Elder Coleman Thompson: School Thy Feelings, O My Brother

I don't know where the time is going. I got my documents today for
coming home, and it looks like it's about a month away. I can't
believe how fast its gone, but in the mean time we're doing an
incredible amount of things all of the time, and it's been really busy
- but also crazy fun.

This week we had two Zone Conferences - and we also went on exchange with:

Elder Livingston & Elder Holyoak, both from Utah, in Bridlington, &
Elder Walker and Elder Callahan, from Calgary & Edmonton, in Harrogate!

Both were amazing, and we also went on a few brief blitzes and visits
with some other missionaries!

Zac didn't come to church this week because he was working day shifts
- he'll come next week though. We went and visited him one night this
week - and we proper laid down the doctrine of the kingdom - faith and
repentance and baptism particularly. We proper preached to him - we
said, Zac you need to stop drinking, it's ruining your life. As you
repent and change yourself to become the best version of yourself you
can be, you will be able to repair the relationships with your family,
you will be able to focus more on your job, you will be happier, your
head will be clearer, you will be free from guilt etc. etc. It's so
true though.

Side note - we had a Fireside on Sunday night and this one recent
convert got up to bear his testimony about how after he had been
baptised, he decided to try to repair relationships with his family,
which were quite bad - and he bore testimony about how the Gospel had
helped him do that. It was awesome.

Another story - went on exchange with Elder Walker (he's from our ward) this week and we
went and played basketball for morning exercise - what a homie.

Also - I went to a Speed Awareness driving course this week in
Harrogate - it was so posh and so interesting. Long story short, they
convince me not to speed ever again. We'll see how long that lasts.

So anyways, let me tell you a story from this week that taught me a
really valuable lesson.

On Friday night, around 9:30, we made our way back to the flat in
Wharfe Valley. We've left our suitcases in that flat, and so we
typically stay there for two or three nights a week to get ourselves
sorted. When we pulled up to our parking spot, we saw our neighbour
looking out the window, and when we came into the flat building, he
confronted us very aggressively and started complaining about the
amount of noise that we make.

Now to be fair, were not the quietest of blokes, we like to joke
around - and we may have been a little too noisy a time or two, but
certainly not on a consistent basis. Anyways our neighbour became
quite aggressive and wanted to start a fight basically, but Elder Rhea
and I just kept our cool even through his accusations about loads of
things that missionaries have done while living there for the last
three years. By the end of the conversation, nothing had really
changed, he was being unreasonable, but we kind of just parted ways.

So we got on, and the next morning Elder Rhea and I were going about
our business, but we were both just so angry at this guy. Anyways we
decided to just park the car and study the scriptures for a bit - and
I came across this talk by Thomas S. Monson from the October 2009
General Conference called: "School thy feelings, oh my brother" which
fit perfectly with what Elder Rhea and I needed to hear at the time.
In the talk it quotes a verse from the Hymn, and Elder Rhea and I
decided to memorise it. It says:

School thy feelings, oh my brother
Train thy warm, impulsive soul.
Do not it's emotions smother
But let wisdoms voice control
School thy feelings, there is power
In the cool, collected mind.
Passion shatters reasons tower,
Makes the clearest vision blind.

So we learned a valuable lesson. We apologised to our neighbour (he
didn't really accept it) and we kept our cool.

This Hymn is such a good reminder to me of what we have come to this
earth to do. The point of mortality is to develop Christlike
attributes. It's to learn to love God and others more than ourselves.

In order to serve others and serve God, we need to live in harmony
with his will. We need to cleanse our inner vessels. We need to gain
control of our emotions and master ourselves. The most striking phrase
from the verse is this: "passion shatters reasons tower". What kind of
passions is it talking about? Anger? Yes. Success? Yes. Fame? Yes.
Even love or romantic passions? Yes. Material things, like searching
for money, or material possessions? Yes.

The point is this - we need to learn to primarily focus on serving God
and others, and we can't do that without mastering ourselves. Self
mastery is the purpose of mortality, and when we do it we experience
joy!

Jesus taught in Matthew 10:39:

"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life
for my sake shall find it."

So what does it mean to lose our life for Christ's sake?

King Benjamin, a prophet in the Book of Mormon taught that "when ye
are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service
of your God" (Mosiah 2:17)

So when we serve others, we are losing our life for Christ's sake.
Spencer W. Kimball - one of the previous Prophets and Presidents of
the Church taught what it means to find ourselves as we serve others
(i.e. Lose our life in service)

"The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more
substance there is to our soul... we become more substantive as we
serve others... indeed, it becomes easier to find ourselves, because
there is so much more of us to find."

When we master ourselves, we are better able to serve others. When we
serve others, we find joy. When we do this on a regular basis, we will
one day achieve exaltation, which is returning to live with God
forever.

Along with many other things - this is what stuck out to me in my mind
this week. As we've been visiting with missionaries, this is what
we've discussed. On Saturday night Elder Rhea and I went and made some
dinner for the missionaries in a Flat here in Leeds and we talked
about this doctrine - and I felt the spirit confirm to me so much the
truth of these concepts.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ - these concepts mentioned above and others
- have the power to change lives. They will change yours if you apply
them.

Love you all