Are You True?

I'm so tired.

But man, I am so thankful.

But goodness-- I'm tired. Those familiar with Alma 27:18 might know what kind of tired I'm meaning.

I've been in Nicosia three times in my mission, and each of the times were special -certainly-- but I think I've begun to really understand what it means when God works in his own timings.

He's keeping us busy here, and I've absolutely loved teaching. We have so many unique experiences with people, and it's been keeping us on our toes. Sometimes, lessons are within 3 minutes of each other, so as we dial the number of the next person we are meeting with on the phone, we will decide what to teach. Or as we walk from one place to another, we do the same.

But a huge blessing has come from this. What Elder Schneider and I have learned from this method of teaching people so close together, is focusing on needs of the people we meet with.

Oh, how often we turn people into checklists. That's how we are raised at times, anyways. I've got to get THIS many points to pass the test.

People aren't tests, though.

Sometimes we find ourselves just talking to someone about what they liked about what they saw about the church, and it quickly turning into a discussion about something of the church or the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Call it unpreparedness, but we really do make an effort to be prepared; we've even been taking our time after 9pm to create lessons plans for the next few lessons.

Here's the beauty of something that's been happening the last few weeks; We've been ready for these lessons, and our friends are progressing without our constant focus on "what to teach".

After these imprompto lessons, we go through the gospel principles, and we've taught more than guided lessons we've prepared for. The spirit has been working in remarkable ways. And we've developed a better connection with the person we've been teaching.

Nothing testifies to me about the spirit more than the lesson we had with one of our good friends we've been meeting with for a while.

It was the first lesson Elder Schneider and I had together, it being the second day he arrived.

Our lessons with Adrian are always wonderful, but I really wanted us to push it forward this time. New transfer, new start I guess. Boldness, here we come. Walking out the door, I thought, "Oh maybe I should bring my Quad." So I quickly slipped it into my bag and we made our way to the church.

"So bro, I have one question as we start. We've basically taught you most of what we teach those before they are baptized. What do you think about everything?"

Elder Schneider later informed me that it caught him completely off guard. My bad, I guess.

Needless to say, this spiraled into a huge discussion about faith, the church, the authority, and particularly the Book of Mormon.

We paused for a moment and I asked if I could ask him something. "Do you believe the Book of the Mormon is the word of God?" looking him straight in the eyes.

"Bro... that's a good question..."

"You're not gonna hurt our feelings, you can be honest."

He lightened up in his seat and said, "Well, man, if that's the case, definitely not."

Honestly, in almost any other situation, that would be devastating. But somehow, the spirit prompted us to keep moving forward.

"Why?"

Which led into a long discussion yet again about scriptures, what they are and who wrote them. I was so glad I had studied this just a few days priorly.

I think of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings to describe our discussion:

Frodo: Before you came along we Bagginses were very well thought of.

Gandalf: Indeed?

Frodo: Never had any adventures or did anything unexpected.

Gandalf: [...] I was barely involved. All I did was give your uncle a little nudge out of the door.

I told him the bible was written over a long period of time. In fact, 1,000s of years of time. And when Moses received the revelation that is now in Exodus, it didn't exist in writing or orally up until that point. And God continued to reveal truth through the prophets-- even Jesus Christ.

"Right," Adrian affirmed.

"Why did it stop?"

I absolutely love this part. You gaze into the eyes of a person who, regardless if they fully understood what you said, are having gears turning in their head.

"Well.. maybe in like 1,000 years the bible and the Book of Mormon will be in one book."

"Dude-- guess what," I reached into my bag and nearly threw my quad into his hands, "It already is!"

We were all so caught off guard by the perfect situation, we all laughed until our faces went red. It was so wonderful, and the lesson concluded well. Elder Schneider claimed, to use his words, I was "dropping bars" during the lesson. He exaggerates, but he was doing well. It was one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. It set a great expectation at the start of the transfer, and that boldness has continued onward since that moment. It works a lot, it seems. I shouldn't be surprised; we preach the truth!

The Book of Mormon is more to me than just a book that I can learn from. It's a testament to me that God still cares about us. We are no different compared to the past in regards to needed a connection to our creator and Savior.

I was doing a lot of thinking about the church and the statement of true. As well as this life being a test.

I remember hearing growing up in the church that this life was a test. Even as a child, I used to have questions about that. For we are saved by grace after all that we do, but calling this life a test made it feel that if I didn't score high enough on the Scoreboard of Life, it would be "Game Over" or I got an "F" or something. It seemed like this life was all about works.

Amongst my thoughts of this, I was asked to give a talk this last Sunday, an hour before the meeting began, about the Plan of Salvation. Though I enjoy the challenge of not being given a lot of time to prepare, not much was coming to mind. I struggled.

A thought came back to my mind as I was concluding the talk.

There is a different type of test. A test of quality.

When I was home, I really liked a show called "Forged in Fire". It was a show were blacksmiths would compete to see who could make the best blade-- usually a sword. Naturally, I learned a lot about steals and knives as I watched the show and did research on it on my own.

On this show, there was a test preformed on the blades that I did not expect. Typically, we imagine a blade is considered strong if it's very ridged. However, with long swords or skinny blades, the blade to bend on impact is a inevitable.

The test was not conducted on whether the blade would bend, but rather if after the impact, would return to it's original alignment-- straight. The word used is "true". How well it could return to true would often reveal the quality and craftsmanship of the blade.

This invoked a lot of thought in me. This life is not a test to get a certain number of points on our "gospel report card" to quote Brad Wilcox. Rather a test of our ability to return to "true" after a trail of our faith. A test of quality of our spiritual steel.

Are we willing to follow the savior to the end? Are we willing to follow his commandments? To covenant with our Father in Heaven?

It's still an analogy that I have to give more thought, but I've felt a lot of comfort in thinking about this life as this form of test of "integrity" so to speak. I know I won't be perfect in this life. I have so much work to do. It nearly gets overwhelming at times, as many could relate to. Yet, am I working, while I'm in the furnace of life, developing into the character that will want it and be willing to follow what is required of it? When I am tested for quality, will I return to true? I know I wouldn't-- if it wasn't for my savior.

Well, I should get some rest. I hope you have had a good week. Have a blessed time, and good luck in the heat!

I didn't get the chance to tell the man at the bus stop who didn't have the time to hear us, but I'll say it now; God loves you!

Elder Dylan John Hansen