Day 98-Fourth of July continued-Why Are We Here?-07-04-06
After parting with D, Elder D and I headed over to go teach S at the H’s house. Yesterday, I thought that S would have some questions about the 3 degrees of glory. We went in planning to teach her the second discussion, The Plan of Salvation. We did not get past the pre-mortal life.
Some new teaching tools given us to use are three teaching pamphlets-The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
S read us something that she had read in the PofS pamphlet. “Heavenly Father created your spirit, and you lived with Him as a spirit before you were born on earth…” “Although your memory of it is withheld, before you came to this earth, you lived in the presence of God, your Eternal Father, and His son, Jesus Christ. You shouted for joy when given the privilege of coming to this earth to receive a body and follow God’s plan for your happiness.”
S said, “Ya know, I’ve never really thought about existing before I came into being here on earth. The thing that kept coming to me after reading the pamphlet is Why?” “Why would you want to leave the presence of God? I would not want to go. I mean what if I mess up and have to spend eternity in Hell. I shouted for joy about this? How does that work?”
“What is something that we needed that we did not have as spirits when we lived with Heavenly Father?”, I asked. “With God in Heaven, asked S. “Yes, I said. “I don’t know”, said S. “We did not have a physical body, said Elder Davis. We came to this earth so that we could get a physical body and be tried and tested. The main reason we are here is to be tried and tested and decide for ourselves whether we will choose the right and return to our Heavenly Father or choose to follow Satan. We needed to come to Earth to be tested. That was not something that we could do in the pre-existence."
Elder D. then asked S what brought her joy in this life? What brought her happiness? S answered that lots of things brought her happiness. Like what? Name a few. “Well, my husband and my kids, my dogs, my crazy loud bird, horses.” Elder D. said that the things he had found that most people say brings them happiness is family. Another thing that brings happiness is learning something new. When a person figures out how to do something that they could not do before. Elder D. said “all throughout your life, you are constantly learning and growing. When we lived with Heavenly Father before we came to this earth, we were learning and growing. We were learning as much as we could, but there was a point when there was nothing more we could learn. Nothing more we could learn in the spirit world. We needed to be able to have a physical body. We needed to be able to come to a place and be tested.”
“How do you know?”, said S. “I mean, I can’t imagine that there is anything here that we could not have with God in Heaven.”
Elder D. responded, “Well, a body! He gave us a body. We had to come here to get a body.” “Did we need a body?” asked S. Just then Sister H’s husband who was sitting in with us, said, “S, when I was a boy, I looked up to my father. I wanted to be like he was. I could not have that yet. He was a man and I was a boy. He was married and had children. I wanted some day to have a family. It was the same with our Father in Heaven. He had an exalted body of flesh and bone. This was something that we could not have as spirits. We wanted to be like our Father. That’s the way I relate it in my mind about the pre-earth life experience. When I look at my son and his son, I kind of see this pattern. I know that this did not start here, but was here before the world began. Spirit children wanting to be like their exalted Father in Heaven.”
“But where do you find that”, asked S. I told S that in Jeremiah 1:5, God is speaking with Jeremiah and Jeremiah asks, “Why me, God?” “Why am I a prophet?” God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” God is telling Jeremiah that he knew him before he was born. He knew his strengths and weaknesses. Our purpose here is to learn and be tested and return to him with what we’ve learned so far.
“But I can’t imagine being with God not being enough, ya know? I guess I never really thought much about a plan.” “Well, He’s given us a great plan that was actually talked about in the book of Moses. The book of Moses was translated by Joseph Smith. Basically He states His purpose. In Moses 1:39 it says, “For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” That is His purpose. That is why we are here.
“So do all spirits come here?” asked S. “Yes, all spirits that choose God’s plan will come here and get a body.” “Choose His plan?” “Yes, there is a part that talks about that here…I’ll read on page 5…Satan…”
“I know what happened with Satan and his followers. I just didn’t know…” “Well, when did that happen? Who were the followers of Satan? Where did they come from?”
“They were the spirits that were up in Heaven with God, right?” “Right, and where did you come from? Did you come from God?” “I guess I never thought about that before. I mean I knew about Satan and his followers being cast out, but I had never heard of the other spirits coming down to earth.”
Elder D. then made a great point. “Well, we read that a third of the hosts of heaven were cast out. Where were the other two thirds at this point?”
“Well, they were still up with God in Heaven”, said S. “Doing what”? “I don’t know?” “Why were one third cast out?” “For rebellion, they wanted to follow Satan’s plan”. “So for them to choose to follow Satan’s plan, there must have been another plan to choose from?” God always gives us a choice. We have our agency to choose otherwise it would just be God telling us what to do and how would that help us learn and grow?
