First off, I have received... PACKAGES!!! Ha HA! The one from Dad with all the letters from the young mens/young womens, and twas great! (I`m so excited to eat the peanut butter-honey mix!) and the one from Erik, it had a CD of the Mormon Tabernacle choir singing songs from movies and plays, and a Lego Missionary! I shall write as soon as I can get the rest of the mail. BUT! I did get letters from the Plowman`s, Mikayla Boren, and KT! Thanks! VERY MUCH!
Ok, as you can see in the title, this is going to be a good letter.
It began as a return lesson with 2 families that we had taught the week before. One had a recent death in the family, and the other was Baptist. They are neighbors that live by one of our Mamitas, and were a reference from them. And usually, references are always very accepting. So, today we planned to plant them the Restoration lesson, and taught all about Apostasy, Dispensations, the need and purpose of a prophet, and about Joseph Smith. We used the white board, showed a video, and testified of the Book of Mormon. All in all, a great lesson. We then gave them the invitation to pray about our message later that night, and to our utmost surprise, they said no.
We re-explained some principles, bore our testimonies again, and re-gave the invitation. Once again, they rejected. The next 20 minutes were us combating doubts and showing how what we were sharing about the Book and Mormon were in reality, true.
We re-explained some principles, bore our testimonies again, and re-gave the invitation. Once again, they rejected. The next 20 minutes were us combating doubts and showing how what we were sharing about the Book and Mormon were in reality, true.
Eventually, I just said, ¨Can I just share a scripture form The Book of Mormon?¨ I flipped open to Helaman 5:12
" And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
and just started reading. Immediately, I was overwhelmed with a feeling. I felt something indescribable, my eyes starting tearing up, and as I read how Jesus Christ is the rock of our salvation, I was completely and undeniably overflowing with the spirit. It was almost unreal, and by the time I finished reading that one verse, I felt the spirit so strong that I didn`t even know what to do next. I just sat there, just hoping that the families could feel what I was feeling. Once I finished reading the scripture, the mother immediately said, ´that`s already in the bible.´ in the most snotty, matter-of-fact way I have heard. As she started flipping through the Bible to try to prove The Book of Mormon wrong, I sat dumb-founded. Here I was, feeling as if The Lord himself had read that scripture, and here they were, even rejected the Holy Ghost.
There was nothing more we could do for them, we were at the peak of our teaching and spiritual capacity, and this family had quite literally looked God in the face and said, ¨No.¨
" And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
and just started reading. Immediately, I was overwhelmed with a feeling. I felt something indescribable, my eyes starting tearing up, and as I read how Jesus Christ is the rock of our salvation, I was completely and undeniably overflowing with the spirit. It was almost unreal, and by the time I finished reading that one verse, I felt the spirit so strong that I didn`t even know what to do next. I just sat there, just hoping that the families could feel what I was feeling. Once I finished reading the scripture, the mother immediately said, ´that`s already in the bible.´ in the most snotty, matter-of-fact way I have heard. As she started flipping through the Bible to try to prove The Book of Mormon wrong, I sat dumb-founded. Here I was, feeling as if The Lord himself had read that scripture, and here they were, even rejected the Holy Ghost.
There was nothing more we could do for them, we were at the peak of our teaching and spiritual capacity, and this family had quite literally looked God in the face and said, ¨No.¨
There you go, the best and worst lesson ever. We didn`t even invite them to baptism or to attend church, just to take 1 minute and pray! They already thought that they knew all they needed to know, and that was it. It`s just like in Alma 33:17, it`s not that the people couldn`t understand the doctrine, but that they Would Not understand the doctrine. Although the lesson felt like a complete failure, I strode away triumphant. I had never had a spiritual manifestation such as this ever in my life, nor a spiritual testimony that the Book of Mormon was true. I`ve always heard of people tell stories of feeling the spirit, and always thought that I could imagine how it felt, and that was all I needed. But now, I`m here to say, that if you have not felt this for yourself, you are definitely missing out. (Now I know why people cry during Testimony Meeting!) And so, after 19 years of being in the Church and 5 months in the Mission, I have a Testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Well, that was the highlight of my week! As for other news, this last Thursday we had a special training meeting, and afterwords President Ghent and Sister Ghent went out with us to go to our lessons! Opportunity of a lifetime! But! Alas, we passed by 5 houses, and all of our lessons fell because no one was home. Grrr.... we had the Mission President with us and he didn`t get a lesson with us. But, it was a great hour with him and his wife!
Well, that`s all the morsels for now, I`ll write later and urge you... Read Your Scriptures!
-Elder Sanders
PS: Photos!
1- Eden and His package!
2- Lego Version of Eden and Erik`s Christmas Card in the Background
PSS: Scripture for Mom and Dad! Read: 3-John 1:4 " I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth."
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