Jul 7, 2014 Spiritual Exercise

Elder Quirante and I were talking about a recent lesson with a member who couldn't seem to understand the importance of daily prayer. When we invited him to pray at the end of our lesson on the importance of prayer he said he didn't want to because he "prayed yesterday". Later Elder Quirante told me that when he or his siblings would say things like that back at home his dad would ask, (PG warning for those reading this to little kids) "Well, did you wipe your butt yesterday? Are you going to wipe your butt today?" I chuckled but then I realized something strange. I haven't wiped my butt in over a year... Guess that one doesn't work for us. We just use sprayers around here! I've gotta get one installed at home.

We played football last week. Real American football. It was super fun, but super tiring. You guys remember me telling you how my comp is a football star? Well, while we were leading up to football he kind of played himself down saying that we were playing 7 on 7 and football with pads is a whole different game and stuff like that. Yeah, well he REALLY knows how to play football. I was kind of blown away. We were like a bunch of little kids, even though we were playing touch football. I pretty much killed myself trying to cover him on defense. It was crazy.  I was thinking back to the last time I played football and I remember going to things like Thanksgiving turkey bowls and playing on New Years and stuff like that at home. We would play for a couple hours and then everyone would start slowing down and winding up and stuff. I remember getting in the car after playing for two hours and thinking, "Come on, why are we going home? We only get so many chances to play football like this!" Yeah... I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I was sore for 3 days after playing football for just two hours. And here I was thinking I was in pretty good shape too. Sad.

I was talking to this guy the other day who was really complimentary about the charitable nature of our missions here. He told us how impressed he was that we were willing to give up our time and money to come teach people. He kept on this subject for a minute and then he said something that almost made me laugh out loud. He told me that he felt bad for me because I was missing out on opportunities to learn and progress in college.  I thought about this a lot after he said that. Pause for a minute. What have we done since we got out here? We learned how to teach, study, learn a language, work hard, deal with people, help people, direct meetings, set goals, accomplish goals, do paperwork and everything else and then we just apply it every single day forever. I can't even imagine a college course that would teach me as much as I have learned in a short 14-15 months here in Cambodia. But I didn't tell him that. Just invited him to church.

I told a story in a lesson this week that I want to share. There once were two young men who wanted more than anything else to become soccer stars. They loved the game and they had the potential and so they set a goal. When they grew up, they would be professional soccer players. That's a big goal. The first young man took that to heart and set out to accomplish his goals by working out and practicing. He ran, he lifted weights, he practiced with his team, he ran some more. The second young man loved playing soccer, and whenever there was a game he was the first one there. But he wasn't a huge fan of running by himself. He didn't have the self discipline or the desire to push himself when he was off the field. In the end, who do you think will be the once to accomplish his goal?

All worthwhile goals will take time and effort to accomplish. Anything worth having will not be had in an instant. We will always have to work to receive a great reward.

God has planned a great reward for us. He wants us to have "immortality and eternal life" (Moses 1:39), but this will not come to us easily. It's easy to understand that anyone who resists training will never become a great soccer player, and just like that, those who do not prepare themselves to receive eternal life by walking in God's way during this mortal life, will not be prepared to receive eternal life in the world to come. So take it to heart and get spiritually fit so that you can be worthy to receive God's greatest blessing.

Elder Vore