The Character of Christ

Hello,

Nothings new has happened this week. I'm getting close to leaving to Madagascar though. I am getting really excited. I am not as far with the language as i would like to be by the time i leave. Hopefully i learn a crazy amount in the next two weeks.

Here i teach two role play lessons a day in Malagasy. I am not allowed to use notes anymore so i have been teaching them with the knowledge i have so far. I probably sound like a four year old teaching the Gospel. But that is okay because i know it is not me or my words that touch the hearts of the people in Madagascar, it is the Spirit. I hope i can be able to help the people there any way i can.

I watched a talk given by Elder Bednar called, The Character of Christ.
In this talk he tells a story about a mother. One night Elder Bednar received a phone call from a women that seemed distressed. She proceeds to tell him that there has been a very bad accident. Three young girls had been involved in a car accident, among those three girls was the daughter of the women on the phone.

She had called Elder Bednar to ask him if he would go to the Hospital to identify her daughter. Elder Bednar shortly realizes that this mother is talking to someone else along with him. She was holding two phones, one on each ear. On the other phone was a nurse at the Hospital treating the three girls. The mother finds out that one of the three girls is dead and the other two are very badly injured. After a couple of minutes of conversation the mother on the phone finds out that the identified girl who is deceased is that mother's daughter. When Elder Bednar heard the news he waited silently.

Some background on this women, she was a single mother with only one child and that child had just been taken from her. But without any hesitation this women says, Elder Bednar, we have to call those other mothers right now and let them know that their daughters are the ones that will be okay.

This is a representation of Christ like character. This mother who could have broken down and turned all the attention towards her in this time of heart break which would have been expected, instead looked outward and thought about the concerns of the other two mothers before herself.

Elder Bednar attended that girls funeral and when he talked to that mother the first thing she asks him is if he got enough sleep that night of the accident. Elder Bednar was amazed. Even at the funeral of her only child where she would have had all rights to the attention and every ones concern for her the only thing she thought in that moment was the well being of Elder Bednar and his rest. This sweet mother that has been through the hardest of times, trials, and heartbreak could very well think about herself and her own well being. But even in the hardest of times she only turned outward and cares for the concern and well being of others.

This is the true character of Christ. Christ was the only perfect being on this Earth. He lived a life commited to serving others. He took the sins of all man kind upon himself so that we may be saved in the last days. Even when man crucifies him he prays to God asking him to forgive us. We don't deserve the love from the Savior but he extends it out to us no matter the circumstance.  The love and charity of Christ might seem a little extreme for us to achieve, that is okay. He doesn't ask us to be perfect. He only asks that we try our best.

Love,
Elder Allen