This week we set up two youth to be baptized by the end of November- one this next Saturday and one the following week, a couple days before my companion goes back home to Mexico. We're excited to get them completely ready with the time we have left.
I've been thinking this week about our particular doctrine on the necessity of the Fall of Adam to kickstart God's Plan of Salvation. I think it's best summed up in a favorite Batman quote- "Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up!" The entire purpose of being here is to learn and progress, and the only way to achieve such a goal is to fall. In the case of the Gospel, the manner in which we pick ourselves up is by being willing to lift up our hand and let Christ pull us up to our feet. We fell so we can learn by experience to have faith (lifting up our hand) and to repent (gripping His hand and struggling to get up). When Christ told us, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," He was telling us that one day we would stand up like them, having attained perfection by struggling throughout this life.
I'm grateful that He loved us enough to send us here, then save us. I'm thankful that as a missionary, I can share His message with those in my area.