of divinity to get to God and we need it if we have any hopes of returning. 

He went super hard on saying this generation will change the world. A quote I found of him in my studies today.. "Something is going to be asked of this dispensation that’s never been asked." He said. Those of this dispensation must be ready to present the Church of the Lamb, to the Lamb, and when that happens, "we must be looking and acting like His church." He emphasized the need to "never even look like what we don’t believe." counseling that "one who see the truth must live bearing witness to it." He said that we can have anything, anything we want in this life! We can be anything but we have to do it God's way!  And our relationship with God comes through the Holy Spirit. 

He taught us we are God's investigators. So if we want our investigators (or children or friends or fellow missionaries or anyone)  to pray or read or keep a commitment; then God expects us to do the same. He expects us to pray a little harder. He wants us to wrestle in prayer like Enos. He wants us to search and dive and ponder in the scriptures! He wants us to break old habits and change and develop attributes of Christ. He wants us to struggle and become like Him in every sense of our beings. The mission and this life are not for us to teach others but to be taught. He wants these lessons deep in our bones. He wants them written in our soul. God wants us to change and to change the world but we have to have His Spirit. 

I testify that only in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can we be baptized by true and proper priesthood authority by immersion for the remission of sins and receive the divine gift of the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands. Christ promises us healing in all aspects of our lives if we come unto Him. And in the fallen world we are all a little sick in one way or another. God has provided the way home. So please make the decision now if you have the gift of the Holy Ghost to live having it with you every day, and if you don't please come and receive it for yourself! Start on the path upwards back to God. I hope you all have an amazing week. En el nombre de Jesuscristo, amen.