Este semana ha sido loca pero it´s been great. To start off, Hermana DeGroff has arrived!!!!!! It was so great to see her! She arrived last Wednesday and she is still trying not to call me "Chandler" (who the heck is Chandler?!) Anyways it´s awesome to see her.
Ok so since we have so many people here in the CCM, we have to have Ushers (or in Spanish Edecanes) for the devotionals..... and guess who the Ushers are? ;) That´s right, our district! The first night our "boss", Brother Jones, was announcing on the microphone to everyone that the men always need to have their jackets on. Entonces, I walk to the front and I take my suit coat off and then put it back on to show them what needs to happen. And then since it was just such the perfect opportunity, showed everyone an "invisible" seat belt and showed them how to put it on. Everyone just starts cracking up hahaha even Brother Jones. I just had to do it hahah.
Anyways, a spiritual moment that i had this week was when during that same devotional we listened to a talk from Elder Jeffrey Holland about the missionary work. I had heard it before and it has been my favorite one from him. I seriously talked to my district about this same talk the day we got here. To share with those who have not heard it..... here's the highlight of it (and also my favorite part.) and it's gonna be long but i promise you that it is worth the reading:
Let me close with the point that I began with, about you. Contrary to the parlots of the day, this is about you. I’ve thought long and hard about the apostleship. I’m not going to go into that tonight, but sometime seated around a living room fire with some popcorn or some hot chocolate, we’ll talk about calls to the apostleship. But setting that aside, it’s prompted me to read everything I could read about apostles; ancient or modern, just to try to learn. Just to try to come to grips with it. That’s the part I’ll leave to tell you another day.
But in so reviewing that, I’ve been drawn again and again and again to Peter, the chief apostle, still the chief apostle. The apostle that brings the Melchizedek priesthood and the apostolic keys back to the earth, this dispensation, Peter has a premiere roll in the apostleship and the Melchizedek priesthood work of this world.
But when the Savior had lived his life and pursued His ministry, and had gone, Peter was as bereft as most of you feel right now. And if you don’t feel bereft now, wait until you get into the Mission field for the first 24-hours. Then give me a jingle. You’ll know what I’m talking about, okay? And he knew, he somehow knew he was in charge. He knew he was the President of the Church, so to speak. Whatever the senior apostle would have been. But now Jesus is gone, he’s been crucified, the tomb is empty, he and John ran to the tomb, and it was empty, and this cascade of experience has tumbled down on them in a few hours, a couple of days at best.
And then people are saying, “Well what do we do now?” I don’t know that anybody had ever asked that question, because frankly, they never got it. They weren’t literally, truly, what, look, they had been in the Church at best 36 months? Can you imagine picking a quorum of the twelve out of new converts, who have not been in the Church in any case longer than 36 months? We have to give them a little credit, and a little courtesy that they were doing any portion of what they were doing.
But they didn’t get a lot of this. He kept saying, “I’m going.” He kept giving parables. He kept talking about how people would destroy the temple in three days, and He’d build it back up. Well they didn’t understand any better than the Pharisees what He meant. Everyone thought He was talking about the temple itself. They thought, “Well, I guess He can build the temple back up…,” and they just didn’t get it. And He kept trying to be sweet and gentle and prophetic, but they were young, and green, and that’s why they kept saying, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” And now they’re gone, and people turn to the new Eleven, turn to Peter and say, “Well, what do we do?”
And what does he say? “Well, it’s been a great 36 months. This last little while has been terrific, and all of it was pretty good. We saw great teachings. We saw wonderful miracles. We saw healings. There we were on the mount of beatitudes. We saw Him walk on the water.” – Peter probably wasn’t so bold as to say that he had actually, for a moment or two, but they’ve got all those memories. And he says, “Wasn’t it great? Wasn’t it terrific? Let’s go fishing.”
He didn’t know what to do. It’s over. He’s gone. Maybe they thought somehow this was going to turn into this political Messiah, too. Maybe good orthodox Jews that they were once, and probably still are a little bit, maybe they thought, “Well, whatever we thought the Messiah-ship was, I guess it’s gonna be something else. Let’s go fish. Let’s go do the thing we know to do. That’s what we were doing when He found us, so let’s go.” And they did. And they went back to Galilee, and fished. And I guess life was going to go on.
