#on topic but. there's also been so many mormon missionaries in my town??? are they all coming back from serving mission trips or what...... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

trr-mason · 5 years

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Good Morning Brothers and Sisters, This last weekend I returned from Salt Lake City Utah serving a full time 2 year proselyting mission. A lot of you would probably think "Salt Lake? isn't everybody there a member of the church already?" Others of you who know a little about Salt Lake will know that it is not the place it was when it was founded by the saints in 1847 and has even changed drastically in demographics over the last 20 - 30 years. Its was an amazing time to serve the people of that valley and also South western Wyoming where I personally got to serve in both Evanston and Rock Springs Wyoming. These last 2 years have been full of unbelievable miracles and also tragic hardships. My topic to you today has to do with the 3 most important doctrinal principles I have learned over these last 2 years. This is very difficult because the Lord has been willing teach me many things but I narrowed it down to what I will speak on today which is "How Am I Going To Live With God Again?" and I will use the stories of some of the amazing people I met on my mission to demonstrate the path that God has laid before me. One of the most important things to I know and hope that each of you can come to know is the power that allows for everything else to even be a reality for us; that is the Atonement of our savior Jesus Christ. This is the "....great and last sacrifice... an infinite and eternal sacrifice"(Alma 34:10). During this time Jesus suffered for not just many things, but all things, including our pains, our sorrows, our affictions, the price of our sins and even the temptations that leads to those sins. He did these things that he might be able to empower us and make us clean. He also suffered death and rose again that we might look forward one day to receiving a glorfied and perfected body as our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have. The example I want to share with you today of someone using this power comes from South Salt Lake City. There was a woman, her name is Brenda, and she was living in her daughters home, her and her husband had been separated for several months. During this time that she had been living with her daughter she had both had a knee replaced and intensive hip surgery within 4 months of each other so she could hardly get around. An understatement of a lifetime would say that "she was having a hard time". With all of her spare time she was reading in a book of world religions and came to the conclusion that 1 of 2 religions had to be true and that was either our church or the Buddhist faith. She decided that she would study these faiths more closely. When talking to an upstairs neighbor named Sister Fiso, Sister Fiso jumped on the opportunity and said she knew just the right people to call. That week was the week I met Brenda. From the time that we met in December of 2017 she has had many wonderful things occur in her life naming a few, she gained a testimony of Christ and his true church, she was baptized on new years eve, her Marriage was rebuilt, and she and her husband, who was also baptized, will be sealed in the temple in a few weeks. Many of you have seen the effect of that all encompassing and infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The amazing part is that Christ made it so that there was an outline of the way in which we can access the redeeming and perfecting aspects of His Atonement. While on the earth he taught this as the Doctrine, or Gospel, of Jesus Christ. This is the thing he chose as his core message to share with us. It is process of having Faith in him, to repent, to be baptized, to receive the Holy Ghost, and to continue to make and keep covenants, or promises, with God til the end. The purpose of my, and all, mission(s) is to invite others to do these things and help them live those invitations so that all can take part in His redemtion. A huge example of the Gospel of Jesus Christ being exhibited in someone's life is the experience of Allison Alverdi. She lived the beginning of her life just down the road in Rosemond. After going through some hard times in her life she moved to Salt Lake with a friend also from this area named Sarah. Now the first time that we we went by we first met Sarah and when we said that we were the YSA missionaries she opened the door to show Allison. After a few contacts with her at the door the spirit finally convinced her to let us share a message, then another and another. One day we had a lesson on temple square; there in the he is and presence of the Christus statue and close friends Allison accepted a baptismal date in which she did all she could to make happen. This included flying her grandma out and dropping the use of coffee as soon as she knew it was necessary. The Faith she exhibited at that time in her life is still an example to me. One important thing to notice is all that I have talked about is what Christ has done, to provide the power and path to eventual perfection. The last thing that I wanted to expound on is OUR part in the plan, and yes the Gospel of Jesus Christ is our part, but a key factor that is necessary for lasting discipleship is to have real intent. Real intent is the difference between "feasting upon the words of Christ..." and reading your scriptures because your supposed to or "Counseling with God..." and merely saying the same prayer every night so we can get to bed. In the Book of Mormon this attribute is listed as one necessary qualifier for The Spirit of God to reveal the truth of the Book of Mormon. It's says that's we must pray and ask The Father "a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ" then "he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." The greatest example of these principles is Kip Smith. Kip grew up in a small town in Wyoming and he has some social and learning disabilities. So that checks both of the boxes for making it hard to learn the Gospel. I first met Lip by knocking on his door and we taught him a little about the Book of Mormon and how important it was and that if he would read it and pray with real intent he would receive an answer and we said we would come by in 2 days to see how that went for him. The next time we came over Kip let us in and told us his story of how after we left he knelt down next to his bed, Book of Mormon in hand, and how he felt so good about the Book he was holding. This was only the beginning for Kip with his real intent. That Sunday he came to church for the 1st time in his life, then as we continued to meet with him, he learned the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and applied it. This led to him sky rocketing in progressing in his own life as he asked God for help, the lord had no reservation in blessing him. He still struggled but he was baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and he continued to make progress. Even though he couldn't understand what he was reading Kip read all the way to about page 100 in the Book of Mormon by the time I had left that area and he continued to feel good about the Book he had knelt down and prayed about just a few weeks earlier.

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