"Can you help us change like we've seen our brother change?"

Welp we had a great week this week!  This past six weeks with Elder Funes have been the fastest of my life its ridiculous how fast the weeks go by.  I have a feeling that I could have a change this change and go to a new area.  We'll see.  But either way, Elder Funes and I had a lot of success together and worked super hard.  

I was reading the Liahona (church magazine) and read something i thought was funny about choosing the right friends lol.  This one girl shared, "I was trying to change my friend so much but she wouldn't and ultimately I just stopped being her friend... and my testimony grew SO MUCH!" hahah then it said "From: Margaret Denise K. Bountiful High School".  That friend just read that in the Liahona and everyone knows it's her!  haha! Like, what the deuce Margaret?? lol

Anyways... we baptized Paty and her two daughters this past saturday and it went great.  When they were confirmed yesterday Paty started just bawling and it was very spiritual and cool to see the impact the gospel has had on her life. 

The coolest thing this week really has been Fredick, who was my first baptism back in November.  He is so animated and awesome.  He goes with us every day from 3 to 7 to be with us to teach lessons so he can learn and prepare more for his mission.  We were talking about it and realized that we were gonna be on missions at the same time together and how awesome that is.  At first I didnt really know his whole story and transformation.  But he opened up to us this week and told us how he was in a gang before and everything.  Never killed anyone, but robbed and dealt weed and just a ton of stuff and I had no idea.  He has been sharing the gospel with his family and we started teaching his sisters this week.  The coolest thing was when they asked us, "Can you help us change like we've seen our brother change?"  That was maybe the most satisfying moment of my mission so far.  His sisters are freaking awesome and I have no doubt they'll be following in the footsteps of Fredick soon.  

I was reading an article this week lying in bed talking about the grace of Jesus Christ by Brad Wilcox.  Christ's suffering for our sins was more than just a big favor for us. He gave us an opportunity.  An opportunity to be able to repent and live forever in His presence.  We don't earn our way into heaven, but by living the commandments, we practice living in heaven.  If you bring a person that commits big sins with no desire to repent to church camp, would he feel comfortable?  No. He would be begging to get out of there.  It's the same with Christ in Heaven.  We need to try to be like Him.  Live like He did so that when we get to Heaven it feels like we belong there. We will be able to remember everything we did on the earth on judgement day.  How comfortable will we feel?  Will we feel excited and happy because we repented and always tried to walk the path of Christ?  Or nervous and scared because we never did.  Our job on Earth is to try our best to become like our Savior and Redeemer.  We will never be perfect as He is but thankfully He doesn't require us to be.  He just asks us to try and to do better tomorrow than we did today!  

Have a good week yall!

Elder Gurksnis