Hello, my dear family and friends!
So, I originally had the plan to write out how my whole week has been. How we finally got a picture as a district. How I got to go on exchanged with Sister Billings. How our investigators are doing... But for some reason I feel inspired to share something else. It still has a lot to do with what has happened in the last week, so no worries on that.
For some reason this week really helped me gain a stronger testimony and respect towards Joseph Smith as a prophet. My companion and I were talking to a former investigator of the church and he was telling us that he doesn't like how we worship Joseph Smith and how we always talk about him. We had to explain to him that we do not worship Joseph Smith. We bring him up all the time because he was SUCH a crucial part in the Restoration of the Church. So, that is why us "crazy Mormons" always talk about Joseph Smith.
We got to teach one of our investigators, about Joseph Smith because we felt he didn't have a firm enough belief that he was a prophet and we can't continue teaching him the other lessons until we know that he is comfortable with everything that we share and that he believes and has a testimony. So, in preparation for that lesson, I spent my personal study time on Saturday just reading accounts and testimonies on Joseph Smith. I grew a tremendous amount of respect for him.
We always ask people what they think about him being a prophet. We ask, "Why would a man die for something that was not true?", "Why would he and his family suffer so much if it wasn't true?". Why would I be serving a mission if I didn't believe that Jesus Christ's gospel was restored? I would not be. I am not here as a missionary to lie to people. I am here because I have firm beliefs and I know the blessings that have come in my life since I made a personal decision to follow Jesus Christ. I am here because I want other people to enjoy these blessings as well. I was reading from a General Conference talk that Heavenly Father allows for opposition in all things. And that is why people suffer. We knew before we came to this Earth that we would suffer and we chose to come down anyway. Suffering gives us a chance to humble ourselves. Humbling ourselves leads us to praying and asking God for guidance. I thought that was a pretty cool way of seeing things.
One of my favorite hymns "Praise to the Man" has such a profound effect on me now. The line that says "Millions shall know Brother Joseph again!" makes me want to cry because it is so true. He was a prophet. He communicated with God and Jesus Christ and helped restore the gospel. And I have such a great testimony on that fact now. Even greater than before. I am going to copy and paste a few links on here and I invite everyone who is reading this to click on at least TWO of them. Any two. I think everyone should know that Joseph Smith was actually a prophet. I am trying not to sound preachy, even though I literally do that every day. I am merely expressing my beliefs and I want other people to see for themselves if what I have set aside 18 months of my life to teach about is true. And we can only know if things are true if we pray about them.
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