President Benson and C.S. Lewis

July 4, 2016

This week it rained. Every hour. Of every day. I am not joking when I say I haven’t seen the sun in 6 days. And our area is 80% dirt roads (I guess technically I should say mud/water roads). But I’m a missionary serving in the Lord’s army so what more could I want?

Elder Hammond and I are doing good! Everyone thinks he is from the United States so they all complement him on his Spanish! It is really funny. It’s great to have a new elder as my companion because his energy keeps me going. 

So this morning I read the talk by President Ezra Taft Benson, "Beware of Pride." In his address, President Benson speaks of how pride is the most universal of all sins and the hardest to identify. He defined pride as "enmity towards God or our fellowman." I had to pull out my dictionary to define ‘enmity.’ It means opposition or hatred towards something. 

So we are being prideful whenever we are in opposition or hatred to God or our fellowman. Basically, it’s whenever we think our own judgment is better that God’s. Presidents Benson also quoted CS Lewis saying:

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” 

I have tried to apply this in the mission by not comparing myself to other missionaries and wishing I had their success. There’s a reason why pride is a central theme in the Book of Mormon!

Sincerely,
Elder Gygi

PS: Happy Independence Day, 'Merica!