President's Weekly Letter I forgot Part I

 …VAN EEN VERNUFTIGE MAKELIJ…

(1 Nephi 18:1)

Belgium/Netherlands Mission

                  

THE LAW OF THE HARVEST

First some house keeping items.  I am asking Elders to wear suit coats between fall and spring general conference.  Between spring and fall conference we will once again allow your choice of jacket on or off.  Also, remember your commitments to consistently and steadily develop Christ-like attributes.  This is essential as we purify ourselves to do the important missionary work of building a stake.

The Law of the Harvest has been written about by many people.  This law is a natural law.  It constantly applies to all that we do.  You can depend on it just like gravity.  For me it can be condensed down to 3 principles:

·      We reap after we sow

·      We reap what we sow

·      We reap more than we sow

Now, we are engaged in the ambitious venture of building a stake; Stake number 5, in the Mission.  We have fasted and prayed that the Lord allow us to do this for Him and the members here and we have in faith committed ourselves to the work.

This endeavor is now a matter of faith.  The faith consists of both - a.  Our trust that Jesus Christ can grant the results we desire, and - b.  Our work we perform to make it happen.  This faith is done in compliance with the Law of the Harvest.

I believe the above listed principles of the Law of the Harvest can, therefore, be alternatively stated using miracles in place of reap and faith in place of sow.

The principle that we reap after we sow could also be stated as faith precedes the miracle.  This is an eternal principle taught in Ether 12, and may best be stated by President Howard W. Hunter:

“If you deprive a man of his right to fail in the righteous use of his property, you also deprive him of his right to succeed. If you remove from a man his right to “go to hell,” you likewise remove his free agency to go to heaven. Satan’s entire philosophy is based on a “something for nothing” philosophy: salvation without effort – a free gift.  This counterfeit doctrine was rejected by God our Father.  Our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, accepted our Father’s plan and agreed to pay the infinite price to become our Savior and Redeemer and to show us the way back to the Father.  The way is often the hard way. It is the Law of the Harvest.  It is the same basic law in the spiritual realm which the farmer must obey in the physical realm.  He plants in the spring and cultivates, waters, weeds, and nourishes the ground and its new life and then harvests in the fall.”

We also reap benefits from the previous work of others.  Mike Pence stated:

“We owe a debt to those who came before, who did great things, and suffered more than we suffer, and gave more than we give, and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for us, whom they did not know.  For we “drink from wells we did not dig and are warmed by fires we did not build,” and so we must be faithful in our time as they were in theirs.”

We have the great opportunity leave the woodpile a little higher than we found it, but we and/or others will reap after we sow.

We reap what we sow.  Our work to build the Stake will be a natural result from our labor to this end.  During my career in the Engineering business, I found the size of business I would market and sell was the size of what I set out in my mind to sell.  Every time I determined I needed bigger projects, I found myself pursuing and then doing bigger projects within a short time.  This iteration repeated itself several times as the business grew.  It is the results of a natural law.  I found my results were largely dependent on my expectations.

We will reap more than we sow.  Every farmer knows the investment of seed is very small compared to the seeds harvested.  Ammon gloried after his mission to preach to the Lamanites:

“…we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.  Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few?  I say unto you, Nay…” (Alma 26:30-31)

John Lawrence stated the principle of the bounties of reaping more than we sow:

“If you want to be rich … GIVE!
If you want to be poor … GRASP!
If you want abundance … SCATTER!
If you want to be needy . . HOARD!”

The world’s philosophy is just the opposite; get what you can get and keep what you’ve got.

Elders and Sisters, you are doing great things in the Belgium Netherlands Mission.  Keep up the good work.  Remember Paul’s words:

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Gal. 6:9)