What’s up guys? I hope everyone had a great week. Mine was great and challenging as I pray it always will be. I’d like to share an insight I had from this week’s “Come, Follow Me” reading.
In the 56th chapter of Alma, in a very well-known story, the 2,000 stripling warriors are faced with a question. They’ve been hoofing it all day trying to out-march the Lamanite army when suddenly, the Lamanites stop and they lose track of them. Helaman doesn’t know if they’ve stopped to try and lure his young soldiers into a hopeless battle or if the army of Antipus caught up with them from behind. He asks his youth army what they want to do if they want to go back and fight. They respond with a resilient “Let us Go Forth.”
The boy soldiers said “let us go forth” when in reality they we’re going back. They had to turn around and head into the battle not press on in their current direction. Sometimes we need to realize that in order to “go forth” we must “go back.”
I liked this story this week because it reminded me of what I’m doing. Me and my companion were thrown into this area with very little to go off. We knew nobody, didn’t know our way around, and we felt a little hopeless in the face of a lot of stigma about the area. Most missionaries when white-washing an area like to throw everything and everyone out the window and start finding all new people. Me and my comp felt that was not going to be an effective strategy. We felt that in order to “go forth” we too had to “go back”.
We re-found so many people who maybe in their first encounter with the missionaries weren’t exactly golden investigators and many still aren’t. But there were those who had been changed, had their hearts softened, and were now prepared to hear our message. One that stuck out to me was someone we called Friday night. We gave him a great lesson and at the end he said, “Thanks for not forgetting about me, I didn’t even know how much I was needing this.”
We can’t forget about the people that the Lord is still preparing. If they said no to you yesterday, you don’t have to carry that no with you into the eternities. Give them a little time and a little nurturing and eventually, they’ll come around. If you feel stuck in your spiritual progress and can’t seem to find a way around the obstacles in your path, maybe you need to “go back” before you can “go forth.” Who knows if there’s not someone in your past that you need in order to succeed in the future?
Gotta blast, 🫡
Tchau Tchauuu