“Well, I believe that there would’ve been a choice. It’s just looking back on the first 24 years of my life, I’d rather have spent it with God than on earth where sometimes my life was unbearable.”
Some new teaching tools given us to use are three teaching pamphlets-The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
S read us something that she had read in the PofS pamphlet. “Heavenly Father created your spirit, and you lived with Him as a spirit before you were born on earth…” “Although your memory of it is withheld, before you came to this earth, you lived in the presence of God, your Eternal Father, and His son, Jesus Christ. You shouted for joy when given the privilege of coming to this earth to receive a body and follow God’s plan for your happiness.”
S said, “Ya know, I’ve never really thought about existing before I came into being here on earth. The thing that kept coming to me after reading the pamphlet is Why?” “Why would you want to leave the presence of God? I would not want to go. I mean what if I mess up and have to spend eternity in Hell. I shouted for joy about this? How does that work?”
“What is something that we needed that we did not have as spirits when we lived with Heavenly Father?”, I asked. “With God in Heaven, asked S. “Yes, I said. “I don’t know”, said S. “We did not have a physical body, said Elder Davis. We came to this earth so that we could get a physical body and be tried and tested. The main reason we are here is to be tried and tested and decide for ourselves whether we will choose the right and return to our Heavenly Father or choose to follow Satan. We needed to come to Earth to be tested. That was not something that we could do in the pre-existence."
Elder D. then asked S what brought her joy in this life? What brought her happiness? S answered that lots of things brought her happiness. Like what? Name a few. “Well, my husband and my kids, my dogs, my crazy loud bird, horses.” Elder D. said that the things he had found that most people say brings them happiness is family. Another thing that brings happiness is learning something new. When a person figures out how to do something that they could not do before. Elder D. said “all throughout your life, you are constantly learning and growing. When we lived with Heavenly Father before we came to this earth, we were learning and growing. We were learning as much as we could, but there was a point when there was nothing more we could learn. Nothing more we could learn in the spirit world. We needed to be able to have a physical body. We needed to be able to come to a place and be tested.”
“How do you know?”, said S. “I mean, I can’t imagine that there is anything here that we could not have with God in Heaven.”
Elder D. responded, “Well, a body! He gave us a body. We had to come here to get a body.” “Did we need a body?” asked S. Just then Sister H’s husband who was sitting in with us, said, “S, when I was a boy, I looked up to my father. I wanted to be like he was. I could not have that yet. He was a man and I was a boy. He was married and had children. I wanted some day to have a family. It was the same with our Father in Heaven. He had an exalted body of flesh and bone. This was something that we could not have as spirits. We wanted to be like our Father. That’s the way I relate it in my mind about the pre-earth life experience. When I look at my son and his son, I kind of see this pattern. I know that this did not start here, but was here before the world began. Spirit children wanting to be like their exalted Father in Heaven.”
“But where do you find that”, asked S. I told S that in Jeremiah 1:5, God is speaking with Jeremiah and Jeremiah asks, “Why me, God?” “Why am I a prophet?” God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” God is telling Jeremiah that he knew him before he was born. He knew his strengths and weaknesses. Our purpose here is to learn and be tested and return to him with what we’ve learned so far.
“But I can’t imagine being with God not being enough, ya know? I guess I never really thought much about a plan.” “Well, He’s given us a great plan that was actually talked about in the book of Moses. The book of Moses was translated by Joseph Smith. Basically He states His purpose. In Moses 1:39 it says, “For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” That is His purpose. That is why we are here.
“So do all spirits come here?” asked S. “Yes, all spirits that choose God’s plan will come here and get a body.” “Choose His plan?” “Yes, there is a part that talks about that here…I’ll read on page 5…Satan…”
“I know what happened with Satan and his followers. I just didn’t know…” “Well, when did that happen? Who were the followers of Satan? Where did they come from?”
“They were the spirits that were up in Heaven with God, right?” “Right, and where did you come from? Did you come from God?” “I guess I never thought about that before. I mean I knew about Satan and his followers being cast out, but I had never heard of the other spirits coming down to earth.”
Elder D. then made a great point. “Well, we read that a third of the hosts of heaven were cast out. Where were the other two thirds at this point?”
“Well, they were still up with God in Heaven”, said S. “Doing what”? “I don’t know?” “Why were one third cast out?” “For rebellion, they wanted to follow Satan’s plan”. “So for them to choose to follow Satan’s plan, there must have been another plan to choose from?” God always gives us a choice. We have our agency to choose otherwise it would just be God telling us what to do and how would that help us learn and grow?
“Well, I believe that there would’ve been a choice. It’s just looking back on the first 24 years of my life, I’d rather have spent it with God than on earth where sometimes my life was unbearable.”
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