Missionary Lesson #31: The Book of Mormon matters for EVERYONE

I learned this week that everyone needs to gain a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true in order to truly be converted to Jesus Christ.  Here's the story:

Chris Y is the one investigator we are working with who has a baptismal date set.  He is also the one investigator who attended sacrament meeting this past week.  He stayed for all three hours (even Priesthood, which we sisters do not attend!) and has been taught all of the first three lessons and nearly all of the fourth lesson.  (Only four lessons are required before baptism.)  We have not been able to teach him any lessons with a member present yet, but our Ward Mission Leader (Brother Ortiz) and our Deputy Ward Mission Leader (Brother Carapezza) have both committed to help us teach him with members in the coming week.  He's pretty close to being one of those "golden" investigators.  

One thing that I have learned from teaching Chris is that ALL investigators need to understand the role of the Book of Mormon in conversion, not just the ones that are struggling to believe or desire to believe.  Chris wants to be baptized, and he wants to meet with us.  Once we teach him the doctrine (or "why?") of the Word of Wisdom, we are confident that he will be able to live in compliance with that commandment.  He is scheduled to be baptized on Saturday May 12, and we're pretty sure that he will be able to "pass" the baptismal interview.   But we're not sure if he is going to the Book of Mormon as a way to receive personal revelation.  We're not sure if he understands how to receive revelation in general, or even if he knows what personal revelation will feel like.  We know that he needs to have a firm testimony of the divine origin of the Book of Mormon if he is going to stay converted to the Gospel.  So we plan to have a lesson that covers the role of the Book of Mormon and shows him how to use the index in his paperback Book of Mormon to find scriptures that relate to his own questions of the soul.

For all you people back home, feel free to leave your testimony in the comments section on what revelation feels like for you, or how you came to know that the Book of Mormon is the inspired word of God.  I won't be able to read your comments until August 2013 (when I return home), but I look forward to reading them in sixteen months!

Some details of missionary life

This week has been humbling simply because of the large number of tender mercies and miracles that we experienced that we as missionaries did not fully deserve, but which Heavenly Father decided to bestow upon us anyways. I kinda feel like he blessed us on behalf of the people that we interacted with, because they deserved the blessing.  

Sister Hartshorn suggested during our weekly planning that we look in our the "Potential Investigators" section of our Area Book to identify referrals who were marked for follow-up but may not have been contacted by the previous missionaries ("Stinky elders!").  We have gradually inputted their names and addresses into the GPS that my parents sent me, and each evening we prayerfully decide which one referral we will try to contact the following day.  We don't feel the need to sprint, when all we have been axed [sic] to do is to "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ"2 Nephi 31:20.

This practice helped us find two new investigators who live in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans (but still within our area). 

This practice also helped us to be in the right time to open our mouths and talk to a young mom who was taking her kids for an evening walk in Chalmette.  She recently moved into the area and is looking for a good church to take her three children to, so that they can grow up with good morals.  We left her the Gospel of Jesus Christ brochure and she sounded excited to read it.  We have an appointment to see her on Tuesday afternoon.

Our "Mission Culture" goal (i.e the one thing from our Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission Vision on which we are going to raise the bar) this week is focusing on helping people to RECEIVE the restored gospel.  We realize that as well as we might communicate the message of the Restoration or of the Atonement, all we can do is communicate that message UNTO them.  Ultimately, it is the Holy Ghost that carry that message INTO their hearts, so we need to do everything we can to create a spiritual environment in which the Holy Ghost can work.  To do that, we need to get out of the way, listen with love, and testify of the truth of our message, with emphasis on the doctrine of Christ. 

The ward has decided to have a trip to the temple on Saturday, May 12.  

We are excited because there are several new converts and reactivating members from our area whom we can help go to the temple to feel the Spirit there.  I know from experience how key it is for new converts to get a taste of the temple soon after baptism so that they know what they’re fighting for.  (Ever wonder why Mormons go to the temple so often?  Find out here: http://mormon.org/family-history/)

We taught a guy (Kevin W) this week who reminded me of the [evil] KKK Gubernatorial candidate from "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"   He kept saying that churches these days are filled with "hippo-crips" [sic].  Ah, Louisiana, how I love you.

Here's something you might not expect: we have been asked to spend six hours a week on mormon.org, lds.org, and youtube.com/mormonchannel.  We have been promised that if we increase our use of media in our ministry, our effectiveness as missionaries will also increase.  In practice, we go to the library for an hour a day on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  Sometimes we'll go on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we normally don't have time for the library on the former day because of district meeting or on the latter day because of weekly planning time.  (This last week, Sister Hartshorn and I were extra speedy during planning and we needed only 2.5 hours to plan our week.)  

We get to see some pretty cool videos.

Here's one video that made met think of my Aunt Barb.  (My Aunt Barb recently made a trip with one of her good friends to the Grand Canyon and other southwestern classics.  She sketch the whole way there, and her sketch journal is an AWESOME record of what she saw and experienced.)   

Disclaimer: It's one of those "I'm a Mormon" ads that people sometimes make fun of because they think the point of the ad is that only Mormons do cool things.  (WRONG!!!)  I like them because they show that even though we Mormons all believe the same thing (i.e. faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end), we express that faith and live that faith in different ways. The videos are reassuring because they shows that Mormons get divorced and go through hard times the same as anyone else, but our faith in the Savior can help us view those hard times differently than if we did not have faith in Him.

The Meaning of Life

I have learned the meaning of life.  No, it's not 42.  And no, I am not taking the Seminary Student Cop-Out Answer("to have joy!").  

Before you get all mad at me and start exclaiming "false doctrine!" let me reassure you that I still know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  The verse I quoted above (2 Nephi 2:25) is 100 percent true.  Moreover, I also know that President Hinckley was acting as the mouthpiece of the Lord when he instructed us that life is meant to "be enjoyed, not just endured."  We are meant to be on this earth so that we can obtain a fulness of joy.  But how does one do that?

The answer to that question is what I have learned in the last two weeks.  

We fulfill our purpose as human beings when we live in a way that allows us to emulate the Savior.  We can emulate Him by striving to be exactly obedient to the commandments of God and by striving to love our brothers and sisters the way that He would love them.  Every time that we help someone to do something that they could not do on their own merits, we are emulating the Son of God, whose perfect Atonement enables all of us to live with Him again one day.