Heart surgeon vs. Medic

This is a letter Jake sent to Ma Woods...

July 26, 2011

I want to share what I learned today. So Jeffrey R Holland spoke. And let me tell you what a powerful talk. That man being part of the 12 Apostles has the power and authority to help lead this church. Anyways, he talked about missionary work. I got many thing from this talk, but this is what I got.So to all future missionaries. Imagine this. We are signing on a sheet of paper to enlist in a war. A war of a lifetime, but what are we doing in this war? Are we fighting? No, instead we are enlisting to cure, or save. Fix that which has been broken. We are going in as medics. But what kind of medic?

Ah, well let me tell you. We are enlisting to be trained as heart surgeons. Now why heart surgeons? For some, being a heart surgeon can take up to 15 to 20 years. Why? Because of the exactness they need when they perform. How do they do this? They study, study, study. They spend 20 years to perform with perfection.
We need to study, but being a heart surgeon takes 20 years to study. As a missionary, we are trying to do a more important work. We are saving souls. How much more studying should we do? It’s a more important work. We don’t want to lose a single patient. Not saying we will be perfect but we need to be the best we can be every minute of every day. This applies to everyone. Now we have this section down with studying and trying to be perfect all the time. Let’s move to a different part.

Being a medic at war we need to find those in the field who are injured and need help. Some are more injured than others. Do we only save those who are easy to find and/or easy to treat? I say no. You may think that they will be forever lost and will never live. Meaning they should save those and search for those who are easy to find. I don’t think so. Open to Helaman 6:36-37. ( I will insert for him just in case you are not close to your scriptures)

36 And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words.
37 And it came to pass that the Lamanites did hunt the band of robbers of Gadianton; and they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them, insomuch that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Lamanites.)
So at this point the Lamanites are more righteous, easy targets and were willing to listen. Now back at what these Lamanites did. They did hunt (yes hunt, not search lightly, but hunted with a purpose). The band of the Gadianton robbers, which we know to be super wicked and dangerous, big scary guys right? Who we would never even try to teach because they are wicked.

Let us continue reading, “And they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them.” Think about this. We should hunt for even the most injured people. They accepted the gospel once. They enlisted in the war as soldiers. They can accept it again. Will this be easy? No. Why? Because “salvation is not a cheap experience”. It was not easy for Christ. How can we expect it to be easy for us? We don’t. Missionary work and life is tough. But “the road to salvation goes through Gethsemane.” We have to repent. And we need to lead the injured to the road of salvation. Through studying with exactness and being exact with performance. We as members are on this road and need to fix ourselves by studying. Studying a lot to cure ourselves; to become more exact on this brutal war. So I end leaving my testimony that through studying and prayer we can be better and perfect, like we save souls. But it won’t be easy. Study as much as you can. The Lord provides a way, always, let me tell you all. The road of salvation is a beautiful and painful path. But I know that being a heart surgeon bringing souls will be a great reward with hard work. No girl would pick a mechanic over a surgeon. A surgeon has a plan and a way.

I know this probably may not hit you or anyone else as hard as it hit me, but I felt like this should be written down. I cannot express how much I love this gospel! Over the past month I have changed so much spiritually. I’ve learned so much about this gospel. This is the hardest work I have ever done. But by far it is the most rewarding.

Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts! You, Kayla, and my family are always included in my prayers. I pray for comfort upon you all. This is the least I can do for you guys after all the influence and things you have done for me. I love you all oh so very much.
Elder Firl