Throughout the past few years of my life I have slowly but surely been coming to a realization - when all is said and done, it is what we do that is most important.  Or put in religious light, it is great to believe (in Christ and His Teachings), but it is a completely independent event to actually do something about it.  When I was a missionary, I was told many times that all of my effort in this life was pointless - that if I just "believed" that nothing else mattered.  Well, I'm sorry to say, but that is bull crap.  This concept of being "saved by grace" is completely twisted around in people's heads - The truth is this - because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, all mankind will be resurrected and receive a degree of glory, but that says nothing about our efforts being trivial and wasted.  On the contrary, I think that it is what we go through as we "do" things that actually makes us stronger - it gives us experience, knowledge, and compassion.  Obviously it is an INCREDIBLY important first step for us to "believe" in something (whether it is Gospel related or not) - otherwise we would have no cause or reason for further action.

Let me give a school example - Say I'm a smart guy (which I may or may not be) - I have been blessed with a brain that works pretty well.  Now, put me in a college calculus class.  If I am consistent in NOT doing my homework whenever it is inconvenient, if I do not get help when I don't quite understand a concept, when I consistently DON'T use my available resources such as my Professor, my TA, TA's in the math lab, or do my work with groups, should I be in utter shock and dismay when it is time for the final exam and I don't achieve my best?       I don't think so.  Well, I guess I must have thought so, because that is what happened to me the first time I took calculus at BYU.  You know, I got to the final, said a prayer that I would do good - what the heck is that?  How does that prayer make any sense or have any compelling, justifying reason to go along with it, when I never took advantage (I never "did" my part) of all the resources that I had at my disposal for 4 long months.  So, I ended up re-taking the class this past spring term, and I actually "did" something about it this time - I did my homework with a group of friends, I talked with my professor, TA, and the math lab TA's, I did my homework, and then when I got to the final exam, I prayed again for help (but with a lot more power behind my words this time) and you can probably guess what happened - I did very well.
So, naively in the past, I have often thought about situations similar to this and came to the "conclusion" that maybe God just doesn't want to help me out this time...ARE YOU KIDDING ME? - could you possibly come up with a worse answer than that?  How about this for help ...(let's use my situation for an example) - Let's see, He (God) gave you a well-tuned brain, so that you could use it on your own - what a gift, He gave you good parents who raised you and taught you many good things, you have been able to attend school for most every year of your life - continuing your education and increasing your knowledge, you are lucky enough to be getting a solid-undergraduate education at a well-known university, you are surrounded with loads of people that can and will help you master your understanding of the material, and you expect that if you give up He will just give you all of the answers on a final - ... once again... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

So, let me clarify what I meant when I said earlier, "...when all is said and done, it is what we do that is most important."  So, when I was in Wisconsin on my mission, and my companion and I were driving back from a teaching appointment with an older man (who took us and taught with us), he said something that has never left me.  We were talking about where we will be after this life, and what things will "hold the most water" when judgement day comes, and he said something along these lines - "The thing that will be more important than just about anything that we do in our lives will be how we have treated other people" - This "treating" can be seen as the "doing" in our lives - yeah, we could have thought about doing something nice for somebody (and we will get credit for that good thought), but what really reflects our thoughts and desires is how we physically "treat" others through our kind acts of service.

My mission is the exemplar when it comes to teaching me this principle.  As me and my friend Adam have talked about our missions we both have came to the realization that our missions have taught us all of the fundamentals that we need for the rest of our lives, and have given us ample tools to use throughout our lives (like the Professors, TA's, and fellow students), but now is the real test - now is the time to see if we will actually use the things that we have learned.

-Spencer