Good Works Openly

Hello friends and family from the much cooler Lincoln, Nebraska.
Hope everything is going well wherever you are and that life continues
to be enjoyable and adventurous.  Well the big news from this week is
that Doug was baptized!!!  It was very awesome.  He is probably the
most prepared person I've ever taught, and it was a great experience.
I had the opportunity to be the person to baptize him, and it was
amazing.  First, there was so much support there.  Probably
three-fourths of the ward showed up to support him.  Even the Stake
President was there as well.  Luckily, we only had to dunk him once,
haha.  After he was baptized and him and I were in the back room
changing, he told me how much he felt the Spirit and how amazing it
was.  He said he truly did feel something, and he couldn't wait to
call his mom back in California to tell her all about it.  After we
came back out he bore a powerful testimony of his Savior, and of the
Prophet Joseph Smith.  It was awesome.  The next day Elder Jackson
confirmed him, and he is now officially a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Yay!  The Lord is indeed merciful,
and I continue to see his hand in my life as well as in the life of
those I teach.  Doug is now an amazing member of the Church, and I
know that he will change many people's lives.
       So, spiritual thought this week is about doing good works.  I
was reading in the Book of Mormon, and also the New Testament, about
secret combinations and how spiritually destructive they are.
Although in the scriptures secret combinations were usually to murder
people, I think about our own lives and the things that we do in
secret.  I think of how the Savior would wish us to act.  He wants us
to do many good things openly and without shame.  Although we may do
good things anonymously, we would never be ashamed if someone found
out that  it was us who did that.  On the other hand, Satan wishes us
to do bad things for our own benefit secretly.  We know that if others
found out about these things, that we would be ashamed, and seek to
hide ourselves.  I think this is a good indicator that we can follow
in our lives to see if whatever we are doing, big or small, is
acceptable to the Lord.  If we feel like we would be ashamed if
someone we looked up to saw what we are doing, especially if the
Savior was there, we probably shouldn't do it.  On the other hand, if
we feel like the Savior would be please if we were to do something we
maybe wouldn't do because of slothfulness, then we might think about
doing that thing.  I promise that as we seek to have integrity and
follow the teachings in the scriptures, we will have the Spirit with
us more, and He will be able to guide us to a greater extent in our
lives.  I hope as we all do this that this promise will be fulfilled.
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.

Godspeed,
Elder Chandler Kendall