Receive Your Testimony Through The Spirit, Not The Words of Men

Hola!

Well... what to say? Things have been going pretty good, nothing amazing or out of the ordinary. I did receive a letter from Sister McKinnon - Thanks! It’s really nice to hear from people back home! :). It sounds like Dad is going nuts with his casts. I can only imagine! I’d go pretty nuts too! I’d hate to be stuck in the house 24/7 with big heavy things plastered to my legs. But the time will come when you can take them off... I hate saying this but patience is something to be learned every day. Something I’ve had to learn... a lot! Also, as a side note, changes are this coming week so I’ll be back on Thursday. Just so y’all know. Neither of us knows what is going to happen - especially since there are 25 new missionaries arriving. But what is sure is that Elder Silva will go or that I will go - two changes is the maximum for a companionship. So... we’ll see!

The mission work has been good! It is work after all. Well, service to the Lord, but we are still laboring in the service of our Lord. I’ve been really enjoying my scripture study lately - I am finding many parallels and applications to our lives as well as the lives of those we are teaching. I am almost finished with Mormón, ready to go into Éter and finish with Moroní. Something that really caught my attention this morning was a few verses in Mormón 8. I can only remember it in Spanish right now, so I hope the translation comes out right. But he tells us that the Lord has shown to Moroní our days, and he is writing to us. He knows that there will be many who will walk in the pride of their hearts, unwilling to change and do the Lord’s will. Unwilling to take the responsibility of keeping the Lord’s commandments, even though we receive blessings. Also, he tells us that there will only be a few who will not harden their hearts, or in other words being willing to accept and seek the Lord’s will through our own efforts as well as through the scriptures, prayer, personal revelation and guidance from living prophets, and they will be persecuted by those who choose not to listen to the Lord’s prophets.

I found a few scriptures that I like about why I am here and how I know it is true, and I’d like to share them with you. The first is in 1 Corinthians... chapter 3 I think. Paul is talking to us that the Holy Ghost has revealed the words of God to him and that he has learned the gospel, not from the wisdom of men, but through revelation from the Holy Ghost. Also, in Moroni 7, 14?-16, we are given counsel to be careful, and to seek the light of Christ, and we will know the good things from the bad like the day from the night. I testify that I have received a answer from God that the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes people’s lives - that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God’s one and only true church on the earth, where we can receive the blessings and ordinances necessary to live with our Heavenly Father again. I haven’t been convinced by the words of men - only through the answers I have received to my prayers that have come through the Holy Ghost. I know that everyone can receive an answer to their prayers, and especially an answer as to what is the truth and where we can go to find it.

Well, my time is up. I hope everything is going great! Take care of yourselves! I love you!

Elder David Watson