Thursday, November 6, 2014

Dear Family and Homies,

This week was bomba. We had a lot of lessons this week and we got members involved more. That was good. Our ward is doing so good. Even the members are starting to notice that the chapel is more full. There have been a lot of less-active members returning and we've been blessed to have investigators coming to church. They all bailed this week :( but that's okay I think they'll be back next week. This week we found this awesome lady named Jojo who is just so solid. She has a strong desire to simply find out what is true and what is not. She recognizes that there must be a true church out there and that it's possible to find out which church it is. One of the questions she asked was, in effect, "which church is true and how will I know it?" Pretty sick right? She just straight fell in our lap too. She flagged us down a month ago, or something like that, and said to come visit her sometime. This week was the first time we were able to catch her at home. We brought a member with us to the first lesson even though the lesson wasn't 100% solid but it worked out and the member was perfect for her. She bore super solid testimony and Jojo felt the increase in the Spirit in her home for sure. It's so awesome to see the out pour of the spirit when strong testimony is born. Something as simple as stating a simple truth will bring the spirit more than any amount of tact or eloquence would ever bring. From what I've seen in my mission, bearing testimony that the Holy Ghost has confirmed to your heart that ____ (whatever you're testifying of) is true brings the Spirit in a way that the person listening will be able to notice it. When Emma Smith (at the time Emma Hale), the wife of the Prophet Joseph, had to decide if what Joseph claimed was true or not, she said she could tell that he believed what he said from the look in his eyes when he bore his testimony. We need to have that conviction when we share our testimonies with others. The question is, how do we get that conviction? We need to receive a witness from the Holy Ghost. It is the only way. So, ask, seek, and knock. You will receive. 

So far things have been going great. The Lord has been good. His blessings really are all around us. If you feel that the blessings are hard to see then ask God to help you recognize them. It's amazing to see what blessings are around us when we have eyes to see and ears to hear. You guys are all awesome and I'm grateful for all of you. I hope ya'll all have a great week and have fun!

Keep it real.

Elder Sanderson