Dear Friends and Family

This week was a pretty good one. Our 4th of July was as normal of a day as possible really. We rode around and talked to everyone that we saw, we offered to help people set stuff up (they all said no >:|), and we knocked on a lot of doors in hopes that they would be home and, by some miracle, have a little bit of time to spare so that we could teach them. Unfortunately things did not go as smoothly as we had hoped but we still had a fun day and at the end of the night I felt like we had done our part. We visited an investigator family and got to talk to one of their friends about what we do as missionaries and some of our basic beliefs and stuff like that. A few days ago we had a lady stop us and try to tell us, in a surprisingly kind way, that we were not Christians unless we believe in the trinity. So, I kindly replied by quoting some of my favorite verses from the Gospel of John and telling her that if the Trinity was true then the Christ and the Apostles would have preached it, but alas, they did not. The scriptures show that very clearly. I felt like I was back in Whittier when she was talking to us. People that that are funny.

This week looks good. We have members lined up for splits on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We don't yet have very many appointments set but hopefully we'll be able to set some up and if not, be able to still have really great experiences. I know that whenever members come out with us, even if there's nothing set, always brings awesome miracles. Hopefully our prayer and faith will be sufficient. The ward is really firing up with missionary work I think. We've been stopping by a lot of members in between teaching people for around 15-20 minutes and every time we've been able to get some sort of assignment from them and we leave them with something to do. It's been working really well and I hope that we'll be able to have some good experiences with the members.

My little nugget I want to share this week sort of has to do with the story with the lady I mentioned in the first paragraph. It is this: If you want to be happier, if you want to learn more about the gospel or if you want to bear your trials better you need to know for a certainty the character of God. 

Joseph Smith taught "It is the first principal of the gospel to know the Character of God with a certainty." (History of the Church, 6:305.) If we can not only know, but strive to seek the character of our Father in Heaven all aspects of our lives will be better. There comes a time where all of us need to know God more fully in order to love him fully. Know him, be acquainted with him, recognize his hand in your life. Now, I am not and I will not pretend to be a person who knows God perfectly, but I can tell you the best way to know him better is to use the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we feel the burden of sin gone we can feel His comfort where that burden once used to be.

I love all of you. I hope the Lord will bless all of you. Have a great week!

Keep it real

 

Elder Sanderson