Thank you for all the birthday wishes!! Can't wait to go buy thousands
of bottles of rum. Then I can be capt jack sparrow. Haha JUST KIDDING!
Man. What a week. Months are turning into weeks. Weeks are turning into days.
I don't even remember what happened this week.
Got my new companion. He is a visa waiter. Which means his visa to go
to India didn't come yet so they just threw him to some mission. So he
is waiting to go to India. That's pretty cool. I knew I would be
getting him before president said so. As we were all eating lunch
together, the trainers and trainees, the trainer and his trainee just
kind of sorted out and that's who our trainee was going to be. It was
like they just gravitated to us.
Elder Dey is his name.
Conference was awesome. We had 3 investigators attend it. Mike stayed
at the church all Sunday and watched both sessions. That was sweet. He
is prepared I hope.
Then Neil came. It was funny because Neil always just get hung up
about the Book of Mormon and the evidences and stuff. And while he was
there a 70 gave the talk about the Book of Mormon and threw down about
how it's ridiculous that anyone would try to say it's not true. Haha
afterward I told Neil that talk was for him. He laughed and said "yea,
but where are the gold plates?" Haha so dumb, I've answered that so
many times!!! Which is this:
God does not reveal super sacred things to everyone while they are
here on earth. There are some people that were ordained and called
before they came here to see and experience such sacred things. For
example the risen, resurrected Christ. How many people saw him?? How
many people saw the risen Christ shortly after His resurrection? About
12, plus or minus. Now with something that is about Jesus Christ,
which the Book of Mormon is, it will mirror, reflect, and compare to
His life here. Therefore there were chosen ordained people, 12 of them
in fact, who have seen and handled the golden plates just as they who
have seen the risen Christ. And if you cannot believe in the Book of
Mormon because you have not seen the original plates, well then you
can't believe in the resurrected Christ because you have never seen
Him either.
I always am amazed at how reflective and comparable this church is, or
life within this church is, with the church of Jesus Christ, or the
life of Jesus Christ.
Why does the church receive persecutions? Who do people fall away from
the church? Why are there so many rumors about the church or that we
worship Satan or are a cult? Why do people always try to question us
and test us? Etc.
Jesus Christ and His church were persecuted! Jesus' followers fell
away because He would "ask for too much." The scribes and pharisees
would always make things up about Jesus such as that he was beelzebub
even when He casted away evil spirits. The elders and scribes always
questioned Jesus and tried to make Him fumble on His words. Etc.
This truly is the church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. And
because it is we must be prepared and expect such persecutions because
Satan has always tried to tear righteousness apart and always will.
I loved Elder Anderson's talk. That made me defiantly get chocked up.
I'm pretty sure a lot of his talk was just on the spot, you could
tell. It is amazing to see Gods hand. Elder hales passed away
inbetween conferences and President Nelson was inspired to go to the
hospital immediately after the morning session and skip lunch to go
see elder hales. Then to come back and report the news. And then to
have elder Anderson give that final talk and include part of Elder
Hales talk he prepared which talked about preparing to meet God. How
beautiful. I can feel the spirit whenever I think about it. That was
absolutely wonderful. I'm so glad God is so dang good at what He does.
He gives joy to my soul!!!!
I just have such passion when I say that I know this is Gods work.
This is Gods church. There is no other explanation for this church.
The fact that it has not faltered and diminished after such
persecutions. The fact that it has not faltered and diminished with
all the tricks of Satan to the world. The fact that is has not
faltered and diminished with 18-25 year old kids running around as
representatives of this church- that us missionaries haven't burnt
everything to the ground. Absolutely everything points to it and fires
my conviction with a flame hotter, bigger, and stronger than the one
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were thrown into, which killed the
servants who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego into the fire
because they got even close to its great heat. My conviction of this
work is like the chocolate and spaghetti and ketchup stains on all of
my shirts- THEY WONT GO AWAY! In the name of
Jesus Christ amen.
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