Love Thy Neighbor

     Recently, as our companionship has been going out to work, a certain thought keeps creeping its way up to the forefront of my mind--how do I love those who seek to contend with me in any shape or form.  So, how can we love someone who perhaps at times hates us?  Our first instinct most times is just to turn away from them or even to treat them as they treated us.  After all, why should I be kind to those who hit me, why should I help those who seek to tear me down at every turn, why should I turn the other cheek to be hurt again?  Why shouldn't I lash back?  That's fair, right?  They deserve it! Let that simmer for a little bit, because this is how most people think and respond to things.
     To quote one of my most favorite people, "Life isn't fair."  Which he then follows up with the definition of fair being, "Fair is getting what you want."  Now really think about this, how have you defined fair in all of your interactions?  Is it where you got some of what you want but may have made some compromises that were acceptable to you so that you could get the desired result?  Most of the time, this is what we do.  I do it all the time with everyone else, mostly subconsciously, not even fully aware that I am just focused on my own selfish self.  But is this what God wants us to be?  This is what Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told missionaries in the MTC about Jesus Christ:

"Christ turns out when the natural man would turn in."

     Now, that one statement describes so much about what our Savior and God wants us to be.  Christ  always turns out and is unselfish, when we would be selfish and just focused on us.  God wants the best for us, so we need to be like our perfect example, Jesus Christ; we need to be as unselfish as we possibly can.  So, how does being unselfish tie into loving someone who hates us?  Well, what I have learned about this is that for me to love someone I need to be unselfish in my dealings with them.  As God loves us so perfectly and unselfishly despite what ever we may do, we need to show that same love to all that we come into contact with.  How we do that is by serving them and thinking the best of them, despite whatever they may do to us.  I'm not saying this is easy, but it is definitely worth it.

     To share an experience with this, the other day we were teaching one of our investigators about the Gospel.  She was going back and forth with us as we tried to share with her what we knew to be true.  As I prayed for help from God to better help her understand, we started drawing comparisons with the bible and book of Mormon and she started to see how cool the book actually is.  It was after doing this out of love and compassion for her, not just insisting that we were right,  that she really opened up to us and now wants us to come back and teach her more.  Through our showing her respect, kindness, and love, she responded in kind.