Navigation 4/16/12

Dear Family and Friends, This week was good. I learned a lot about working things out with my companion and listening to him. I got to interview some people for baptism, so we did a lot of companion exchanges. In one exchange I was looking for a scripture and Elder Rodriguez just looks at me and says Matt 19, verse 29. Turns out it was exactly the scripture I wanted. I had the words, and he had the citation. He told me later than he had no idea what it was going to say, the numbers just came to his mind. This week I want to share a spiritual thought about my dad. i know its a little early for fathers day, but i want to share it while its still in my mind. Some of the best stuff i learned was when my dad didn´t even know he was teaching. My dad is a Navigator. Under the sea that is. My step mom will probably say that on land he is hopeless without his GPS, but under the ocean he is good. In fact, he is so good that he can drive a multi billion dollar submarine in the darkest abyss without windows. Its no wonder he loves the story of the Jaredites traveling to the promised land in the Book of Mormon. I remember watching my dad prepare navigational charts for hours on end, making corrections to old maps and plotting future courses. Then, at some classified depth, my dad opens up these charts while someone looks through the periscope. Depending on what they see above, they know where they are and can make small, frequent course corrections. So maybe now it will mean a lot more to you all when I share that I always tell my investigators something that my Dad taught me. He says ¨If we don´t know where we are going, we won´t end up where we want to be¨ The Gospel is a lot like this. We need frequent, small course corrections throughout our life. It is much easier to make these smaller corrections than to crash and repair a damaged life. Through prayer, scripture study, and church attendance, we can look up through our ¨periscope¨ to heaven and see how we are doing and what we need to change. Remember, it is easier to prepare and prevent, than to repair and repent. I love you all. Elder Nichols