Hello Family!
I'm going to use a movie reference for my email today. I know some may think its weird, because I'm a missionary and usually missionaries don't use movie references. But today I am!
As many of you know, one of my favorite movies is "Inception." Much of the movie deals with the idea of different realities. Or, at least thats what I'll call it. If you don't know, the concept of inception (in a nutshell) is living life through dreams. There are a couple of points from the movie that are important for my purposes today: 1) To end the dream by waking up, you usually have to die in the dream, or be jolted somehow in real life. And 2) Many people involved with inception have a hard time distinguishing the difference between the real world and dreaming. I won't have a chance to go into those details in my email, but they are there as hints for you to ponder on. Come to your own conclusion.
In my own life, I have lived in different realities. One "reality" appeared to be exciting, and adventurous! And easy! I realized later that it was a dream world. Actually, more like a nightmare. Because in reality, it is enslavement. It is dark. And ever so cold. Part of waking up from this nightmare was learning to see things as they really are. The real world, REALITY. And more important than merely waking up, I needed to learn to live in this real world reality always, not bounce back and forth between one "reality" to the real reality. Now, some of you may be asking: What in the world is Brett talking about? Well, stay with me and do some movie-watching studying and pondering, and hopefully you'll see!
For my purposes in connecting dots, I'm going to separate people into general groups: believers (people who want to follow God), and the world (people who mock the believers). The world is incredibly deceptive, and is so skillful at making the believers look like a bunch of morons who are blindly following a fairytale. The world will surely tell you, "Well, look at those poor souls (the believers). They are being so deceived. You know that religion is the reason for many wars in the world. And look how they belittle anyone who doesn't conform to their idea of perfection. Its all a lie! Don't buy into it... they're trying to enslave you. You are an adult, you can act like an adult! Say what you want, think what you want, do what you want, be what you want! Who are they to tell you what to do anyways?" The world is under the control of the devil. Oh, here's another lie they'll tell you: "What devil?! There is no devil, and there is no hell." I know this all may seem like a jumbled mess. "Inception," life, dreams, realities, the devil, the Gospel? What the heck?! The message I want to share with you, whoever may need it, is to "awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe..." (2nd Nephi chapter 1). "There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment. He (Jesus Christ) is the Way. Every other way, any other way, whatever other way, is foolishness..." ("The Way" by Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge).
If you feel gloomy, find the courage to take your first step into (or back into) the light of the Gospel. Because the Gospel is real life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ shows us things as they really are. It shows us the path to happiness. Every other option is a counterfeit path. It may seem like you will find happiness and fulfillment on one of these counterfeit paths... but you will not. I don't know this because I've been brainwashed by some crazy church people. I know this because I've lived both ways. And I know which way is real, and which way is a counterfeit. Its up to you to choose who you will follow. That's the test we're all enrolled in. We all chose to follow Jesus Christ before we were born. Will we remember who we really are?
Whatever your struggle is, please remember that God- our Heavenly Father- does love all of us. Jesus Christ, our older brother, does love all of us. Their commandments are for our benefit and happiness. They are not made up by man, but they are based on unchanging eternal, natural laws. None of us have gone too far away from the light of the Gospel. Don't ever give up! Just wake up. I love each of you very much. Make it a good week.
Love,
Elder Brett Simper
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