Teaching the Atonement

Howdy yalllll! 

We had a conference with President Crapo this past week and I learned so much! He's truly an awesome mission president. We talked a lot about the Atonement and Repentance, so thiis week weve been focusing on teaching the Atonement alllll the time and teaching repentance.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ, very, very briefly described, is the sacrifice and actual  ¨paying for our sins¨ that occured in the Garden of Gethsemani, where he truly suffered for every single sin that every single person on the earth has ever committed. Every pain and every affliction. Every sad moment and heartache.  He experienced it all! Just so that we could have the opportunity to repent and live with Him for eternity.

Mosiah 3:7

 7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

What a scripture! King Benjamin here is prophesying of the great Atonement. Jesus bled from every poor, as if he was sweating blood. We truly can’t comprehend the pain and anguish he experienced, but it was great. He did this to know how we feel in every dark moment and in every hard experience, so that He might know how to comfort us in those moments.

Matthew 26 gives us an exact description of what occured...

 38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

 39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O  my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I  will, but as thou wilt.

He was suffering beyond belief that He prayed to the Father to ¨let the cup pass¨ from Him. Suffering for every anguish and sorrow of billions and billions of people can we possibly imagine such a thing?

More importantly, how can we ever repay Him for what He did for us? Well the truth is we can’t 100% repay Him for what He did. It’s simply not possible to do something of equal action to that of what He did for us. But the thing that comes closest is repentance.

Repenting of our sins is the ONE thing we can do to show Him we are grateful for His sacrifice.  He suffered so that we can repent.  If we do not repent of our sins, we are simply saying we are not grateful for His sacrifice. But on the other hand, if we repent, we can show our gratitude to Him and we can feel His love!

Doctrine and Covenants 18:11 and 13

 11 For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh;  wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.

If we repent, we may feel the love of God in our lives again. The burdens we carry may be taken from us, and we can feel the Lord´s spirit in our lives again.

 13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!

I testify that the soul that repenteth is joyful. I have experienced it in my own life many a time. If we may turn our will to the will of the Lord and repent every day, we may become closer and closer to Him and the blessings of the Atonement will be poured out upon us.

I invite all of you to not only stop doing something bad, but to stop doing whatever it is you´re doing in contrary to the Lord´s will, and start doing something great! Change your will to that of the Fathers and we may all feel more happiness in our lives.

I know these things are true! And I know that He lives.

With love!

Elder Gurksnis