We loved zone conference last Friday. I love the focus on the Book of Mormon. I believe in that book so much. It's the first thing I do every morning and the last thing I do every night. I usually read the Book of Mormon in Tagalog. I've been working on it for the 3rd time on my mission.
Brother Rafael was on our minds the whole time that Sister Tobias and I were in zone conference. I really want to do what President Nelson did and make lists of all the truths that the Book of Mormon clarifies and principles. I think that it would really help Brother Rafael. Sister Tobias felt the same impression to do this during zone conference so we feel like it was an impression sent from God. We didn't get to teach him this week because he has been in the hospital with his grandma and he is a very busy psychology student, but we know he started the Book of Mormon from the very beginning. We really feel that this young man is going to be a future leader of the church and an outstanding missionary. His desire is to be a missionary, and I am 100% certain that God has led him to this church. I often feel inadequate to be teaching, but I'm so grateful that this is the Lord's work and the Book of Mormon is the key to conversion and understanding the Savior. I have no doubts about Brother Rafael.
We taught KC and Jarwin this week again, the young couple that lost their baby. they told us they had been talking about their first experience with the missionaries, and they are committed to joining the church. They are SOO prepared of God. They are quickly becoming close to my heart. i just want to talk about them all the time and I jump for joy when I mention their names to others and my companion. There is no doubt in my mind that we were led to them and they are going to be married for all eternity someday in the temple. We told them their baby is so excited that they found the missionaries and that he is waiting for them to go to the temple. They are so special.
We have other investigators dealing with hard trials and the underlying problem is feeling forgiveness. But I'm learning that the Savior is willing and ready to forgive. He loves us. It is never too late. I love our investigators and see that their hearts are good and forgiveness and change. If I see that, I know that's just a taste of how the Savior loves me and our investigators.Some investigators of ours have lost hope because of the death of their returned missionary from sickness, or their husband has an addiction and wants to be baptized, or is afraid to come back to church because of the mistakes they have made in their lives. One recent convert has just been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. It was such a spiritual experience to sing "Be Still my Soul" to him. My heart is being filled with compassion towards them.
I've been studying the Atonement of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon and the Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. I learned this:
The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that—miraculously—we can feel at home there. If Christ did not require faith and repentance, then there would be no desire to change. Think of your friends and family members who have chosen to live without faith and without repentance. They don’t want to change. They are not trying to abandon sin and become comfortable with God. Rather, they are trying to abandon God and become comfortable with sin. If Jesus did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change. We would be left forever with only willpower, with no access to His power. If Jesus did not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization of those changes over time. They would forever be surface and cosmetic rather than sinking inside us and becoming part of us—part of who we are. Put simply, if Jesus didn’t require practice, then we would never become pianists.
-- Brad Wilcox
3 Nephi 9 is becoming a favorite to share.
13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?
14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.
15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.
This week wasn't easy. Even though we planned very very busy schedules and many investigators every single day, even though most of them were sure times that our investigators would be available, things didn't go the way we planned. We kept wondering why things turned out that way. We aren't perfect, but we are studying and trying to be obedient, even though we have many flaws. But we stayed positive and even though we still aren't sure why things went the way they did, we aren't giving up and we are going to try again.
The gospel is about change and transforming into what Heavenly Father wants to make us. He is here to heal us, to change our nature through the principles of the Gospel into what he wants us to be. Jesus "ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice." Because he did this we can change and he can give us mercy. We can become like our Heavenly Father. But we must choose to use His Atonement and repent and change. If we don't we won't be ready or want to meet our Father in Heaven again. I'm so grateful to find those of His children who want to repent and be changed through the power of the Atonement of our Savior. I know that the Book of Mormon contains these truths and are in no other Book.
Sister Porter
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