Colorado

Prophets Are Amazing
May 12, 2014

Hello!!! I have learned a lot this week and one of the best things was when we got to teach the family that just got baptized in April! We were going over the Restoration again and talking about Joseph Smith. We had the best opportunity to talk to the mom and hear her share her testimony. She's not one to always offer her feelings/testimony, but this lesson was amazing! She told us all about how she started on mormon.org and she was researching and asking so many questions, and finally she started talking to missionaries and they sent her the Joseph Smith movie. She said that is when everything changed. When she was watching the movie she just told everyone to leave her alone because she was so wrapped up in it and so excited about it! She said that after she heard that story, she KNEW it was true. It was amazing to hear her experience with that, and it really got me thinking about prophets.

This morning I was reading about prophets and really WHY we have one on earth and why it would be important to have one now. I found out that one of the ways that God shows His love for us is by calling prophets. All throughout time- God started each dispensation with calling a prophet, but we see that those prophets are not always accepted or followed. We saw with Noah, Moses, and even Adam- some people listen to them and some people don't. When we listen, God keeps the priesthood on earth (the power of God) and when we don't listen, He takes it off the earth. When we disregard, reject, and fail in faith, we are distanced from God and we put ourselves in spiritual darkness- and this could be on a worldwide scale, or a personal scale. I wanted to warn about personal apostasy today. We are in the last dispensation and the fulness of times- which means that we are promised that the priesthood WILL NOT be taken from the earth again. This dispensation, that started with Joseph Smith, will end in Christ's second coming. So, we already know that it won't be taken away on a worldwide scale, so we just have to make sure that it's not taken away on a personal scale!  I truly believe that we can make the second coming come faster. When we, as God's family, maintain and increase our faith so much, Christ will have no other choice but to come back to His people, but we need to become a virtuous people first. We need to be knit together in unity and love. We need to get to know our Savior Jesus Christ, and we need to remember that THE way to find joy in our lives is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you are feeling like nothing else can help you in life- we are promised that living the Gospel of Jesus Christ will meet EVERY need no matter what it is!

The other thing I was thinking about was sacrifice and service. When we were teaching that to a family this week, the younger girls brought up that they didn't understand why Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered. I just wanted to close with my feelings on this! I am SO thankful that Joseph Smith sacrificed everything that he did so that we could have joy today. PROPHETS. ARE. AMAZING. I am so thankful that Adam and Eve partook of the fruit and fell from the presence of God so that we could have families and learn of the joy of eternal life. I am so thankful that Noah built an ark and was probably really uncomfortable for a long time with gross animals so that we could be here today! I am so thankful that Abraham learned the importance of sacrifice and faith so that we could learn from him and learn that Heavenly Father will never forsake us. I am so thankful that Thomas S. Monson spends his time each and every day serving those around him and teaching us love. Lastly, I am so thankful that we have a Savior who was willing to give up everything so that we could have joy here on earth and live with Him and our families one day. WE HAVE PROPHETS TODAY SO THAT WE CAN HAVE JOY. So that they can testify of Christ through their actions. You can really tell that a prophet is a man of God by the sacrifices he makes. The best part is, this applies to us too. Things are hard here on earth so that we can learn the law of sacrifice and see that it can bring us joy and the people around us joy,  so that we can feel just a small part of the Savior's pain, and  so that we can understand how much we need to be humbled and grateful for His sacrifice. I have a testimony that by sacrificing, a joy is brought into our lives that cannot be found anywhere else. I see it and feel it every day as a missionary.  By showing kindness, listening, comforting, serving, praying, sharing, and being a friend, we can transcend ALL boundaries.

We need to follow Christ SO CLOSELY that Satan cannot even FIND us. Let that phrase sink into your heart. Christ is in our midst, and His coming is near. It is up to us to be ready!
"Wherefore, let us go to and labor with our might this last time, for behold the end draweth nigh, and this is for the last time that I shall prune my vineyard" Jacob 5:62