Semana 71

Elder Lutze,

We pray that you had an amazing week! I can’t believe it’s the last day of 2023! I will no longer be saying that you’re coming home next year… it will be this year! 

We’ve been working in SG since Wednesday. We came down Tuesday after taking Christmas down most of the day up in Lehi.

We went to the SG temple with Brent and Amy to do sealings on Thursday and then out to dinner. Nice evening! 

HVAC coming along… I personally bagged 22 33-gallon bags of yard waste and we took to the dump yesterday. We then visited with Chris and Sonia for a little bit. 

We will spend this evening with the Weights to celebrate the new year. 

Talk to you soon!

 Mom

I love this thoughts!

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught concerning the Savior’s mortal experiences: “There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, ‘No one understands. No one knows.’ No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power” (“In the Strength of the Lord” [Brigham Young University devotional, Oct. 23, 2001], 7–8; speeches.byu.edu). President Howard W. Hunter (1907–95) taught, “It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could have succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that he remained true. Had there been no possibility of his yielding to the enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine victory in the result. If he had been stripped of the faculty to sin, he would have been stripped of his very agency. It was he who had come to safeguard and ensure the agency of man. He had to retain the capacity and ability to sin had he willed so to do. As Paul wrote, ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered’ (Heb. 5:8); and he ‘was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ (Heb. 4:15). He was perfect and sinless, not because he had to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be” (“The Temptations of Christ,” Ensign, Nov. 1976, 19). To read more about the Savior living a sinless life, see the commentary for Hebrews 7:26.

Elder Merrill J. Bateman taught that the Atonement was an intimate, personal experience through which Jesus Christ came to know perfectly how to help each of us: “For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt ‘our infirmities’ (Hebrews 4:15), ‘[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:4–5). … “The Pearl of Great Price teaches that Moses was shown all the inhabitants of the earth, which were ‘numberless as the sand upon the sea shore’ (Moses 1:28). If Moses beheld every soul, then it seems reasonable that the Creator of the universe has the power to become intimately acquainted with each of us. He learned about your weaknesses and mine. He experienced your pains and sufferings. He experienced mine. I testify that He knows us. He understands the way in which we deal with temptations. He knows our weaknesses. But more than that, more than just knowing us, He knows how to help us if we come to Him in faith” (“A Pattern for All,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2005, 75–76). Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles concluded that “we can turn to Him … because He understands. He understands the struggle, and He also understands how to win the struggle. … “Most importantly, we may look to Jesus to help restore the inner unity of our soul when we have succumbed to sin and destroyed our peace” (“That They May Be One in Us,” Ensign, Nov. 2002, 71).

President James E. Faust (1920–2007) of the First Presidency taught that Jesus Christ is the perfect example of obedience and identified a key attitude that will help us learn to be obedient: “As in all things, the Savior is our pattern. The Apostle Paul wrote, ‘Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience’ [Hebrews 5:8]. In our own finite way, we too can learn obedience even as Christ did. … When obedience becomes our goal, it is no longer an irritation; instead of a stumbling block, it becomes a building block” (“Obedience: The Path to Freedom,” Ensign, May 1999, 46–47).