Hola amados hermanos y amigos y famila y all you other guys who read my shtuff. So this last week was our first full week as a trio, and it all went pretty well! We are super busy every day trying to run around between our two areas and visit all the people that we need to visit. Somedays were rough, though, because no one was answering their door and even though we felt busy all day running around when we get back home at night and looked back at it we realized we only got to teach a lesson or two. Those days are chaffa, but we are working hard and trying with all our might, mind, and strength and that's just about all we can do! Pasa lo que pasa!
The spiritual highlight of the week was this, though. We were in the Bonanza South area which is where all the Spanish speakers live, which means we spend a majority of our time there. Specifically, there is this one street called "Silver Dollar" where we spend about 80% of our time haha. Silver Dollar is literally just like someone took a slice of Mexico and plopped it in the middle of Las Vegas. Love it there. :)
Anywhos, we had a lesson with a lady. She is from Honduras and has been listening to the missionaries for a while. Long story short, she has a 1 year old baby. The father wasn't the best guy and left her and the baby and then out of nowhere he returns and demands part custody of the baby. They went to court and the judge ruled that he should have the baby with him for 3 days out of the week. Needless to say, she was really upset because he had abandoned them and then shows up and is suddenly taking away her child. As we visited with her, she confided to us, that she is angry with God. After all she has done to try and be good, how could God allow this to happen? She asked us that with a very serious, but also confused and desperate look on her face. Why does God allow all these bad, unjust things to happen?
...there was silence in the room for a second. We sat there, and began to talk. We had scriptures from the Book of Mormon come to our remembrance, things we had studied before. Verses that had given us peace and understanding and that we knew could do the same for her. We shared a lot, and bore testimony. We told her, above all we cannot forget that God is first and foremost our Heavenly Father and like any Father he wants the best for his children. We were in that house for over an hour and a half talking with her.
The next morning during my Personal Study, I decided to study more about that question. I opened my study journal and just wrote on the top of the page, "Why does God allow for bad things to happen in our lives?" and then I dove into the scriptures. After studying for a while, I can give you 4 reasons why God permits that these seemingly unjust things happen in life.
1) Agency (2 Nephi 2:27)
Sometimes others make choices that affect us in negative ways. However, the biggest gift we have that allows us to progress in this life is agency, the ability to decide between good and evil. If God forced others to not make bad choices that might even effect others negatively, he would be taking away their agency, and that would destroy the purpose for us here.
2) Humility (Jacob 4:7)
If in our lives, we lived all the time without trial, without trouble, we would never feel the need to call upon God to help us, to lift us up. We must have the true desire to cry for support if he is to show us that he is here for us.
3) Progression (2 Nephi 2:11, 21-25)
If there was no evil, we could not truly know what good is. If we were never sad, we wouldn't ever know that we were happy. We go through the hard times, so that we can appreciate the good ones. The crater that depression carves allows for more space to be filled with true joy (thanks mom for the quote that gave me that one).
4) Justice (Alma 14:9-11, 60:13)
While things might seem unjust that happen to us here, we can take solace in the fact that in the end, when all is said and done, God will have provided Justice to all. Through the Atonement and God's Power all wrongs will have been made right, all tears will have been wiped dry, and justice will reign. It might not happen, tomorrow, or next year, or even in this life, but we have God's word, that before it's all over, all will have been made right.
And so that is the super awesome experience I had that led to some serious Spiritual Enlightenment. I hope you guys can also learn from what I did this week. Always remember that while this is hard, and that bad things do happen, above all, "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy!" We are supposed to be happy in this life! Bad things happen, but keep the big picture and move forward with a steadfastness in Christ! Love y'all!
Con Amor,
Elder Alley
Elder Alley
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