The Prize is Free to all who Qualify

June 23, 2018

Good Morning Friends and Family,

Here in this last week we saw the opening of the “World Cup” of soccer. In other places, it may not be as amplified as other things, but here in Brazil it is central to the culture. In this “World Cup” everybody is invited. But only those that Qualify through trials of other games are allowed to play in what is the cup itself. This in itself is an honor and a prize.

Our Heavenly Father offers the same type of Honor and Prize, but his qualification isn’t limited to just 32 teams or people. He allows everyone who is worthy to once again regain eternal life, a glorified and perfected body, and live in his presence.

Lloyd D. Newell states a similar principle using a parable from Christ: “In every age to every people, God opens His arms to His children. With all the love of a tender parent, He invites us to come unto Him.  Nevertheless, He never forces or manipulates. He respects our agency and allows us to choose whether to receive His offering and feel His love or not.

In the parable of the great supper, Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a delicious dinner that has been carefully and lovingly prepared.  When all is ready, the master sends his servant to gather the invited guests, but each is too preoccupied to attend.  “They all [begin] to make excuse[s].”  One says that he has just bought “a piece of ground” and needs to oversee it.  Another is busy with his “five yoke of oxen.”  And the third has recently been married and wants to stay close to home.  They have just been offered the feast of feasts—bounteous servings of love, peace, and joy are on the table—but all who have been invited are too encumbered by the cares of the world to even taste the heavenly offerings.

Upon hearing this report, the master quickly sends his servant out to “the streets and lanes,” the “highways and hedges” to invite the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind to eat the food, still steamy hot and uneaten on the table.  These meek and humble people gratefully respond to the invitation and enter the kingdom of God.

Oftentimes, what keeps us from God are many of the “good” things He has given us:  the land, the oxen, the relationships that can consume our time and prevent quiet reflection or personal worship.  Hopefully, the ease and security of such good things will not distract us from that which matters most, from feeling the need to seek God and respond to His invitation to everlasting life.  The Lord’s promise is certain.  He is “gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.”

May we all qualify for his Presence, and "Return unto him" and our greatest prize, through our dedication and our willingness to be truly obedient and put off “The Natural man” in all things, remembering that "All are free to Qualify for this Prize", is my prayer and hope this week.

With Love & Vai Brasil,

-Elder Matthew Arscott

Photos:

Elder Pinheiro, Me, Elder Lara, and Elder                                                                                                   B.  Silva

Elder Quaresma is obsessed with the Pinhão                                         nut and put some in a bag off the street funniest thing I've seen this weekMy morning study table

 Irmão Fernando and Vinicius pizza night

 Leptich, Bryan, Arscott, Smith - 3 Americans and 1                                                                                        New Zealand - Celebrating not making it to the World Cup

Success: Progress, not Perfection

June 16, 2018

Family and Friends,

It’s been quite the four weeks passing here in Curitiba. It has been an opportunity unlike any other to have the presence of two apostles, Elder Holland and Elder Cook, back to back in a matter of this short time period. We are on a fourth week of a full plate of work every day, and we are only now starting to see the downwind of it all. Other fun highlights have included a plane trip to the Federal Police Headquarters in Piracicaba, São Paulo, to help some missionaries serving within our mission work on some legal documentation. Ill include some pictures at the end of this email for that. It isn’t easy to keep a mission running and being able to serve in an administrative position has been a true blessing as well. NEVERTHELESS, none of us are perfect, and it is only a matter of time that something goes wrong or tests us. This week I would like to share a couple of thoughts on Success, and how exactly we can be more successful in our day-to-day lives.

Recently in General conference, Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy quotes famous leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill saying, ““Success isn’t the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.” “With his invention of the light bulb, Thomas Edison purportedly said, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Charles F. Kettering called failures “finger posts on the road to achievement.” Hopefully, each mistake we make becomes a lesson in wisdom, turning stumbling blocks into stepping-stones.”

In its most basic form, our mistakes are necessary for our improvement. Moreover, our improvement is necessary for our progression; and in turn, we are nothing, and will never come to be nothing, without progression.

Knowing that the trials and failures would be a daily re-occurrence for us, our savior paid an infinite atonement for us to be able to continue “Re-Trying” every day. However, just how many times will He forgive us? How long is His long-suffering? On one occasion Peter asked the Savior, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” of course those of a biblical knowledge will backhandedly know the answer: “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” In this instance, the Lord uses the math of seventy time seven to represent his infinite atonement and not the number four-hundred ninety. We must also remember, as we will go from mistake to mistake learning, others will as well. Nobody is exempt from a sinless and imperfect life. We must be forgiving and meek as we seek with humbleness the same forgiveness and meekness.

