We were having the lesson on our investigator's porch. She has a date
to be baptized but needs to live a few commandments before she can,
halfway through inviting her to live one of them, a thought hit my
mind. "I'm asking this person to change their life. Here I am, talking
to her for the fifth time in my life, asking her to drop something
she's done for 40 years so she can be a part of the church. Her life
will never be the same. Why would she ever want this?"
Finally interrupting the pause, the member finished the invitation for
me. To which she said yes. I was a mildly surprised. I asked her why
she wants to. "Well, isn't this what God wants for me?"
Of course, but I wasn't expecting you to be so on board with this.
Something within me, after all of these months of being a missionary,
forgets that I help people literally redirect their lives towards
Christ. And I can't believe that they listen to me. And I think, "Have
I really been doing this for the past two years?" My attitude isn't as
much serene wonder and awe as it is scratching my head and wondering
how the heck I got here.
A man once stopped Elder M and I on the street. He told us he
joined the church a year ago and is getting sealed in the temple soon.
At his work he was having a training on how to help change people's
lives, because he knew it was possible, thanks to missionaries.
I remember the day that I realized why it's important to know the Book
of Mormon is the word of God. There's been a sort of ingrained belief
in the church for much of my life, but when I was around 12 or 13 I
really started understanding and believing in the church. It took me
up to age 16 that it hit me, "If the Book of Mormon is true, then this
really is the church of Jesus Christ. There really is no greater joy
than living the gospel."
From that point I not only lived the gospel, I was wanting others to
live the gospel. I invited less active friends to church and mutual. I
tried to attend the temple every week. I fulfilled my calling the best
I could. I went out with missionaries and began seriously preparing
for my own. The sacrament became so much more special. Why would I
want this? Because it's what God wants for me. He wants me to heel
happy. He wants me to serve others. It is all part of God's plan.
Knowledge is power only because knowledge leads to an increase of
faith. Faith is the principle of action and power.
I'm not a genius, or a philosophical wizard, or anything more than
someone with some knowledge and some faith, which is why I still don't
know exactly how I'm doing this, but this is all real. It's all
wonderfully real.
We should be on our knees every morning and night pleading with the
Lord that we never lose our faith, our testimony, or our virtue. If we
have not received it yet, we need to plead to find it. There only has
to be one witness, but it must be yourself.
Elder Richard Hall
No comments:
Post a Comment