Here's to the experience

This email is a special email with a dedication. To the good friend coping with the loss of her mother. To the sister fighting for the well being of her premature child. To the Elder on the other side of the world shipped downriver, or forced to train when he just got his feet on the ground. To the cousin who just got his heartbroken for the first time. To life. To death. And to everything in-between.

Here´s to the experience.

I was impressed this week in my personal study of the scriptures, of the exhortations of Christ to his followers to do the things which we had seen him do. It struck me as I had never thought of Christ’s very being as a teaching experience. We always hear that we should read, study, and treasure up. But that study will lead us inevitably to the same point, we must do in order to become.

In the pre-mortal life, we undoubtedly had the capacity to learn and treasure up doctrine. We could learn and progress line upon line and precept upon precept. We lived personally in the presence of our Heavenly parents. Without the veil of forgetfulness clouding our minds we may just have known much more of doctrine and study in that state than we now know in our fallen condition of mortality. What could we not learn then that makes it necessary for us to be here now. The answer is simple. We had to experience.

Without a mortal body of flesh and bones, without suffering or adversity, our concept of being was but a perception. We could learn, but to learn is one thing, to do and to become is another. The lessons we learn here in mortality are entirely different than those learned on the other side of the veil.

Thus, the Savior´s exhortation to not merely hear the words which he spoke, but to do the things that He did characterizes our experience here in the mortal world. Allow me to use the example of the mission to illustrate this principle.

Before the mission, I was excited to go out and serve the Lord. I looked at it as an escape, an adventure to rid myself of the redundancies of everyday life. The questions still persisted. What would the mission be like? Would it be warm or cold in Argentina? Would the language be difficult? How could I prepare to best serve the people? Amidst the stories of returned missionaries and having seen those who went before complete a mission, I could somewhat fathom what it was going to be like. So why was it necessary to pack my bags and ship myself out to Argentina? It was for the experience.

Upon arriving in the mission, I found things that I simply could not have imagined without actually leaving and serving. Some important things I´ve learned have come from the scriptures and from the doctrine. From practicing my teaching and learning the language. But the most important lessons I´ve learned don´t come from the mission on paper. I could read and study "Preach My Gospel" and the scriptures before the mission. The most important lessons have come to me from going, doing, and being a missionary.

Similar was our perception of mortal life from pre-mortality. We undoubtedly had questions. Would it be easy? Would it be hard? What would having a body be like? And then, the hour of our mortality struck midnight and here we are in the dreary world. There are lessons we learn here that we simply couldn´t learn there.

You don´t know what charity means until your mother passes away and your left to support your family. You don´t know what faith means until your child threatens a premature birth, and you have to trust everything to the hands of God. You don´t know what diligence means until you get transferred in the mission or you get called to train early and your expected to work just as hard. You don´t know what love means until you get your heart broken.

Just a few of the things I know some of you are going through. A few of the lessons that life affords us that we could learn there, but must experience here. And in the spirit of this message I exhort all of you to take up your adversity as the cross it forms and not merely hear the invitation of the Savior but DO the things that He did for us. He will bear you up as you seek to follow His paths. As Jeffrey R. Holland said "How could we expect it to be easy for us if it was never ever easy for Him? If you wonder if there´s not an easier way, you should know that someone a lot greater, and a lot grander wondered that same thing a long time ago."

This gospel is not a gospel of listening; it is a gospel of doing, and ultimately becoming. Our afflictions are what define us. What we learn from our experience is what we couldn´t learn before, and ultimately our purpose in this mortal sphere of afflictions.

As a servant of the Lord I testify to you that He lives. He loves us. He exhorts us to follow Him. And that exhortation has never been easy, nor will it ever be. But as we struggle beneath our burdens of care in this world we do not struggle alone. Regardless of your individual circumstance I know that the Lord will bear you up as we learn the lessons that will sanctify us as a refiner’s fire until we ultimately cease to do and begin to become. The school of eternity is here in mortality. May we all endure in the strength of Him who endured all things.

Here´s to the experience

Les amo

Elder Jensen