Come on, Mom, why can't I go? Mike, you know the rules. So? So why do you have to keep asking? Some home! It's more like a prison! [DOOR SLAMS] (YELLING) What ever happened to free agency?

This is so stupid.

What a joke. These stupid rules take away my freedom.

I never have any choices! No thanks, you can keep it.

They treat us like babies, right? We never have any choices, right?

We know what we're doing.

What? Where did you get my clothes? How c-- how come you have my face? We're us--me, myself. The only difference is you don't listen half as much as you should. What? My point exactly. You want an example?

Seminary class, last Thursday, we were both there, but only one of us was listening. I listened. What did we talk about? The same thing we always talk about. And what was that? It was, um, it was, religion. You're kidding, right? Can you be a little more specific? Work with me, here? Come on.

It was, I know-- Don't disappoint me, come on. --the Church. Ungh! Thanks for playing. Try freedom and agency? That's it. Free agency. I knew I could get it. No, no. You missed it. I got it. Remember, Brother Hanson said, that free agency isn't a scriptural term. We've got freedom and we have agency. They're not the same thing. Look, let's try this again. Both of us this time. Come here, I want to show you something.

You drew this? Hey, what are you doing? We can do better than that. But that took me two hours to draw. What a waste of time. Take a look at this. We've got agency, and we've got freedom, and we've got captivity. Does this chart look vaguely familiar? Yeah. It's the one Brother Hanson drew. So? So we have agency to make right and wrong choices. Right choices lead to freedom. Wrong choices lead to captivity. Yeah. Excuse me, but in the real world, agency is the freedom to do whatever I want. Being restricted by a rule--that's captivity.

Looks like we're going to have to start from the beginning. Look, there are four things you need in order to have agency. Now pay attention this time. Hey! Whoa! Whoa! What's going on? Let's talk about the power to choose first. Come on down here by me. I can't. Why not? I don't know. Controlling our destiny--that's what agency is all about. This is where the power to choose comes in. This power is given to us from God. Notice how tough it is to make a decision when you don't have the power to choose? Yeah, I noticed. Without the power to choose, the chart would look like this. Now watch.

If our only choice was to do good, how could we do anything else? Yeah, I get your point. Good. You want to just float around, or come back down here by me? I'd rather spend the rest of my life up here than down there with you. Why do you have to be so difficult?

[CRASH] Oh, Mike, I'm glad you dropped in, I could use your help. [COUGHING] Oh, I suppose you think that's really funny. You stay right there. Don't move. Mike, will you take this up to your room, please? Please.

What do you think you're doing? Hey, calm down. Look at this place, my room! Where did everything go? Calm-- Calm down, nothing. You just dropped me out from nowhere. You could have at least landed me on my bed. And look at this hole. Calm down, I-- I was just trying to make a point. Well, you made your point. I did? And-- and what was that? What point did I make? Did you pay attention? You said that without the power to choose-- Right. Keep going. --you really can't do anything. That's right. We were talking about the importance of having choices. Come here. Well, opposition provides us these choices. Let me show you how this works. On the one side, we have good. On the other side, we have bad. Righteousness, wickedness, holiness, misery. These opposites pulling in different directions provide us the variety of choices we can make in this life. That's why we need opposition in all things.

We've always wanted to drive that car, right? Yeah. So? How did you--

So what are you waiting for? Let's go. Serious? (WHISPERING) This is a Ferrari. (WHISPERING BACK) I know, let's go.

I'm in my dream car, and I'm supposed to go 55 miles an hour? Rules are stupid, right? Right. They're too restrictive, and you wish there weren't any, right? Right. Let's try it.

Are you kidding me?

Oh, you're not so bad.

Woo!

Let's move, doggy!

Ha, ha, ha, ha! Did you see that? Woo!

[SCREAMING] What was that? Did you see that? That guy could have killed us. He didn't do anything wrong. Didn't do anything wrong? He was in my lane. There's a point you missed. What? Well, if there is no law, which is what you wanted, then you also have to say there is no wrong. And if there is no law, which law did the truck driver break? None. So what did he do wrong? Nothing, except he was in my lane. Were you in the correct lane? Yes. How do you know that? Because the law says-- You get it. The law designates which of the opposing choices is right and which choice is wrong. Remember our chart--right and wrong? Let's see how this fits in with God's law. If God didn't have any laws, could you disobey them? No. Could you obey them? I guess not. Well, if you couldn't obey them, then you couldn't do good or become righteous. So the question is, how are you going to follow Christ if He doesn't have a right way?

