Week 57 Precept Upon Precept

September 10, 2019
Week 57

Another week flashes by like lightning before my eyes! When everybody said "It goes so fast" I think I believed them, but I didn't truly understand how fast it would really go. Transfers were this week, and I said farewell to Elder Rawlings, who is now about a two hour drive North of here in an area called Golden Grove. I am blessed to remain here in Hackham West, and my new companion is Elder Goodrich from Lehi, Utah. What a strange thing it is to have a companion from Utah, and yet we are on the opposite side of the globe! Elder Goodrich has been here in Australia the same amount of time as I have. He was on the plane ride to Australia with me! He just flew down from Darwin on Monday, so he has to face the "freezing chill" of the end of the Winter here in Adelaide. 

Yesterday, we had a powerful district council in the morning, focusing on paying the price to achieve our hopes in this new transfer. Afterwards, Elder Goodrich and I chose a street that we would go knock doors on, and planned to bike there. It is about a 10-15 minute bike ride. We jumped on the bikes, after lunch, with the attitude of talking to EVERYBODY that we ran into. We met a couple of people gardening in their front yard, and we jumped off the bikes and asked for some water. While they were distracted we said: "Well, we are already here, we might as well help you weed." We proceeded to pull their weeds for the next 30 minutes and discuss the restoration and why there are so many churches. Apparently they had recently left their old church and were looking for the truth AND they went to high school with a member, and they are still really good friends. Sadly they had to shoot off, but we will certainly see them again! A few houses down the street was an older couple who were loading up old dirt into a skip (big container) so we pulled off the bikes and started helping them. The lady protested and said: "Don't you dare get yourselves dirty, I would feel terrible!" I told her that we were already dirty from weeding, so we helped anyway. 

Long story short, that 10-15 minute bike ride took 3 hours, because we talked to everybody along the way and didn't even get around to knocking doors.

Precept upon Precept

I do not remember if I have mentioned this in the past few weeks: about a month ago, President Marquis challenged us all to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover before general conference in October. As such, I am now in Alma 37. Reading it this quickly, I am skimming over the past notes that I have taken, and realizing how much I have learned since beginning my adventure as a servant of the Lord. I am also realizing how much I haven't learned! I do not let that get me down, because I live my life according to a verse of scripture found in 2 Nephi 28:30, also found in Isaiah 28:13.

2 Nephi 28:30
"30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who will hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him who receiveth I will give more, and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

I find this principle very comforting, because I miss a lot when I study, as I feel that many of us do. It is comforting to know that all that our Heavenly Father wants us to do is to listen, and live accordingly to what we already know, and as a result He will give us more. If however, we are not living accordingly to what we already know; if we do not appreciate what He has already blessed us with, He certainly isn't going to trust us with anything more. When God judges us at judgement day, He will not be judging us the way that man does. (Mosiah 29:12) He will be judging us according to what we know, and what we did with that information. Just because Elder Goodrich knows the Book of Mormon better than I do, doesn't mean that God is going to hold me accountable for that lack of knowledge, so long as I am striving to do my best and learn as much as I can. 

While I do not know everything, and I cannot know the mysteries of God in full (Jacob 4:8) and I cannot testify of what I do not know (Alma 37:11) I can testify that the Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the true, pure and simple gospel of Jesus Christ. His Gospel as contained in the Book of Mormon contains all of the answers to any difficulty in life. The answers may not always come in this life, but the gospel is always the answer. It is simple. It is true. And even if you don't know anything about it, you can come to know it is true through the power of the Holy Ghost. Whether you know, as I do, that it is true with all your heart, whether you once knew, and since have forgotten, or if you have never known, I would invite you to ask your Father in Heaven where the answers to life are, and He will direct you to His true and living church. He will direct you to His restored Gospel. That is why I came, that is why I stay, and that is why, when the time comes, I will leave. Because He sees the big picture, and guides me accordingly.

Firm in the Faith,

-Elder Cozzens


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