So Tom was baptized this weekend! It was really cool. We started to feel like we should push his baptism back another week. We told him about it and he was kinda bummed. We then talked about D&C 9:8-9 which says:
8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.
We all got on our knees and had him pray about it and didn’t feel right. We prayed again and we all felt like it was right for him to be baptized this weekend. It was a really cool experience! The baptism went well and we had 2 investigators come to it.
The best part of the week was on Thursday night. There was a house that we tracted into and set up an appointment to teach the daughter. When we came she said it wasn’t a good time. We gave her a Book of Mormon and encouraged her to read the first 8 chapters before we came back. Well, when we came back she wasn’t even there. But her mom was home and she let us in. We taught her and her daughter in law the restoration and it was the best lesson of my mission. They are the most prepared people I’ve ever taught. They literally started crying during the first vision. The spirit was so strong. When we brought up the Book of Mormon, she got so excited and started asking us what the tree, the rod, the fruit, and the people laughing in chapter 8 meant. She had read the first 9 chapters before we even taught her! She wasn’t even there when we challenged her daughter to do it! We set a baptismal date with her and her daughter in law. We went over again last night and gave her a blessing. She will be having surgery soon and is going to start treatment for cancer.
Elder Spragg and I are staying together another transfer. This is his last one. We’re also getting a third companion. We will be training a new missionary. We’re really excited. Things are going so well. We currently have 9 people with baptismal dates, with plenty more on the way. We also had 3 investigators come to church!
I’ve been gaining such a greater appreciation for the Book of Mormon lately. There’s a section in Preach My Gospel that I really like, it says:
All objections, whether they be on abortion, plural marriage, seventh-day worship, etc., basically hinge on whether Joseph Smith and his successors were and are prophets of God receiving divine revelation.
The only problem the objector has to resolve for himself is whether the Book of Mormon is true. For if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelation.
Coupling this with Mormon 8:26-33 is really powerful. That reference says that the Book of Mormon will come forth in a time where it will be said that there are no more miracles, the power of God will be denied, churches will be defiled and raised up in pride, there will be wars in foreign lands, secret combinations, etc. I LOVE what it says in the last verse, verse 33. It tells us EXACTLY what it is we need to do in these chaotic last days. It says “look ye unto the revelations of God.” In a time that Book of Mormon prophets described as a day when people will “contend one with another, and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance” (2 Nephi 28:4), the only sure way to be safe is to look unto the revelations of God.
God has revealed Himself in our time. And once again the only objection, or only thing we have to resolve for ourselves, is whether the Book of Mormon is true. Because if it is, then we no longer have to contend man for man with our own learning. How chaotic does that sound!? That’s the very reason the world is how it is today. We can know the EXACT truth! We can know that God and Jesus Christ live, that they speak to us today, and that wickedness will NOT prevail.
I know that as we “look unto the revelations of God” we will never be led astray.
I Love you all! Have a great week :)
-Elder Steed
Tom's baptism
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