Elevation Excitement

Just for fun, I did some quick research this week and found out that for my entire mission in Brazil I never went above 1,000 feet in elevation.  For the last five months of my mission I served in Joao Pessoa, which is only at 149 feet (46 meters) elevation.  You might be wondering what sparked this interesting research…well, it all began when I decided to venture out into the Rexburg climate and start running again.  I got about halfway up the huge hill heading up to the temple and felt as though my lungs were the size of a ping pong ball!  I could not breathe!  I guess that is what happens when you go from 149 feet elevation to 4859 feet (1481 meters); the air gets a bit thinner! 

Since I’ve been back from my mission, I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the movies that came out while I was gone.  This week I watched “The Croods”!  There was one part in the movie that made me smile.  The Croods, a family of cavemen, find another young man who has an animal friend.  At some point, the Croods get hungry and attempt to eat this animal friend.  The young man kindly informs them that his animal friend is not food, but that it is a pet.  The Croods then ask the young man what a pet is.  He answers, “A pet is an animal you don’t eat.”  The Croods reply, “Oh, we call those children!” hahahaha  A pretty fairly accurate definition if you ask me! haha 

On a mission, life is pretty basic; study, preach the Gospel, serve others, eat, and sleep.  While choices are still present, the categories of choices are minimal.  All the ‘frills’, worries, and complications of a normal life are shaved away and all of your energy is focused on one goal.  Coming home, I have felt the slightly overwhelming wave of choices and options again.  There are so many different ways to spend my time, so many good choices!  Yet, while the world we live in offers innumerable quality activities and pursuits, we need to be careful to not fill our time with good and better, neglecting the best!  As Neal A. Maxwell wisely stated,

“If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God first, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead!” 

So, what are we choosing?  Do our choices regarding church attendance, prayer, scripture study, temple attendance, tithing, visiting teaching, home teaching, etc reflect our desires to choose the Kingdom of God first?  I testify that this is a true principle.  When we stand before our Heavenly Father at the last day, it won’t matter how beautiful our house was, how many exquisite vacations we went on, how many trophies we won, how many concerts we played in, who won last year’s Super Bowl, how up you are on your pop culture, or if you know the plot lines of the New York Times Best Sellers.  All that will matter will be if we have chosen the Kingdom of God!  Life isn’t complicated, just put the Lord and His Gospel first!