A Different Kind of Fast

Smart phones and social media were designed to make it easier to connect with people, so it is ironic that the opposite seems to be happening, which is the case this video makes:

“This media we call social is anything but, when we open our computers and it’s our doors we shut”  But it isn't just social media that can cause this kind of problem.  There are a lot of good and worthwhile pages on the Internet that can have the potential to use up much of our free time, even as there area a greater number of less good and less worthwhile pages that can do the same.

When I left on my mission, car phones existed but were extremely rare.  When I came home, cell phones were beginning to appear, but they were rather large, simple, and very rare.  Personal computers had been out for several years, as well as some video game systems that were rudimentary by comparison to what exists today, but the Internet was still a few years off.  It was possible, even back then, to become addicted to electronics.

While I played a few video games, I spent most of my time reading books.  When I left on my mission I knew that I would have to give up reading my favorite subjects for two years.  Fortunately, I could still read books, they just had to be related to the gospel.

Could you, if you left on your mission this week, give up playing video games or surfing the Internet?  As a missionary, you might have a cell phone, but only for the purpose of calling investigators.  Each week you will send an email home, but writing it will likely take up most or all of your computer time at the library on P-day.  Even if you could surf the Net a little on P-day, there are still six other days when you could not.

Some missionaries, upon entering the MTC, have found it difficult to give up social media and video games.  How could a prospective missionary prepare to give these things up for two years?

Today is the first Sunday of the month and, thusly, is Fast Sunday.  As you will teach your investigators, on Fast Sunday we go without two meals and donate the money saved -- plus more out of generosity -- as a Fast Offering, which is used to help people in need.  One benefit of fasting for two meals is the ability to learn self control.  Elder Russell M. Nelson addressed this in the October 1985 General Conference:

"Another step toward self-mastery comes when you are old enough to observe the law of the fast. As funds are contributed from meals missed, the needs of the poor may be met. But meanwhile, through your spirit, you develop personal power over your body’s drives of hunger and thirst. Fasting gives you confidence to know that your spirit can master appetite."

If we can master our appetite for food, perhaps we could master our appetites for other things.  Elder Nelson added that, "Fasting fortifies discipline over appetite and helps to protect against later uncontrolled cravings and gnawing habits."

To prepare for this aspect of a mission, requiring the abstention of social media and video games -- or television and certain kind of music -- you can try a different kind of fast.  Pick a day, once a week, or once a month if that is too hard at first, where you abstain from certain activities like surfing the Net or playing video games.  Sunday is a perfect day for this, as it allows you to keep the Sabbath Day holy -- Sunday is also the perfect day to go home teaching and teach a mock discussion to your families.

You learned as you grew up to fast two meals once a month.  You overcame the difficulty of doing without food for half a day.  By applying what you learned in your monthly fast to a different kind of fast, you can gain self control over other appetites.  With this self control, you can enter the mission field with confidence.

Some activities and appetites can be harder to overcome than others.  One day the apostles approached Jesus and said that they had tried to cast out certain devils but had been unable to do so.  To their question of why, Jesus answered:

"Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:20-21).


Remember that God gives us weaknesses that we may be humble, and that if we do humble ourselves and have faith in Christ, then is His grace sufficient to make weak things become strong (Ether 12:27).  If we find it difficult to give up certain appetites -- food, television, social media, video games, etc. -- then we can humble ourselves, exercise faith, and fast and pray, and be lifted by His grace.

As President Dieter F. Uchtdorf would say, "You can do it now!"


Link to Elder Nelson's talk "Self Mastery": https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1985/10/self-mastery?lang=eng

Link to Chapter 25 of Gospel Principles on Fasting: https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-25-fasting?lang=eng

Link: to President Uchtdorf's talk "You Can Do it Now!": https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/you-can-do-it-now?lang=eng