Hey guys! Buenas tardes or mañana. Yeah -- That's Spanish for a good morning
or good afternoon and we're going to talk about okay okay... let's get real. Yes,
let's get real. Not like before.
We've gotten a lot of direct messages from people
asking that they're people that have been baptized. Congratulations, that's
awesome. But they ask how to kind of stay motivated, to be active in the
gospel, to be active in the church. Yeah -- And so we're gonna address those
questions today and talk about it and I'm not a convert to the church. Kwaku --
Well I mean I was baptized when I was 8, that's what I mean by that. We're all
converts to the church. Conversion is the process. But Kwaku was baptized at
what age? 18! 18 and so he's our resident expert on these topics. Kwaku -- But
I started taking the lessons when I was 17, I'm pretty positive, pretty sure. Did you
experience like when you first got baptized like was it hard? Did you
experience like a wall where you were like I don't really want to do this anymore.
I don't really want to go to church. No! Never had that?
Nope. Why not? Okay. Well okay, so a lot of people who
join the church, when they joined, they joined the church but they
didn't have an active church life beforehand. So really it's it's it's the
church life in general that's a little bit like I'll wake up early on a Sunday,
you have all these responsibilities, and sometimes you go to church to say stupid
things and stuff like that. So it gets to a point where they're like, "do I
really want to do this?" I'll just go be an inactive mormon and go back to exactly what
I was doing before. I never had that because I think because I had an active church
life before. So when I when I felt the spirit say this was true I was like
alright well that's amazing, this is great cuz it's true so now I'm gonna do it. So
there was never a point or time where I was like where I was done with being like lazy.
Um yeah it never really happened. I was very lucky in that I just was like
always.. Even when reading the Book of Mormon was difficult I would try to do
other things. So like they would say read the Book of Mormon every
day and I was like arghhh like that was always hard. But what I could do is I would, I
would, I would spend like an hour or so in my dorm in San Francisco listening to
hymns or I'd listen to a talk, or I'd watch like "Joseph, Prophet of the Restoration"
or something. So I would I would take that time if I wasn't reading scriptures
and do something that I enjoyed but add a gospel element to it. So I I mean I
lived in the Bay Area so I'd get to go on these beautiful walks on the piers
and through the Sunset District and uh I would do that and I would just really
think about God and just think about things like that. So that's what... so there
are a lot of other ways I think sometimes people think that the way to
the only way to like develop your relationship with God is just reading
the scriptures. But there are a number of other ways to do it. So I just found
different outlets and that's I think what kept me motivated. So I but it does
come down to a question of motivation. Yes, well I mean what sould keep you
motivated is God, right. God led you to His church, but I think we still have agency so
we can get we can get bogged down. There are some Sundays when I wake up I'm like,
"Oh, it's early!" Or especially right now in Utah, you got to get up and you
got to trudge through the cold, up the hill to the Maeser building. Cause
you know, it's just all that. It can get kind of... Sometimes it can be be
de-motivating. But -- Well I think that sometimes when we join, when someone
joins the church obviously we expect blessings because we're promised
blessings for obeying the commandments. Yeah. But that doesn't always mean that
things are going to be easy. Yeah. Like blessings do not always equate
to easiness in your path. For instance, Lehi at the beginning of the Book of
Mormon is commanded to leave his home and wander in the wilderness for years
because Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. And he describes that time in
2nd Nephi to his kids as one of the worst times of his life. A period of
great suffering for him, even though he had arrived at that place by following
the commandments of God. Yeah. So even though that you are
baptized and you're trying to keep the commandments, that doesn't necessarily
mean that it's gonna be you know butterflies and rainbows all the time. Yeah and I know
this sounds crazy but sometimes we should be thankful for when there are you
know stormy days and clouds. Because it's it's never ever set up in scripture that
it's just going to be easy once you join. In fact, that's what Satan attacks a lot,
right. You have people who who joined the church and they feel the spirit so much
but then everyone tells them you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're
wrong and then they just go, "Well, should I just go to a different church?" And I you
know I've heard tons of stories people join the church and then they go and
join a different church because everyone told them they were wrong. There
are certain things they didn't understand. And then for years they're in
that other church and they just realize that just isn't what it's supposed to be and
they come back right. There are a lot of times that happens to people because of
difficult times, because of outward pressure, because of inward difficulties.
I like to think of the you know the the children of Israel wandering the desert
with Moses for 40 years. For 40 years! I like to also think of how difficult it
must've been for Moses when he finally gets them to to Sinai and he's like, "You
guys, we can go see the face of God." And they're like "Nah, that's all right." And so he has to
go up and talk to God. He comes back down and they have like all these idols. He's
like, "What are you idiots doing? We're in the Covenant. You just got freed from the
Egyptians and you're ruining everything." Difficult times come. Joseph Smith and
Liberty Jail. And I think that's a good example because he was imprisoned and
they were at one point fed human meat like fed the flesh of a slave who had
died. There were horrible things that happened. They were just always sick, it
was freezing, but that place, that dark horrible time period turned into
a holy place. Joseph was getting revelation from God
in there. So he took the worst of circumstances and made it into something
positive. Right! And we're not by any means saying
that you're gonna join the church and it's gonna be like Liberty Jail. They're
gonna come arrest you and beat you and throw you into prison now. It's not gonna happen.
But but but I think it's also important to make sure that the social aspect of
church and Mormon life is not your top priority for being a member of the
church. Yes I think yeah because you might have a, you know you might have an
FHE group and you're just like, "I think these people are lame." You know what I mean?
Oh yeah. Like that that might happen. It doesn't mean like oh well you should just leave the church.
It's going to happen. I think there are also a number of people who in a similar way people find
a church because of a pastor they like really, like a lot. People become
converted to the gospel and a lot of it has to do with how it how attached they are
to their missionary. But the reality is that God brought you to His church. It's
all because of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. The missionary was just
a vessel that God used. So you might think that your love of the gospel just
was because of your missionary, but that isn't true. It's because of what God is
doing in your life. So your missionary might get removed, you might feel like oh
I don't want to go to church anymore. Just remember the promise you made when
you were baptized. You have a relationship with God and it's gonna grow and you're
gonna learn a ton and your spirit is going to be fed. You're going to become
such a bigger and better person. So there's gonna be a week, a couple weeks
where you're like oh I miss my missionary a lot. It's not that that's not the the end of
the story. That's not the ballgame, it's all about God. Right. And even with this show
we've had a number of people get baptized who credit us. Don't get
converted because of us. Okay. We will disappoint you in real life. We will disappoint you. Okay.
Do not get converted because of us. Get converted because of the message of the
show, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Justin, I know he's got, he's got nice
abs. We've all seen the Instagram picture, okay. Don't get converted because you think Mimi's cute.
Don't get converted because of that. We're always happy to help, but
it's always it's about God, not us. And it's not about the missionaries either.
Yep. Well said I think that's that's great. If
you have any specific questions about issues that you're having at church or
issues you're having phasing into your new life in the gospel of Jesus Christ;
let us know in the comments. We'd love to talk to you down there. And if you're
afraid of a comment, you don't want to comment because you know some crazy guy is
gonna be like... blah blah. Then you can always send us a message
whether it be Facebook or Instagram or Twitter so. Yep. Or email, you know Email is
always really good so. Yep yep yep yep yep! Subscribe to the channel. Stay active
in the church and in the gospel. It's a good thing, it's a very good thing. Follow us on social medias.
You know the drill. Yeah they know the drill. We'll see you guys next time.