How come we never thought of that before? I never thought laws guided. I always thought they restricted. Laws designate which choice is right and which choice is wrong. Have you had enough, or are you ready for more? Well, I can't leave my room looking like this. Go open your closet door.

Go ahead, open it. Boo!

Go ahead.

Mom's right. We need to clean out our closet.

Pick a door, any door. [CIRCUS MUSIC PLAYING] How about this one? Okay, go ahead. Open it up.

Ugh! Ow! What did you do that for? I didn't. Pick another door. No way! Why not? I don't want to get electrocuted. Oh, come on, Mike. Just open another door. Okay, Here's one. I'll open this one.

Here we go. Right now. Agh! [LAUGHING] I'm so stupid. What's going on here? What did I do wrong? Looks like you're kind of in the dark, aren't you? I assume you have a point to all this. Of course I do. You probably want to know why you keep getting shocked, right? Right. And you probably want to know which doors are going to shock you, and which doors aren't, right? Yeah, yeah. Go on. Well, that's just it. That's what the knowledge of good and evil does--lets you know which choices are good and which chances are bad. So how do I find out? Well, you can learn by trial and error. Oh, I just tried that. Why doesn't someone just tell me? Like, Mom? What has she got to do with this? I'm talking about sources of knowledge of good and evil--like our parents, the scriptures, Church leaders, the Spirit.

Look, let me give you some knowledge right now. You ready? Can you take it? Okay. If you pick a yellow door, you'll be punished. Look at me. If you pick a green door, you'll be rewarded. Yellow bad, green good. That's it? That's it. Obey and be blessed. Disobey and be punished. Well, that's easy. Yeah, I know. Green door. Green door. Green is good.

Bula vinaka.

Is this for me? Strawberry, it's my favorite. How did you-- thank you. Ah, it's nothing. Thank you.

Green is good. Green is good.

[PARTIES HOLLERING] Mike! Party! Come on. Gotta get down, Mike. Hey, come on, let's go. Yeah! Come on, Mike.

Agh! Ow! I though you said that was easy. What? Fun is bad? No. You made the wrong choice. But that was not fair. Maybe. But it happens to you all the time. More than you even realize.

Remember when we were talking about opposition providing us choices? Yeah. Well, it's what we do with those choices that count. That's why we need the knowledge of good and evil.

Look, on the one side, freedom and blessings entice us to do good. Right? On the other side is punishment. Not too enticing, if you ask me. So what enticed you to choose wrong when you knew it wrong? Well, that party looked fun. And that girl looked cute, too. The party probably was fun. And she was cute. But, Mike, why do you say it wasn't fair?

You used the party to get me to choose the wrong door.

You tricked me on purpose. Exactly.

Every day Satan disguises captivity of wrong choices by enticements, like fun, or by hiding the consequences. Seeing beyond the enticements to the captivity, that's the tough part. I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. Look, remember we cheated in Mr. Peterson's class?

Yeah. What was the enticement? We cheated so that we wouldn't fail the class. Okay. How about the captivity? We never got caught, so I don't know.

What are we going to have to do to repent? [SIGH] Don't cheat anymore. Confess to Mr. Peterson. I'm not going to do that! If I tell him, he'll flunk us for sure. Don't look at me. It wasn't my idea. Do you think it's going to be any easier at the Judgment?

What about our prayers that night?

I don't think we said them. You're right. We felt too guilty. We lost the Spirit. That's the captivity I'm talking about. I didn't think all of this came from cheating. We've got a lot of changing to do. What do you mean, we?

But if you look at all the right choices, we've been able to retain a lot freedom. Like what? Freedom from guilt. Our parents trust us because we don't lie to them. And we have a real understanding of the gospel. Yeah, like agency. Yeah, like agency. You said a few minutes ago that this place was like a prison. Well, look around, there's freedom. Remember those four things we talked about, in order to have agency? We need opposition. We need the power to choose. We need laws. We need the knowledge of good and evil. You've got those things. Use them.

That's what agency is all about.

You know, you're not so bad after all. Come here. Why don't we go down and explain this agency to Mom so she can understand it too.