But something happened. It’s early morning, they fished all night, they’ve caught nothing. You fish at night on the sea of Galilee. They’ve caught nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nothing. Nada. No fish. And in the distance, because the sight is quite clear on a lake, and the sound is very good across the surface of a lake, they see a figure, who has made a little fire. And calls out to them and says, “How’s your fishing gone?” And they said, “Lousy. It’s been terrible.” (You’re going to have days like that.) They said, “It’s been a disaster. We haven’t got anything.”
And He said, “Well, uh, cast your net over on the right side of the boat.” And I’m sure there was somebody there who said, “Oh well, now, who is this? Who is this that’s got such a cute idea about how to fish after we’ve been at it all night, and is going to tell us out here, laboring as we are, there he is safely on the beach, we’re out here in these boats, He’s going to tell us how to…” I don’t know if someone said that, but I bet someone did.
But reluctantly, and maybe out of desperation, needing a catch – they are, after all, now back to doing what they used to do, and if they’re going to fish, they’ve got to fish – they cast their net over to the right side of the boat, and they can’t pull the catch in. It starts to sink the ship, one of the miracles being that the nets didn’t break, there were so many fish. They couldn’t get the fish in the boat. And John said, “It’s Him. It’s Him.”
And Peter, sweet Peter, who didn’t know better than to say, “Let’s do what we know how to do.” Sweet Peter who cuts people’s ears off, and then they have to be put back on, and… Sweet, loyal, devoted Peter, looked at John, heard what he said, looked at the shore, saw the Master, and bailed over the edge of the boat. And said, “The rest of you can row if you want, I’m going in.” And he just started going to shore.
Well they arrived. The Savior and this marvelous act of courtesy has fixed their breakfast. He’s built a little fire, and cooked some fish. Just a little passing thought on His magnificence – they’re going to be hungry, they haven’t had a good night, and I’m going to fix their breakfast. And they followed his feet, and then Jesus starts this little interrogation, and with this, I close.
“Peter, do you love me more than you love these fish in this net here, and these boats, and these oars?”
And Peter said, “Yes, I do love you, more than these.”
And a second time, Jesus says, “Peter, do you love me more than you love these fish, and your nets, and your battered old boat?”
And a little distressed at that, Peter said, “Yes, I do. I said I did. I do.”
And the Savior probably took a deep breath and smiled and looked Peter right in the eye. And though He didn’t verbalize it, apparently He was conveying to Peter, “May I now say to you for the third time, do you love me?” And Peter is very very sensitive about threes right now.
And Jesus says, really in effect, “Okay,” for the last time, “do you love me more than these? Than what you do? And what you’ve just been doing?”
And Peter says, “I do. I do love you. More than anything.”
And that is the moment that Peter became the great apostle. Forget the denials, whatever they were. Forget the cut off ears. Forget the impetuousness. Forget the confusion. Forget not knowing more than to come back to fish. Right here, face-to-face, again from the honesty of his heart he said, “I do love you, more than anything.”
And to that, the Savior of the world said, “Then feed my sheep! I have asked you before to leave your nets. And I’m asking you again, and I don’t want to ask you a third time. When I said, ‘Leave your nets,’ it was forever. When I asked you to follow me, it was forever. When I asked you to be an apostle, it was forever. When I asked you to be a Missionary, it was forever. When I asked you to see this through to the end, it was because it’s not over ’til it’s over. Now forget your nets, and forget the fish, and jettison your boat, and throw those oars away for the second time, and feed my sheep. We’re in this ’til the end.”
And that’s the day Peter strode into eternity, and became the man within hours, within days at the very least. When people plead that they could be taken into the street and left on their cot in hopes the shadow of Peter would pass over them. That’s the Peter that he became with that little confrontation on the shore. And the issue is for all time and eternity, “Do. You. Love. Me? Do you love me?.....”
This is the best talk I have ever listened to here at the CCM.... i love it. What is Elder Holland saying to us missionaries? Well, it's simple.... we can never go back to the way we were before.... we can't lose the faith, we can't stop the missionary work. We need to know why we are here, accept it, and keep working to bring others unto Christ even after the missions. I am here for a reason y este razón es enseño los hijos de nuestro Padre Celestial. Yo sé que esoy aquí porque yo necesito a ser aquí. I am a messenger of our Father in heaven and he needs me to be here and "...there will be people taught by me and by no other..." and I know these things are true en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amén.
I love and miss you all so much. I am online so talk :) ¡Para siempre Dios este con vos!
Love,
Elder Gallego (the one that is the youngest ok? Not the one in Anaheim ;))