Nevertheless, it does us no good to repent without that key word I spoke of at the beginning of the message: Progress. It is okay to make mistakes. We learn that accidents happen, that we are human and will succumb to human nature, and that we will fall in an imperfect world. HOWEVER, Christ paid for our sins that we may learn, arise, and try again. We will of course continue to make mistakes. None of us after repenting a handful of times will learn to be perfect, that is not what the Lords atonement is designed for. His eternal plan is designed for us to continue growing through our errors, and to “Rise each time we fall”. Let us seek the best out of the situations and ordeals we face. May we learn from trial and error and improve so that we will be stronger the next time we face temptation, sin, or natural adversity; affliction, anguish, annoyance, stress, difficulties, burdens, sorrow, misery, misfortune, grief, or any other sort of complications or hardships.

My promise is that if we learn from our mistakes and rise each time we fall, keeping an eternal perspective and continuing to progress, while forgiving others along the way, we will deal with tribulation with a stronger and more spiritual intent, understanding better the reasoning behind our father in heaven’s plans.

Hope that everyone has a great week as always. Hope to hear from you soon. Love you.

-Elder Matthew Arscott

Pics:

Lunch at the local buffet

 São Paulo Check in

 Plane ride with sleeping Sisters

Campinas - Viracopos

Capibaras in the local park

No power so we had to climb through the window to get into our locked office. 

View from my apartment

Another picture from the Airplane

Elder B.Silva…..

Elder B Silva

The Most Important Work

June 2, 2018

“For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal  life of man.” –Moses 1:39

Last week we had the opportunity to be visited by an apostle of the Lord, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He entreated us with a wonderful spirit, a few comedic jokes, Love, coupled with Spiritual nourishment and knowledge. He prompted me into a new way of thinking and viewing each person I met. I learned a lot about the True “Worth of Souls”.

Here on my mission I put in a lot of work. I think daily as well about my work outside of the mission that I have either rendered or that I plan on giving in the future such as working in the movie theater, in and out of school and sports, working within my ward and stake, and desiring to study to become an Airline Captain. However, with all of the “Work” that we do each day, what work is most important? Could it be that of the President of a country in order to maintain the political, social, and financial structure of millions of people? Alternatively, could we think more spiritually that the most important work could maybe be that of a spiritual nature such as that of a Bishop, Stake President, or even the Prophet and the Apostles? I remember being asked a similar question once in a missionary prep class and I responded with what I thought was the desired answer: “Missionary Work”. Well, I was almost right, I just needed to dig a little deeper. The most important work is not held within a calling or a position, nor in talent or anything quite of this life. Elder Holland made it clear to us that the most important work is that of The Salvation of Souls.

Elder Holland said to us: “This is the most important work we will ever do in our lives.” However, before we get into thinking that he was just talking to me and my companions, lets realize that he was talking about The work of Salvation of Souls in general. He was talking to those serving and not serving, those old and young, the strong and the weak. If we think about it, this isn’t just a work that we will do within a time period of 24 or 18 months. Now don’t get me wrong, as missionaries we have a divine calling to TEACH doctrine and Baptize converts which plays an essential role in the work of Salvation of Human Souls BUT being baptized and taught aren’t the only roles played in that of Salvation. We each play a role everyday in every place of our lives in the Salvation of human souls, whether they be friends, family, strangers, the needy, the weak, or even our own.

Everything that we must do in every aspect of our lives must be to progress either our own personal salvation or that of another. We serve missions, go to church, read scriptures, marry in the temple of the Lord, serve others, serve in church positions, keeps the commandments, do everyday things such as study, be kind to others, work to support our family and more all because behind it all is the doctrine of the Salvation of Souls, whether it be our own or that of others.

Salvation is only made possible through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes, Faith in him, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, Fulfilling other covenants and enduring to the end through the atonement of Jesus Christ. We are sent as missionaries to teach this. Elder Holland explained that: “An Apostle is anyone who is sent by the Lord to take the message of Christ” So whether we are receiving or giving the message we must help others on their Eternal Progress towards Salvation.

“But there is no such thing as cheap salvation” Elder Holland reminded us.  “It cost everything.” And because of that we will face trials and have to strengthen ourselves. We must push ourselves to our limit and give our best to be able to achieve the maximum possible, and that is Salvation. Elder Holland said that “We cannot receive One million dollars of reward for 20 cents of effort.”

In the work of the salvation of souls, our part is to do our best and give our all. We cannot change people; only Christ through the Spirit can do so. President Ezra Taft Benson quotes how in this work Christ is much more powerful than the world: “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

I close with a poem that Elder Holland shared from French writer Christopher Logue that talks about giving our all and “Coming to the Edge”:

“Come to the Edge”

“No, I cant, its too high”

“Come to the Edge”

“I cant, im scared”

“Come to the Edge”

And so I came...

And he pushed me...

And I flew.

This week and always, my prayer is that we may be able to do everything possible to help to bring to pass the most important work that man has ever been given in the Salvation of Souls. That we may be able to give our all and do what is necessary to “Come to the Edge” and give our all to our family, friends, our fellow man, and ourselves.

“Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;” –D&C 18:10

-Elder Matthew Arscott

Photos:

6am Ball in the rain on Garlick and Jones last day in the mission

 Celebrating Elder Eschenbergs 20th Birthday with the other Elders

Digging some Holes with Elder Garlick and the Chapel groundbreaking shovel

Conference with Elder Holland