Hello!
So school started this week in Eagan and Rosemount so NOBODY is available for us. So it was a LONG week of no success. :[ It was pretty lame but thats ok because winter is coming soon and hopefully people will immediately let us in to help us warm up (plenty of missionary opportunities there)!
So as you all may know, my companion, Elder Baker got transferred to Rochester in the 3rd singles ward there. My new companion is Elder Black. I mentioned that i heard that his snores are loud and sound like Darth Vader. That is correct. The first night he was here, i COULD NOT go to sleep. So i have been sleeping on our couch since Wednesday but that will end today because Elder Black said that he would buy me some earplugs. He has been out for almost a year. He's 20 years old. He is VERY tall (6 feet 6 inches). He LOVES Taco Bell and Mountain Dew. He was in Marching Band in High School. Because last transfer was only 5 weeks, this transfer will last for 7 weeks. It'll be a good 7 weeks.
So like i said, school just started here and nobody was free for us. We called everybody but everything fell through. But we were able to get 2 lessons this week and form a SOLID ward mission plan. Last tuesday was our 2 lessons. First we taught Sister Briggs (LA) about the word of wisdom. We had 2 sisters from Relief Society come and help us as well. She drinks coffee and chews A LOT of nicotine gum. It was a good lesson and she committed to live the WOW. We call every night to see how she is doing with it. She has been saying that it has been going "just alright." A turning point was just yesterday though! At church, we sat next to her and she said that shes officially quit coffee as of yesterday. We were soooo happy to hear that. Now we just need to focus on eliminating the gum. She is sooooo awesome. After that lesson, we taught Mary Hellan Boodrum (I) with another member about the Restoration and we were very aggressive with the Book of Mormon. She did say that she believes (not KNOWS) that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She said that she had no problem changing things to join our religion except for one problem. She believes in the holy sacrifice of the mass (its where one believes that the bread and wine of the sacrament is LITERALLY turned into the flesh and blood of Christ). She strongly believes it. She told us that it is the only thing that is holding her back. We strongly bore testimony that the Book of Mormon can solve this complex problem by a simple answer from the Holy Ghost. We told her that if the BOM is true, then the way that we administer the sacrament is true and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, then he restored the true way to administer the Sacrament. We extended a baptismal invitation but she said that she needed to find our if the BOM is true first. and she agreed to be baptized if she found out that these things were true. We were extremely bold with her but we believe that by being this bold, we basically got out of the "comparing religions" phase. We established our purpose with her, she does keep her commitments, and she loves the church. So now we just need to help her know how she can find out if the BOM is true. You see how important the BOM really is? its not just another book of scripture that we know is true but it is literally what holds the gospel together. Its the determining factor of ALL investigators. It all matters on the BOM. Every question eventually boils down to: "Is the BOM true or is it not?" This all weighs on the BOM. Speaking of the BOM, it is now the central focus on our ward mission plan. Now the ward mission leader, his assistant, and Elder Black and I go to the auxiliaries to commit a few of them each week to give out a BOM and report back to us. The assistant ward mission leader also found a 23 questions of the BOM compilation (its alot like the questions of the soul). It gives a chapter or even just a scripture to read under that question. Elder Black and I went to Relief Society and 2 sisters took a BOM as well as the 23 questions paper. We pray that this new effort will improve our finding results.
So here is my spiritual thought for the week. Before i say this, i apologize for how long it is but it is such a powerful testimony of the BOM. It is Elder Hollands testimony of the Book of Mormon in his talk titled "Safety For The Soul." He says: "May I refer to a modern “last days” testimony? When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage to face what they knew would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words to comfort the heart of his brother: 'Thou hast been faithful; wherefore … thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.' 'And now I, Moroni, bid farewell … until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ.” A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the page from which he had read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony for which these two brothers were about to die. I hold in my hand that book, the very copy from which Hyrum read, the same corner of the page turned down, still visible. Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the Prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Shortly thereafter pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators. As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness. In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth? Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died...None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, 'No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.'" A video of his testimony is also on mormon.org. I know that the BOM is true and that it is the concrete of our faith in Christ. It is the most reliable written source that gives me simple and powerful answers to questions that may be difficult to answer. If you haven't received that testimony of the Book of Mormon, then I encourage you, like Moroni did, to get on your knees after reading it and plead with your Heavenly Father to know if it is true or not. If you do so with a humble heart and are willing to use this witness to defend this book, then i PROMISE that you will receive the unshakable knowledge that this book is of God and that this is His kingdom established on earth, preceding the Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Thank you for all you do and I know that this is the only true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Love Elder Mower
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Heather
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