Dear Family,
Well, I can officially say that the time is near at hand. Tomorrow is another day of training, then Friday we will probably mostly be traveling, then planning. Sunday will be a full day of work minus church--and I get to give a talk, then Monday will be packing and Tuesday I will come back down to Bangkok again for preparation and then moves meeting is on Thursday.
The training is really good. I really enjoyed it a lot. They won't be starting this kind of training in the MTC until May. I'll be able to train Brandon and Justin before then. :P I like the section about the Book of Mormon. There is no doubt in my mind that the Book of Mormon is true. It is clear evidence of Jesus Christ's divinity, of Joseph Smith as His chosen Prophet and Revelator, and of how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the Lord's Kingdom once again established on the Earth. The Spirit has witnessed to me that the Book of Mormon is true. By the Power of the Holy spirit I know it. Everything in this Church depends upon the truthfulness of that Book. When I read it, and pray with sincerity, it is as if the book becomes alive with precious guidance that I needed at the time. And then when I read it again, with the changes in my life, new things stand out and it enlightens my understanding. It's really a good book. And it came from God. It also contains the fullness of the Gospel.
A while back Elder Booth and I were headed to the bus station from the Sky train. It was raining outside. We went through a few stops and each time a new group of people entered the train. At one of the stops I saw a large white man (we like to call them farangs) wearing a white shirt and a tie. He was holding in his hand a Bible in a plastic bag. I thought to myself "that's funny that a preacher from another religion would end up standing right next to us." The Preacher never looked up but he proceeded to open the plastic bag and pull out his large Bible. Then I thought to my self "Oh no." He then proceeded to flip through the pages until he came to a certain chapter in Ephesians. It was Ephesians 1:7 or something like that. He then read the verse out loud to us making sure to stop at particular parts to throw in a comment. He said something like this: If any man Preach another Gospel "like the Book of Mormon" ...whether he be given it by angels, "like the Angel Moroni" let him be accursed. "let him be accursed," he repeated, "that's scary stuff huh?" He had a funny lower sounding voice. I told him that I believe that the Bible and the Book of Mormon contain the same Gospel in them. He said that he didn't. I asked him what his name was and where he was from. He said that he was the guy that Joseph Smith warned us about and told us that he has been going around Preaching in Thailand for 10 years, but he can't speak Thai and he doesn't have his own church but he goes around from church to church. After he answered I asked him if he had ever read the Book of Mormon and he said no but he had heard about it. I told him that he shouldn't believe everything that he hears and advised him to read the Book about it. Unfortunately he refused and said that the verse that he just read alone would be incentive for him not to read it. His words didn't have any validity to me because he had never even tried to read it before. But if he would read it sincerely, with the intent to obey it's teachings were it true and truly came from God, and then pray with faith, he would receive an answer that it were true, and he would rejoice in it.
I feel very grateful that God loves us and speaks to us, and speaks to His Holy Prophet, just like he always has. Our Savior lives! And He will bring us back into the presence of the Father to be judged of our works.
The Gospel is so true!
I will be excited to see you guys next week. Until then I'll be enjoying my last few days!
Love,
Elder Lilly
No comments:
Post a Comment