100 days left.
It's time to start grinding harder and working harder and giving all I can until I'm tired and exhausted!
A few highlights for the week:
○ we had our first Christmas choir performance in Kowloon Tong! It was so fun! We will be having a performance on the 24th and it will be live on Face Book.
○ we had a wonderful lesson with 2 members from China. They shared how they hadn't been to church for the last 5 years and we had a powerful lesson with them. We got to share about the blessings of tithing and the atonement. Wonderful topics to touch on! They were so nice and friendly! We just instantly clicked.
○ my poor companion got sick this week so we stayed at home yesterday and got to help her feel a little better and warmer. The temperature in Hong Kong just dropped so it has been quite the cold.
This week has been spiritually uplifting for me, I've learned much about Christ's atonement. It's a great focus as we celebrate Him during this Christmas season.
I would like to focus today's email on Jesus the Christ chapter 9: the Boy of Nazareth.
"In such simplicity is the normal, natural development of the Boy Jesus made clear. He came among men to experience all the natural conditions of mortality; He was born as truly a dependent, helpless babe as is any other child; His infancy was in all common features as the infancy of others; His boyhood was actual boyhood, His development was as necessary and as real as that of all children. Over His mind had fallen the veil of forgetfulness common to all who are born to earth, by which the remembrance of primeval existence is shut off. The Child grew, and with growth there came to Him expansion of mind, development of faculties, and progression in power and understanding. His advancement was from one grace to another, not from gracelessness to grace; from good to greater good, not from evil to good, from favor with God to greater favor, not from estrangement because of sin to reconciliation through repentance and propitiation.
Our knowledge of Jewish life in that age justifies the inference that the Boy was well taught in the law and the scriptures, for such was the rule. He garnered knowledge by study, and gained wisdom by prayer, thought, and effort. Beyond question He was trained to labor, for idleness was abhorred then as it is now; and every Jewish boy, whether carpenter’s son, peasant’s child, or rabbi’s heir, was required to learn and follow a practical and productive vocation. Jesus was all that a boy should be, for His development was un retarded by the dragging weight of sin; He loved and obeyed the truth and therefore was free."
☆ Jesus grew in wisdom. He made a lot of time and effort to study the scriptures. And what amazes me is that he was studying about himself and what has been prophesied of Him. He studied his birth, his experience and death. That must have been a hard pill to swallow. He was given his agency just like us, he could have escaped and avoided His Father's will or accept it. Fortunately, He chose the latter. He chose you. He loves you. He chose to drink of the bitter cup for you.
"When, following the conclusion of the Passover, the Galilean company had gone a day’s journey toward home, Joseph and Mary discovered to their surprise and deep concern that Jesus was not with their company. After a fruitless search among their friends and acquaintances, they turned back toward Jerusalem seeking the Boy. Their inquiries brought little comfort or assistance until three days had passed; then “they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.” It was no unusual thing for a twelve year old boy to be questioned by priests, scribes, or rabbis, nor to be permitted to ask questions of these professional expounders of the law, for such procedure was part of the educational training of Jewish youths; nor was there anything surprising in such a meeting of students and teachers within the temple courts, for the rabbis of that time were accustomed to give instruction there; and people, young and old, gathered about them, sitting at their feet to learn; but there was much that was extraordinary in this interview as the demeanor of the learned doctors showed, for never before had such a student been found, inasmuch as “all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.” The incident furnishes evidence of a well spent boyhood and proof of unusual attainments. The amazement of Mary and her husband on finding the Boy in such distinguished company, and so plainly the object of deference and respect, and the joy of seeing again the beloved One who to them had been lost, did not entirely banish the memory of the anguish His absence had caused them. In words of gentle yet unmistakable reproof the mother said: “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.” The Boy’s reply astonished them, in that it revealed, to an extent they had not before realized, His rapidly maturing powers of judgment and understanding. Said He: “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Let us not say that there was unkind rebuke or unfilial reproof in the answer of this most dutiful of sons to His mother. His reply was to Mary a reminder of what she seems to have forgotten for the moment—the facts in the matter of her Son’s paternity. She had used the words “thy father and I”; and her Son’s response had brought anew to her mind the truth that Joseph was not the Boy’s father. She appears to have been astonished that One so young should so thoroughly understand His position with respect to herself. He had made plain to her the inadvertent inaccuracy of her words; His Father had not been seeking Him; for was He not even at that moment in His Father’s house, and particularly engaged in His Father’s business, the very work to which His Father had appointed Him? He had in no wise intimated a doubt as to Mary’s maternal relationship to Himself; though He had indisputably shown that He recognized as His Father, not Joseph of Nazareth, but the God of Heaven. Both Mary and Joseph failed to comprehend the full import of His words. Though He understood the superior claim of duty based on His divine Sonship, and had shown to Mary that her authority as earthly mother was subordinate to that of His immortal and divine Father, nevertheless He obeyed her."
☆ Jesus Christ understood His divine identity and potential. He knew who He was. He knew He was not the Son of Man, but that He was the Son of God. Do you know who you are? Do you know and understand your divine identity?
Jesus Christ knew He had to drink of the bitter cup and He did so because He loves you. He could have chose to save himself from the harsh death of crucifixion but He chose you. Never forget that.
PICTURES:
• little snack that reminded me of home
• Luo 姐妹
• Tina and Jia 弟兄
• my plan
XUE JIEMEI
薛姐妹
SISTER SY
such a happy season of celebration and service.
