The beautiful gift of Agency

Sometimes you just gotta snap a quick jungle selfie

Holy cow. January's already gone!

It's ridiculous how the time flies when you're walking around all day! hahaha. Also, on an other note, I've learned how to make hand made tortillas and pupusas pretty well now. By the time I get backed I'll be a certified chef at this rate ;)

I learned how to make popcorn like a big boy! haha

I'm so happy I decided to come here on a mission. Looking back, I've gained so much from that one decision. There's no other choice in my life that could have made me happier than I am. This one decision has changed my life dramatically! And the lives of a few other people here in San Ramon, too. Even though I had to give up some things, and there were a few reasons that I didn't want to go, I'm so glad that I took the decision to go.

Actually, I wanted to talk about a little thing called Agency today. Our ability to choose. I've been thinking about it a lot this week!

We're all children of God. All of us lived with him in our spirit bodies before we were here on the Earth. I testify to you that that is the truth. But, even way over there in the pre-mortal life, we got to make a choice. There was a war in the heavens, where we had to decide to follow the Plan of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, or the Plan of Lucifer, later known as Satan.

Revelations 12:4 says:

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them
to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready
 to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Later in the chapter, it explains that this dragon is Satan. He was exiled from the presence of God, along with the third part of our Brothers and Sisters.

We're all here, and we all have bodies! We have chances to experience joy and sadness, injustice and grace, good and bad. We have all these opportunities as a consequence of our choice, the choice to follow the Plan of Salvation!

One third part of our brothers and sisters will never have bodies, or have the chance to experience everything that we experience. All those opportunities were taken away from them as a consequence of their choice.

My point is that Agency is a sacred gift, something far more important than we often times think.

Just like how our heavenly choice gave us the opportunity to live our lives, my earthly choice to go on a mission has brought me more blessings than I can list. I have grown in knowledge, in love, in patience, and in confidence. I can tell that I am closer to being the person that God wants me to be. A little closer to the example that Jesus Christ gives us!

Many times we take this opportunity, this ability, for granted.

This world isn't ours. We didn't make it, or buy it, or anything! One could say that we're living on rented space. No matter what we do to 'pay' our Heavenly Father back for the opportunity he gave us, we're just giving him what's already his.

What we have, that's our own, is our agency. Our right to choose. That is absolutely and definitively ours. Nobody can strip away that ability. They can influence it, sure, but at the end of the day it's our choice.

As we do what God wants us to do, we will grow like we have never grown before. We will see miracles in our lives that are as important as the vision was to the blind man, or the blessing was to the Lepers. We will gain blessings here on earth and in the heavens. There's a word in Spanish, Demasiado, which I don't think has a direct translation. It expresses the feeling of having more than you can deal with, or count. Really, as we Obey God's will and his plan, we receive Demasiado blessings. More than we could ever count.

But there's something even more beautiful to me about our Agency.

As we give our agency, through our actions, to God, we're giving him something that he doesn't already have. He has all the power in the universe, and really he owns everything, but he doesn't have our agency. He doesn't have our choices. But as we give him our agency, as we choose of our own will to do what he wants, we give him all that he ever wanted. We give him the chance to see his children, his kids, happy. That's all God ever wanted for us. He sent the third part of all his beloved children to exile, just to give us the opportunity to progress and be happy.

Giving our agency to God isn't giving up anything. Rather, it's receiving the greatest blessings ever. But there's nothing that will make that Heavenly Father of ours happier.

I love you all so much! Make sure to use that Agency of yours well this week! :-)

-Elder Henry

Elder Guirola and nice view from a part of our area, Zarcero, which is like an hour away in bus.

Beautiful Zarcero!