Sunday, August 7, 2011

O Plano de Salvação

On Saturday we had an INCREDIBLE activity in our branch. It was an idea that an Elder had given me, so really me and Sister Pedroso were in charge of it, and also I cant take the credit. It required a little bit of work but boy was it worth it!! We played the game of life but instead of using the board game, the members were the players and we made the spaces on the ground to cover the entire cultural hall! We even had a huge dice. Every one separated into families and played just like you would play the normal game of life, with a salary, car payments, bonuses at work, etc. The difference was it had a churchy twist. We had set up a church and a bank. During the game you could win both "blessings" and "sins" and you would get these cards at the church where our branch president was sitting. I love President Ricardo! We didn't even ask him to do this but when someone would come to ask for a blessing card he would ask "What was the blessing?" And the member would say "I helped my mom clean the house!" or when it was a sin they would say "I forgot to do my visiting teaching this month..." it was so great! A lot of people said that it really applied to their lives. You could also "die" during the game and you would go to the Spirit World and wait until judgement. Once everyone had made it to "The End" we entered the chapel which was the Celestial Kingdom/judgement and President Ricardo spoke. (There is a trick to winning the game that I won´t tell you right now because maybe I´ll do this activity someday when I go home! But if you´d like to know just ask me!) This activity was SO great. There was so much to be learned from it. No matter our family or financial situation or if we were a missionary there was a great lesson to be learned.


Everything President said was so great. He shared the scripture that talks about for every time we are obedient we receive a blessing. We may not even notice but its true. It´s as if every time we have a family home evening there´s a little cabinet in Heaven labeled "Family Home Evening Blessings" and the cabinet opens and the blessing falls down for us. Okay that sounds funny in English but it sounded better in Portuguese. haha. But it is SO true! I can promise each and every one of you that obedience even in the little things is essential. I doubt anyone is going to kill someone or rob a bank tomorrow, but Satan doesn't start with the big. He starts with the little tiny things like skipping prayer, not having scripture study, not being completely honest, etc. I have come to gain a very strong testimony of this especially during my mission. One thing I have come to learn is that the Savior doesn't expect us to be perfect, its not possible. But he does want us to try our best and he WILL forgive us when we mess up, because we will!!

During the game of life, we added a twist at the last minute. Right before judegement every family had the option to or pay $1000 and get rid of all of the blue "sin" cards or keep their money and their cards. We didnt explain why, just gave them the opportunity to choose. The majority chose to pay and get rid of their cards. But I was very surprised at the families who replied "But I dont have any money left! No I´ll stay." Wow! What an important lesson. This part of the game was supposed to represent repentance. And how we all have the chance to be clean from sin. It´s not easy, we have to pay a price and suffer a little but its worth it. Thanks to our Savior Jesus Christ and the Atonement we have the privelege to repent and start over clean! What a tremendous blessing!! I sure am thankful because I recognize the need to repent DAILY! I´m grateful for the game of LIFE and for the lessons learned. I hope everyone can remember the importance of being obedient in the small things and realize that the Lord has so many blessings waiting in store for us! Thanks for all the love and support gente! Continue to pray for the misisonaries around the world!
-Sister Peck

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