Pride vs.Humility

Yesterday I had the wonderful privilege to give a talk, my topic was on Pride vs. Humility. Some of the things that I shared was of an experience I had a couple years ago when my family went to Idaho for Christmas and we went to one of our Uncles Ward. There was a musical number and I remember telling my sister that the musical number was "Awful." I specifically remember my sister telling me that it does not matter how they sound all that matters are that the spirit is there. the spirit will bring the beauty. I felt very put in my place because I did not listen to the spirit and that is what you do at church, but from that point on I decided I was going to change my attitude and I have. Another thing that I shared with them was that while I was studying I had this realization, that our life is like writing a big concert piece, getting ready to Perform for the end, but there is one thing that there is always a word or a phrase that describes how you should play or sing the music. That word that is in the Corner is "Humble" before we were accountable for our choices our song was written out for us. Now we are in the stage of editing it and changing things up but there is one thing we cannot change and that is the word "Humbly." So, we need to either change the words or the music to match the theme. When I shred these things after sacrament meeting, I had a ton of people come up to me and tell me that I said something they needed to hear. I know that what I said was not me, but it was God using me as a tool to answer or to give someone the thing they needed to hear. This week I have learned a lot about how the Lord uses his instruments, but one big thing I have learned is the only way he can use you is if you stay humble. Which I know is hard, but the easiest part of being humble is knowing that the talents and gifts that you have are not from you but it is a gift from God, and we need to use it correctly or it will be taken away. This week has been amazing, but I also realized that I am almost 2 months into my mission. It feels like I just left, and it has shown me that time really flies, but that is alright, because I know if you do what the Lord wants you shall be rewarded. I know this to be true we have experienced it here. Yesterday we were going to go visit this guy we met earlier in the week, and he wasn't home, as we were leaving, we saw this young guy pull up, we didn't think anything of it and didn't say anything. We both felt prompted to go back and visit with someone in our apartment complex, when we pulled up and started walking over to this place we saw that same car drive into the apartment complexes, I did not waste our second opportunity so I quickly called out to him and said "Hey how are you?" We then chatted for a while and he invited us in, so we went in and we talked, he shared with us an amazing experience and we taught a lesson, we then invited him to read Lehi's dream, and compare it to his own. I know that God wanted us to talk to him and that even though we had tough experiences throughout the week we showed we were willing to continue with the work, and when we did, we were rewarded, but so was that young man. I know that this gospel is true, and I know that Jesus Christ lives, and He loves each one of us. I say these very few things and much more, in the name of Jesus Christ amen. Thank you so much for all the prayers you have been sending my way I appreciate it and can feel it I love you all. -- Elder Hayward, Missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints