2017! And thus it begins.....

Happy New Year!!

It is pretty crazy that somehow we ended up in 2017 already. This morning I was able to better formulate something I've been experiencing as of late: Our existence is measured by opportunities, not by time. Many times at the end of the day i feel like I've let worrying about time limit my vision. When I have worried too much about if, "we will make it on time," or "if if we can fit such and such into the schedule." This leads to me shooting myself in the foot so to speak because all the opportunities I could be capitalizing on are gliding on by while I'm too busy trying satisfy my schedule.  A constant habit of looking to mark the next thing  "complete" is like when we sit down to watch a movie and then fast forward to the end credits every time. Why bother sitting down if you don't enjoy every scene? And at the end of the day, what do we actually remember from the movies we sat down to watch? It has really been driven home recently that if we really make up our minds to lose our sense of self for others as Christ has taught, that we will have a lot more to remember at the end of the day. 

I read my journal entry from last year on this exact day and I decided my goal for this year was to forget myself for the year of 2016 and just do my best to turn outwards instead of inwards and serve others. (I must have read have been thinking similar thoughts about how fast time goes haha) Well the thing i thought this morning was that from what i read, it felt like i was saying "Okay well, this next year is the only full year of my whole entire life i will have to really give all i have to serving God and others. So that is my goal. I want to try my best to do just that."

 Looking back to when I wrote that (Because I can remember it clearly) I feel like I was making that goal based off of time and not opportunity at that point. I've since then had a shift in that train of thought: We have the opportunity to use our time to live life to the fullest or else we will only have time to wish for opportunities when our schedules are at their fullest.

I think that was my motivational new years dialogue for this year haha. 

Here come the highlights for the last week of 2016:

Wait for it..... Jimmi was baptized!!! He was so excited for it and is just a smiling machine ever since he came up out of the water. He said he really felt the spirit, almost to the point where he said it made him feel like he couldn't contain how good he felt- (We later read in the Book of Mormon and he pointed out a verse that talked about being overcome with the spirit and said that is how he felt :D) The baptism took place in Randers because the church building here in Skive does not have a baptismal font. It was a really neat baptism because it was a very unique atmosphere. It just kind of gave me the impression that although he was way stoked to be baptized, he was fully determined to go all in and give everything for the Gospel. Baptism is a great thing because it truly is the gateway to even greater blessings, but it is not the end of the road in any way. It was so cool because you could tell Jimmi  was one of those who just "got it," and he knew the opportunites that baptism opened up. He is such a faithful guy and it is amazing what the Atonement of Christ has the potential to do for all those who choose to let it into their lives. Great stuff:)

We met with our friend K and he gave us a lot to think about while we were teaching about  who Jesus Christ was. At one point he asked "Who would do that? I mean it is kinda weird to me that someone would just die for everyone. Plus if he could save himself, why didn't he do it? I mean if I could I would make it all stop.  Like, normal people don't really do stuff like that." (He hasnt really learned about Jesus Christ at all, by the way.)

That really got me thinking because I thought that he has a valid point. No one would ever have the capacity to endure all of that, let alone choose to if they had that capacity.  I said, "Well, if he really was a real person who did all the things he did, dont you think that is really incredible? That he really is someone very important to us if those things happened?" Those things ended up leaving just as big of an impression on me as i tried to see it from K*s perspective. But anyways, he is doing well and i dont think i need to tell more because that summed up the week with him :) He is on track to stop smoking and he still really wants to be baptized. He said it has made him so much happier and id say that is an understatement. It is incredible what the Gospel does!

Also to tag onto that, K had a friend over one of the nights we visited with him (we are usually out to visit him once a day.) We taught a great lesson about the restoration of the chruch and then gave K's friend a copy of the Book of Mormon, which he gladly accepted. Come to find out two days later, his buddy stayed up all night until 6:30 reading it! Wayyyyyy cool:D (especially because I have never tried that haha). So we are trying to get in touch with his friend now too. It is neat how the Lord works.

Spiritual thought:

"To be or not to be?' That is not the question. What is the question? The question is not one of being, but of becoming. 'To become more or not to become more' This is the question faced by each intelligence in our universe." - Truman G Madsen

:),

Ældste  j

Elder Jeppson, Jimmy, Elder Beck