A week of training!

This past week we had a training that I participated in in Teresina. It was a 12 hour bus ride there, and 12 hour bus ride back. Not fun. But that's besides the point.

I enjoyed all of the training that we received. President gave some very good insights on what it means to "take upon thyself the name of Christ". We notice that in the sacramental prayer (the prayer said to bless the sacrament, the bread and water) it mentions this. In fact, as we take the sacrament, we promise to do exactly that, take upon ourselves the name of Christ. We explored several scriptures to be able to understand more of this. In Exodus, Moses is talking with God and asks him what he should tell everyone his name is. God responds by saying that he should tell them his name is I AM. It's interesting that as Christ ministered during his earthly life, he declared his divine heritage and eternal existence by saying "Before Abraham was, I am" which is exactly how he identified himself as we read in Exodus.

President Dias talked about how in Portuguese we have two verbs for to be, ser and estar. The difference between the two is that estar is more temporary, and ser is permanent. So we see how it reads in Portuguese, by using the verb ser, his eternal identity is reinforced. By using the verb to be, it shows that the name of Christ is all of His attributes and characteristics, which make up who He is. Christ has some 38 titles applied to Him in various scriptures. They serve as a definition of these attributes and characteristics, and as we come to know His various titles, we come to know who He really is, or in other words, what Christ's name really means and what it means to take upon that name.

Beyond these titles, Christ's name is also associated to several things. In Mosiah we learn that His name is the power to cure. It was very interesting to learn this, and study more about this. I know that as I study these things, I will come to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Redeemer.

I hope everyone had a great Mothers' Day! I'm thankful for all you Moms out there and all you do to help us learn and grow!

Love you all!
Elder Rackham