God's commandments protect us

10/26  We had another very full and fulfilling week this week. Sabina continues to read from the Book of Mormon, and I am sure she is almost done with it by now. Unfortunately she was out of town this whole week, but she told us that she is reading every moment she has. It is unfortunate as well that we seem to have lost contact with Mohamad. I'm not sure if he is getting my emails, but we haven't seen him or heard from him a while. I'm sure he'll come around here pretty soon though. We had several miracles in finding a bunch of new investigators, one of which was that we set up to meet one of our investigators to play basketball, and when we showed up, he had brought three of his friends, all of which seemed to be fairly interested in our message at the end.

The largest miracle, however, was when we found that miracle long term investigator that is totally prepared to be baptized this Saturday. It is a part member family where everyone is a member except for the wife. We were talking about baptism and found out that there was a little confusion on the subject. She wanted to get baptized, but she thought she needed to get baptized before getting legally married. When we informed them that it was the other way around, they got really excited and told us that they are ready to do whatever it takes! Her name is Auriela, and she is from Romania. We will be working with them really hard to get the marriage finalized, which shouldn't be hard at all. We are preparing everything for the baptism on the 31st of October!

One thing I learned this week is the importance of commandments. Many people ask why we have commandments. Lots of them complain and claim that the commandments we live are way too restricting and fun-killing. Some don't even recognize that there are commandments. There was a talk given in the last conference by Elder Von G. Keetch that really deepened my understanding of why we have commandments and why it's important to live them. He told of a time when he was visiting a bay in Australia known for its large waves. He saw a group of surfers that were frustrated and complaining about a barrier in the water that, according to their point of view, destroyed their opportunity to have fun and surf the big waves. After some time a man, clearly experienced, approached the group of whiny surfers and told them to look at the barrier with his binoculars. When they did, they saw something they hadn't seen or even considered before: swarms of sharks on the other side of the barrier. The complaints died down as they began to realize why the barrier was there. The experienced man said as he walked away that the barrier was the only thing keeping them from being devoured. That story is a beautiful analogy of why we have commandments in this life. God knows better than we do what the dangers of this world are and the limits to which we can 'surf safely'. He has put barriers or guidelines for us to follow in order to protect us from the awful, ravenous dangers and temptations of the world. If we live within the barriers that God has set for us, we can be sure we will live a happy, safe life here in this dangerous world. I am so thankful that God loves us enough to protect us from the things that can do us the most harm. I know that Gods commandments give us that protection.

P.S. I encourage you to read that talk again. Sunday afternoon session titled: Blessed and Happy Are Those Who Keep the Commandments of God. Super good talk!