Monday, June 8, 2026

Picnic/Playdate

We had a picnic this week with the ward and it was a great time. A lot of ward's do ward picnics but this was the first time I was able to attend one so it was great.

Two of our friends came and we had an opportunity to teach both of them a lot of different things during the day so that was awesome. 


I met this guy named Jay a few weeks ago on the street, he's super chill and I got his number but didn't really expect to see him again. So we were surprised when we said he wanted to go to lunch with us! I wasn't expecting anything crazy to happen, we just decided to get subway together. But then he asked if we had plans after and we were having a member family baptism for an 8 year old in the ward so we asked if he wanted wanted to come.

He ended up coming and liking it and we were able to teach him a ton of stuff and that pic is us eating dinner as well haha. We met up the next day as well and ate watermelon and played pickleball and it felt like a playdate haha, but it turns out one of our members used to be one of his teachers and so they reunited and rebonded and then the member taught him about fasting and fast offerings.

Us playing pickleball

Meal with Leo the goat

Spiritual Thought

I was studying a talk this week by president Nelson in 2019 (come follow me - april 2019 general conference) and I came across these paragraphs

"One such dear friend of mine had limited experiences with God. But he longed to be with his departed wife. So he asked me to help him. I encouraged him to meet with our missionaries in order to understand the doctrine of Christ and learn of gospel covenants, ordinances, and blessings.

That he did. But he felt the course they advised would require him to make too many changes in his life. He said, “Those commandments and covenants are just too difficult for me. Also, I can’t possibly pay tithing, and I don’t have time to serve in the Church.” Then he asked me, “Once I die, please do the necessary temple work for my wife and me so that we can be together again.”

Thankfully, I am not this man’s judge. But I do question the efficacy of proxy temple work for a man who had the opportunity to be baptized in this life—to be ordained to the priesthood and receive temple blessings while here in mortality—but who made the conscious decision to reject that course."

At first I was shocked to see president nelson questioning the efficacy of somebody's proxy temple work, cause I thought the gospel was pretty simple in that people who don't participate in ordinances can do it after this life. I knew that celestial glory is a family matter and that certain ordinances are required for that glory. But I was wondering why president Nelson, the prophet of all people, would be questioning the efficacy of that process. I found my answer in the very next talk of that general conference session 

(Cleaned by Repentance - Dallin H Oaks) 

To assure that we will be clean before God, we must repent before the Final Judgment (see Mormon 3:22). As Alma told his sinful son, we cannot hide our sins before God, “and except ye repent they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day” (Alma 39:8; emphasis added). The Atonement of Jesus Christ gives us the only way to achieve the needed cleansing through repentance, and this mortal life is the time to do it. 

Although we are taught that some repentance can occur in the spirit world (see Doctrine and Covenants 138:31, 33, 58), that is not as certain. Elder Melvin J. Ballard taught: “It is much easier to overcome and serve the Lord when both flesh and spirit are combined as one. This is the time when men are more pliable and susceptible. … This life is the time to repent.”

Here we see that while we know some repentance is possible in the next life, that is not entirely certain. If it is easier to overcome and serve the Lord when the body and spirit are combined as one, such as in this life, then we can presume keeping the Lord's commandments in the life to come would be much more difficult for a person who is resistant to change, like the person in president Nelson's example. 

As I weighed out that thought in my mind, in addition to the thought that some, but not all repentance will be possible in the next life, I too began to question the efficacy of that man's proxy temple work! Especially because he, unlike others, had the opportunity to learn from and experience the gospel in his life, but chose not to accept it. I'm not saying I question the power or validity of some people's proxy temple work as opposed to others, I think everyone who has proxy temple work done for them will all have that opportunity in front of them to accept it or not, but I think if the man didn't accept the gospel in this life, then I don't see why it would be any easier to accept in the next one

Anyway sorry kind of long and deep but that was something I found to be interesting while studying this week. The point is this life should be the time to change, and nobody is perfect but we can all start changing and improving one decision at a time, and we can truly experience mighty changes through the atonement of Jesus Christ

On a different note, I found a Harry Potter cloak randomly for super cheap haha so click the link so see some vids of that πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡


젠슨 μž₯둜 πŸ˜πŸ˜


Also to whom it may concern, we in fact did not get any lily pads from the lake today, sorry about that🀷‍♂️🀷‍♂️πŸ˜…πŸ˜…πŸ˜¬πŸ˜¬

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