Humility

What is humility? Humility I believe is one of the noblest characteristics. As in all noble characteristics there is one who is our perfect example, that is Jesus Christ. Today in Sunday School although I don't understand anything at church I can still read the scriptures and be apart of it that way. The lesson was about the Sermon on the Mount and the Beattitudes. In Matthew 5:3 it says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kindgdom of of heaven." I can again say blessed are those who are humble in spirit. I have seen first true and blessed humility today. Before I share this experience I want to share a few excerpts from an apostle of Gods talk in General Conference. Elder Uchtdorf gave a fantastic talk in priesthood about Pride. Some of my favorite lines are as follows: "When we see the world around us through the lens of the pure love of Christ, we begin to understand humility. We don't discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman." Then he quotes one of my favorite talks of all time which was given by Ezra Taft Benson about pride where he states," god will have a humble people. Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble...Let us choose to be humble. We can do it, I know we can." Ok, so all this talk about humility is on my mind today because of two reasons. First of all, I have been the recipient of true christ like love. As I go to church each Sunday and don't speak the language it is without fail that someone will try to speak with me in English to try and make me feel welcome. I have felt so welcomed and loved by these people. The last two weeks I have had little girls come sit by me and with their eyes wide open examine me and want to be with me. I like to give them hugs and show my love for them even though I can't communicate with them. But I feel so humbled by being here because I am associating with and speaking with some of the most humble people I have ever met. They don't have much, in fact you wouldn't believe how much they DON'T have. But despite the difficulties of getting to church they are there. They serve the Lord and they do it with a positive attitude from what I can see. They are passionate about being disciples of Jesus Christ and although their life is not easy they are doing their best to follow and live a life like our Savior Jesus Christ. So, they are teaching me much about humility!! So, secondly I was humbled beyond belief today. There is this super sweet man named Serge. He comes to the English Class on Thursdays. So, through this we have learned about him. Let me share this mans story with you. He has a beautiful family with four kids and a beautiful wife. His kids are seriously the cutest things ever. Melissa is the other mormon American here that I teach English with and that takes me to church. So, she has been giving this sweet little family a ride to church the past two weeks. Serge does not have a job. He has not had one for many years. It is very hard to come by in the country. So, Melissa has devised a plan to make chicken coops for him so he can raise chickens and have some sort of income. I wanted to get in on the action and help to. So, today after church we drove to their home to see the land of where we could build the chicken coops. Let me try and give you a walk through of my experience. Here is this sweet man and his family. We drove up a small trail and arrived at a gate. He opened the gate and there was a small modest home. It was not his home it was the owner of the land, who he had purchased his property for 4,000 dollars. Let me remind you of the pay they recieve here. $300 a month is very good. So, just think how long it took to make that money. Then, loans here have like a 36% interest rate so you just build using money you have. So, if you don't have enough money than you just don't finish. This is what happened to his family. So, we walked down a little dirt path and down some cement stairs underneath what looked like a cement slab. As we walked down some makeshift cement stairs there was  sheet drawn across an opening. He opened the sheet and said come into my home. As we arrived he said a prayer and the spirit was in that home. There were pictures of Christ taped onto the wall and I could tell this family loved the lord. When we walked in there was the lviving room with a table and some books. Then to the left was a bedroom for the kids. I was just glad to see beds, there were two for the four children. Then in another concrete room there was a bed for him and his wife. He then took us to the kitchen. It was a concrete room with just some pots. Then there was an empty room that he said one day will have stairs to the next level and will be another bedroom. It was an oh so humble abode. I felt so blessed and then some. I can't believe how simply they live and yet they are just so sweet and love the Lord and serve him and want to help others. I hope that we can help his family find a way to make an income. He truly deserves it, all he is trying to do is provide for his family. As we were around and just together I just kept hugging the boys. They were so cute and I just wanted to take them into my arms over and over again and I just wanted to tell them how loved they are. So, today was a good day. I am blessed, you are blessed and we should all strive to live a little more humbly in our own lives. In all things we should strive to live a life where we love the Lord and trust in him despite our circumstances for that is where true love and true happiness is found!