Happy Halloween! It was a great week. I am on the Island! They have not voted me off yet so it is all good. We have 12 active members, 4 Priesthood holders and 2 young women. We are rolling! We just have this little rented building with three rooms for our church. But I love every member here already! My companion is Brazilian and I am not lying, he is the first person I have ever met in my life that speaks more than me. And not by a little bit! He never stops talking so all of you who know me know how interesting this relationship must be. He's awesome!
This week another thought came to me that Elder Bednar said when he visited recently that I want to expound on. He said, "I am going to tell you something so simple you may have never even seen it this way. It's that simple." He went on to talk about the Tree of Life in Lehi's Dream. Now maybe everyone that reads this already thought of it this way but it was interesting to think of it this way for me. He talked about the group of people who progressed to the tree, partook of the fruit which was the love of God or Christ. But when I read that it was always hard for me to understand how the people could just immediately turn away from that great amazing feeling. I always read that when I was younger and was always dumbfounded just thinking you already came all that way! How could you just turn away that fast?? But Elder Bednar said the fruit of the tree is the Atonement. It is repentance. And I sat back in that meeting and realized how many times I was in that second group. How many times I had chosen not to use the power of the Atonement. How many times I have repented and then made mistakes again. How many times in our lives have we turned away from our picnic at the tree (I know that sounds interesting. I am not saying that in the way that it is like a picnic and so easy. Just painting a picture) to set down our have eaten fruit to go and look around. Saying that we will come back and finish it later. When I saw the fruit as the Atonement and repentance, my standpoint changed in the way I ponder on the dream. I always put myself in that first group that reached the tree and stayed. It seemed so black and white. Simple. No gray area. The other groups were not related to me. But I realized there have been times where I set down the fruit for the world for a minute and joined that second group. Sometimes a lot longer than a minute. But the Lord has always been merciful enough to let me come back and partake again and again. Please,if you have set down the fruit for a while, or even just for a minute, pick it back up and partake of it always. You can never be too full. We can never be too full of His love and His atoning power. But it is ever so easy to set it down to go look around for a while. Especially when no one is looking. To sneak away even only with the intention to look around. You will never find a better fruit. What is better than love. Pure love. Perfect love. From a perfect being. I would choose that over "fun" or "exciting."
But sometimes I know in the moment we don't always choose right. We aren't thinking clearly and we make mistakes. Sometimes we cannot see the Lord's ways and see the bigger picture so we give up on the faith thing because we do not understand or we do not see immediate feedback. But "Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?" Proverbs 20:24. That fruit is always back by the tree. We just need to humble ourselves enough to humbly approach that picnic at the tree again and partake. Sometimes we know if we approach the tree, no matter how quietly, that the people by the the tree will turn their heads and see us approaching and realize we left, or watch our humble walk back and we fear their judgement. Just let them deal with their fruit and go partake of yours. We approach the tree for His love not for their love.
In Lehi's Dream they pressed forward for His love. God's love. The Savior's love. I pray every day that we (So many of you by name) may be able to desire and focus on His love, press forward, and partake of it. Then... Stay.
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Trevor Aiken
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