Thanks to the upcoming General Conference, Stake Conference, and October Primary Program Justin will not need to prepare a single Primary Lesson for another month. Perhaps he will use the time to do some recreational reading, go geocaching, or actually put something up on his blog. Only time can tell.
Today I spent some time reading an email home from one of my friends in the mission field who is right now serving in the phillipines. It being a mission and all, I can't exactly share all of the awesome things he is now experiencing because I'm only writing during my lunch break, and there is just too much cool stuff. Instead, I would like to expand on a little comment he shared that came from President Faust: When Jesus was in the desert and in the process of being tempted by the devil, how did he combat his foe? Let's take a look at the scriptures (taken from scriptures.lds.org):
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not atempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, aand, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
(Matthew 4:1-11)
Christ fought with scripture! At a moment when Jesus was weakened (at least physically) by days of fasting, he showed us that one of the best ways to deal with the adversary is with the truth found in the scriptures and words of the prophets. This really means a lot to me right now, as I am trying to go back and rememorize the scriptures masteries I learned back in High School. Not just to be able to find them and maybe recite them mostly if I think about it, but to have them down pat-- in order, any time, any place, and by topic as well as I can recite the articles of faith. So far I've been at it about a month and have the Book of Mormon up until Jacob 2:8-9, and Doctrine Covenants 14:7 (including the first four verses of the JSH section... that's a long one so I'm doing it a little at a time). Having those scriptures in my arsenal has already been a great blessing in my life as I use them to answer questions brought by my primary students; I'm sure that I will be greatful for them on my mission and for the rest of my life.
Stay strong everyone, the gospel is true!
Justin David
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