🏔️Mountains to Climb🏔️

Hey everyone! Hope everyone had a great week! It's crazy how fast the weeks fly now. 

This week was super busy, we had 3 exchanges, and travelled a lot. But here's what happened:

Highlights:

-Exchange with Elder Armstrong! Elder Armstrong is a Spanish Elder, who is also my District Leader. We had a good time on our exchange, we taught very well together, I definitely learned a lot from him. He's a very mature missionary and very diligent! It was a great exchange! 

-Exchange with Elder Jessop! Elder Jessop is a missionary I've only met a few times, so it was good to get to know him on exchange! We both were companions with Elder Court so it was fun to share memories we had with him. We went out to Hope on our exchange. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time there! Not a whole lot of people there, but a beautiful spot of BC. 

-Running it back with Elder Walcer! We went on exchange this week and it was so fun! Elder Walcer was my longest companion and we haven't really been able to work together since then. That would have been 14 months ago. So it was really cool to see how we had grown since then. We had some cool experiences, and quite a few opportunities to share the gospel! We met a guy in Surrey named Ken who challenged us to a ping pong match. We ended up talking with him about the Gospel for 30 minutes before we even began the match haha. We gave him a Book of Mormon and we are so excited for the Vancouver Elders to start teaching him! But for the Ping Pong, he destroyed the both of us haha. We didn't even stand a chance. We also had a cool experience when we tried knocking on a door of someone who had previously been taught, and met the guy Richard. He wasn't too interested, but he had some great questions, and that warmed him up. We shared a quick message with him, and we hope to see him again! It was pretty cool!

Otherwise everything else this week was pretty normal, nothing else too exciting. But this week we are pretty busy so it will be good! 

As for a spiritual thought, what I have been teaching a lot this week is the Doctrine of Christ with the Analogy of climbing a Mountain. 

As you know, the Doctrine of Christ includes Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, The Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. 

In this Analogy, we compare the doctrine to climbing a Mountain. We start with Faith in Jesus Christ. This is the desire we have to climb a mountain. We know that it isn't going to be easy, and it could be very dangerous. But we follow that desire, and act on it. We start our journey up the mountain, following the map(Jesus Christ) as we make the ascent. 

However, we all make mistakes, so sometimes we trip and fall, or wander off the path. However, when we turn back to the map(Jesus Christ) we can get back up, and find our way back to the path. This is Repentance. 

When we get to a certain point of the journey, we hit a checkpoint, or the point where we are committed. There's no going back. This commitment to finishing the climb, are Covenants. They connect us with the journey, and give us the motivation we need to keep going. The first Covenant is Baptism, and then we have other Covenants we make as we continue on the Covenant path. It's kind of like when you climb Mount Everest, and there are different camps, or checkpoints. Each one allow us to commit ourselves further towards finishing the climb. 

Once we make this first checkpoint(Baptism) the path gets more treacherous. We need more help. So we get a guide, who is expert in the climb, and can help us each step of the way. This is the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We have this personal guide who can help us up this treacherous path. 

After that, we continue with what we have learned. We continue to exercise our faith in Jesus Christ(Keep moving forward), Repent when we fall down or get lost, focus on the commitments(Covenants) we make with God, and listen to the Holy Ghost who guides us up the mountain. However, throughout the way, we can always turn to the map(Jesus Christ). All of this is enduring the the end. A growing process that takes us to the Summit. 

As much as we want to take a Helicopter to the Summit, or just get to Heaven, that's not the point. We came here to learn, to grow, and to experience the climb. It is hard, but it is so worth it! 

While I haven't had much experience with climbing mountain, I know from other experiences, that the grinding journey is always worth it. You learn so much, and the fulfilment is so much better. 

I would invite each of you to study Elder Renlund's most recent General Conference Talk The Powerful, Virtuous Cycle of the Doctrine of Christ. It helps us to understand that we are on this climb, but we need to keep going! I promise as you do so, the Holy Ghost will bring to mind the things you need to hear, to give you guidance and direction in your life, as you climb this mountain! 

I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Anyways, I hope you all have a blessed week! Take care! 

-Elder Biesinger

Pictures! I totally forgot to take pictures this week haha, but here's a few from my exchange with Elder Walcer!