Looking for 'good fruit' and not just fancy foilage

Hello everyone,                                                                                         July 6, 2015

Hey sorry this week is gonna be a bit short! Time is of the essence and it's not something that I have a lot of haha.

Something that I learned this week that I would like to share with you was while I was reading in the New Testament. I was reading Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem and he comes across a fig tree which was bearing no fruit. He then proceeds to curse the fruit tree to where it whithers away. I have always wondered about this incident. Why would he do that? I went to Jesus the Christ in search of a answer where I found Brother Talmage's answer. He said that Jesus was showing his supreme power, just as much power as he had over life he also had over death. He then continues to give countless examples of him commanding the elements as well as raising the dead. Then he concludes this portion by saying it was made completely clear to the apostles in just a few days later how voluntary his sacrifice really was. From this experience we learn that if he wanted, he could have killed all of the evil Pharisees with one word. Yet he let them practice their agency though it hurt him. 

Monster Ice outing with Sister Jergensen's famiy...what a treat!

I really learned from this that I cannot control the outcome of some of my Investigators choices. Sometimes I want them to just hurry up and be baptized instead of postponing. But I realized that regardless of what we want everyone gets a choice. Even the Son of Man who really could get whatever he wanted, let them have their choice event though it was the wrong one.

 I really need to learn to follow His example in this aspect.

Pretty view from the canal

delicious dragon fruit

 The second part of this that I learned a lot from is that the tree itself was all leaves and had no fruit. If it was mortal we would say it is a "hypocrite." It was all for show. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and I hope it doesn't come across the wrong way. I have had baptisms and they were all very prepared and are doing well in the church but I have never had tons of investigators at one time. I feel like my style is really trying to make my fig tree have fruit! Not just lots of foliage on the outside. My area to others on the outside may not look insanely great. But its not because of a  lack of effort. The effort is all focused on trying to get those fruits. I think the most important part is the fruit. Of course we want the best of both worlds and that is the goal so I will be working diligently on getting fruit and foliage. I hope that makes sense, it was just something I have been thinking about this week. 

Anyway I hope that you all have a incredible day and week I love you all! 

Elder Roe