Responsibility

Hello again my Family and friends,

This week was super awesome. Something that I have been thinking about quite a lot this week is responsibility. Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the seventy who is one of my favorite speakers, made what he called an Anti-Responsibility list and these are some things that people do in our modern day and in the scriptures. This is what he said.

THE ANTI-RESPONSIBILITY LIST
To illustrate, I want to share a list of things that Satan tempts people to either say or do to avoid being responsible. This list isn’t all-inclusive, but I believe it covers his most common tactics.

1. Blaming others: Saul disobediently took of the spoils of war from the Amalekites; then, when confronted by Samuel, he blamed the people (see 1 Samuel 15:21).
2. Rationalizing or justifying: Saul then rationalized or justified his disobedience, stating that the saved livestock was for “sacrifice unto the Lord” (1 Samuel 15:21; see also verse 22).
3. Making excuses: Excuses come in a thousand varieties, such as this one from Laman and Lemuel: “How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?” (1 Nephi 3:31).
4. Minimalizing or trivializing sin: This is exactly what Nehor advocated (see Alma 1:3–4).
5. Hiding: This is a common avoidance technique. It is a tactic Satan used with Adam and Eve after they partook of the forbidden fruit (see Moses 4:14).
6. Covering up: Closely associated with hiding is covering up, which David attempted to do to conceal his affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Samuel 12:9, 12).
7. Fleeing from responsibility: This is something Jonah tried to do (see Jonah 1:3).
8. Abandoning responsibility: Similar to fleeing is abandoning responsibility. One example is when Corianton forsook his ministry in pursuit of the harlot Isabel (see Alma 39:3).
9. Denying or lying: “And Saul said ... : I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears ... ?” (1 Samuel 15:13–14).
10. Rebelling: Samuel then rebuked Saul “for rebellion.” “Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23).
11. Complaining and murmuring: One who rebels also complains and murmurs: “And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and ... said ... , Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt!” (Numbers 14:2).
12. Finding fault and getting angry: These two are closely associated, as described by Nephi: “And it came to pass that Laman was angry with me, and also with my father; and also was Lemuel” (1 Nephi 3:28).
13. Making demands and entitlements: “We will not that our younger brother shall be a ruler over us. And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel did take me and bind me with cords, and they did treat me with much harshness” (1 Nephi 18:10–11).
14. Doubting, losing hope, giving up, and quitting: “Our brother is a fool. ... For they did not believe that I could build a ship” (1 Nephi 17:17–18).
15. Indulging in self-pity and a victim ­mentality: “Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy” (1 Nephi 17:21).
16. Being indecisive or being in a spiritual ­stupor: The irony with indecision is that if you don’t make a decision in time, time will make a decision for you.
17. Procrastinating: A twin of indecision is ­procrastination. “But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late” (Helaman 13:38).
18. Allowing fear to rule: This one is also related to hiding: “And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth. ... His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant” (Matthew 25:25–26).
19. Enabling: An example of enabling or ­helping others to avoid responsibility is the instance when Eli failed to discipline his sons for their grievous sins and was rebuked by the Lord: “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and ... honourest thy sons above me ... ? (1 Samuel 2:29; see also verses 22–36).

I know that as we are accountable and take responsibility for our own actions we will become more like Christ. I know that Jesus Christ was and is our greatest example. He performed the Atonement for us, performed miracles, and has shown us the way that we should worship through our living prophet today. I know that Russel M. Nelson is a prophet of God and that he does guide our church by revelation. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Davie's baptism today in Malawi

Remember next week is General Conference. I am so excited! This means that Preparation Day will be on Friday, so don't send me an email on Saturday because I will not be able to respond.

But on a different note, our friend Davie got baptized today. So I had my first and probably last baptism in Malawi. We are so excited for him. He is super awesome. Every time we talk with Davie, he just picks up the principles that we talk about.

Davie's baptism

Something super cool happened. For District Prayer we Skyped Vandana from India. I have only sent a voice message to her and she told me that I sounded kind of robotic when I sent the voice message. This was quite ironic because seconds before I was telling Elder Savoie about how people over the phone and over typing on mormon.org always ask if I am a robot. But she was super nice, and wanted to learn more about me. She asked what my favorite color was, where I was from, etc. She said, "Elder Stevenson I want you to teach me, everyone else has taught me already." I thought that was nice because I wanted to teach her as well. She then asked me to say the prayer. So it was all pretty fun.

We talked with Christy again this week. Our lesson was only 15 minutes long but we were able to talk with her and she agreed to meet with the missionaries, go to church this Sunday and watch General Conference. She is just super awesome.

Davie went to church!

Elder Woodruff and I also talked with Escy from Nigeria this week again. She is doing super awesome. She said that she would not meet with the missionaries in her area until she moves, but she is moving at the end of this upcoming week. So we will be able to get her in contact with locals which will be awesome. This last time Elder Woodruff and I talked with her about The Plan of Salvation and the lesson went really well. She said that it made sense, which is awesome, because it does. God truly is our loving Heavenly Father.

I had a few awkward moments happen this week but I am going to just share one. So we say a lot of prayers because we send messages in Christian Facebook groups asking if anyone needs prayers or if they want to talk about Jesus Christ and we say prayers for them. So you get to a point where you have said so many prayers that when you are in a lesson you are typing a point and then you look at the screen and realize that you just switched from teaching the point to saying a prayer, and then you erase the part that was a prayer and finish the point. But what happened this week was I was typing to someone to see if they wanted to talk with me and Elder Woodruff and this is what I said, "Would you be interested in learning more about Jesus Christ, amen?" It wasn't until after I had sent it that I had realized my mistake. So that was kind of funny, but also a bit awkward.

Chicken quesadillas we made last preparation day

Anyway Bishop and Sister Waddell came and spoke at the Tuesday Night Devotional. Sister Waddell talked about love and kindness. She said, "Kindness is doing something nice and not expecting anything in return."

Bishop Waddell gave a good talk some things he said that I like were:

• The due time of the Lord for you to labor in His vineyard is right now.
• Your role and responsibility is to ask what can I learn from where I am and who I am with.
• There will be times when you feel that you can't do it, but you can, and you will.
• With the Spirit you can do anything; you can do miracles.
• The Book of Mormon is your tool to gather Israel.

He then invited us to know for ourselves that Joseph Smith did not write The Book of Mormon. I believe as well that this point is absolutely essential if you plan on being converted to The Lord.

I hope that you all have a great rest of your week.

Love,

Elder Stevenson