The Divinity in Everyone

     I hope everyone had a great week! I had a pretty busy week working hard in the service of our Lord! This week as i was reading my emails, something that somebody wrote me got me to thinking. How can we empathize with people? Many times we walk down the street and think, "I wonder how their life is?" or "why do they act like that?" Before my mission, i thought and acted on my own, many times i took into account only my own feelings and my own sufferings. but when i came out into the mission i found that much of what i do here is putting myself into other peoples shoes, learning who they are, what they do, and why they act the way they do. I found that many times i didnt like a person simply because they did something that annoyed me or maybe it was just something i heard from another person that made me dislike them without knowing them.
     I found that when i thought like that that many times i felt hatred and spite for these people that i hardly knew. In the long run it made me very unhappy. But i was thinking this last week on this and why i didnt like these people. i found that many times my reasons were invalid and didnt make very much sense, so i decided to leave all those things behind and see them in a different light. As i changed my point of view and decided to love them and get to know them, my heart began to open up and i found that these people werent so bad, that, like me, they suffer and feel pain and worry, and guilt and despair.
     As we follow the example of our savior Jesus Christ and love everyone, no matter who they are or what they have done, we feel a greater capacity to love them and we feel happier. i know and testify of the principle of service. As we serve others we gain and feel the pure love of Christ. in this way we can feel just a small amount of the reason that Christ suffered and died for us and why God sent His Only Begotten Son to the Earth. I pray that as you learn to empathize with people and to love your neighbor, that you will feel the true happiness and joy that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I hope that everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Alejandro Lim