There is nothing like this church in all the world.... there was a conference talk by Donald L Hallstrom who talks about being converted through the gospel through the church. How the two things are inseparable. He talks about all the incredible things our church does for humanitarian aid and welfare and self sufficiency and the programs we have for the youth and the missionary services etc. he goes on and on. Then he talks about the gospel and church. Its an incredible talk.
I think about these things all the time, but really those not the most incredible things about our church and about this gospel. Its the power it has to change lives, to make bad men good and good men better. It is the authority and priesthood of god that makes it so incredible. It is love of the members that know what they believe and serve god and eachother with all their hearts. Its revelation from god that we can gain on ANYTHING for ourselves and for those within our stewardship. We can pray to our loving heavenly father ask him a question and he will answer. We have temples to understand better gods plan and to be sealed as families forever. We have the promised blessings of exaltation if we do the small task of keeping the commandments (which are really given to us to make us happy... so why wouldnt we want to follow them?) We have a prophet and apostles and leaders and visiting/home teachers. Its the knowledge we have of the fulness, and its through the restoration of the gospel we have these things. This is our unique message to the world and its the only thing we need to have a testimony because if we know the book of mormon is true and we know that Joseph Smith is a prophet then the rest of it falls in to place. it happened or it didnt, and I can testify that it did happen. Thats that. Its that simple, but somehow people think its much more complicated. I hope that even if you are not a full time missionary, that you watch for opportunities to help people build their testimonies in this member or non member, we all needs strengthening in our testimony and this, next to knowing that Jesus Christ is our savior, should be the strongest part of our testimony.
This week was a great one. The highlight of the week was with Cheryl Mars- we set a baptism date with her! YAY! She was a little hesitant, but we knew that she would be confident in her decision after teaching her a little more (We've only had a couple lessons with her). So we went to teach her yesterday at the Keislings home (they are the family that referred her to us) and it was a great lesson. We were planning to talk about the plan of salvation but when we started asking her about what she was reading she had questions about the book of mormon still, so instead we spent the lesson talking about the book of mormon. It was an intense lesson, where brother keisling just layed it out in the boldest way possible. Every time I read 2 Nephi 29 I want to read it with the people that tell us that they have the bible and thats all they need. Brother Keisling pulled out the big guns and read it to her. I dont think it would have the same effect coming from us, two missionaries who have been born and raised in the gospel, but coming from brother keisling it was POWER! He is a convert of 8 years and his father is a baptist minister, so as soon as he started talking about authority from god it was all over and the things he said made her thing. by the end of the lesson she knew all she needed to do was to read the book of mormon. I cant wait for her to progress and to start reading. She is so prepared and so incredible. I love this gospel and I dont deserve for one bit all the blessings I get from Heavenly Father. I am so lucky to get to teach her!
One really funny moment before I wrap this up: Wednesday we showed up for an appointment early and so we parked by our investigators (diane) house and we were going to just go talk to other people so we were praying before we got out of the car and 1/2 way through the prayer there was a knock on the window. I rolled down the window and there was Dianes granddaughter and she said "oh, HI, are yall prayin'?" we laughed and said yes and she just asked if we were there to see diane and if we were planning to knock when we were ready to see her. haha we told her we would knock in like 20 minutes, we just had some other people to talk to. After she left we went back to praying but we laughed through the whole prayed because it was interrupted by someone to ask if we were praying.
Well. I think thats enough for today. I am grateful for all my many many many blessings and for this gospel. It can change your life no matter what stage you are at.
Love you all!
Sister Webb
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