(I began this message last week and then ran out of time, but I wanted to make sure that I said what I needed to- so enjoy two letters this week!) -EW
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(Palvo=Turkey)
¡Hola, todos!
What a week! I have not seen my sector much, but I did teach an awesome lesson yesterday and gave some blessings earlier in the week. Hopefully I´ll get out tonight, but it doesn´t look likely. I discovered a ton of back paperwork that never got done by the last Historian, as well as another completely different kind of paperwork that never got done by the last Pensionista, but is now my responsibility. Hence, I´m serving in a different way for now!
Some awesome things did happen this week though.. Primarily, last Sunday our companionship brought 8 Investigators to church, plus three reactivated families. all of them but one of the investigator families were people that I contacted personally, and so I felt awesome to watch the Capilla fill up for a special fast and testimony meeting. Two of the most exciting parts were when Hagapito(ah-gah-PEE-toe), the father of the familia Huaman (Luis is his son, to whom I have been giving piano lessons) walked in (we haven´t seen him at all in two and a half months and we´re waiting for his permission to baptize his family), and when a new dear friend of mine, Nicolas, stood up and bore his testimony. I´ll go ahead and tell you a little more about him.
Nicolas is a wonderful man of 19 years of age who was baptized when he was 8. Within a few years, he had inactivated and fallen away from the church. He investigated many other religions, but none of them seemed to be right as all of them taught that each man has his own way to heaven, as long as he believes in and "comes to" Christ(NOT true, by the way, those are only the first two steps). We had been following up on some instructions from the Bishop to go and visit one of the older men who had become less active, when Nicolas and his girlfriend showed up. Nicolas, now 11 years older and about 7 years completely away from the church, came in covered in piercings and began to talk with us on his Grandmother´s insistence, occasionally cursing and talking about all of his bad experiences with the church. We taught about the restoration of the gospel and bore testimony of the divinity of this work. He asked if he could ask a question, and I answered it. I would like to share that conversation with you as my spiritual thought today.
The question that he asked was, "If all churches bring me to Christ, why should I choose to be with a church when I already believe in Him?"
This is a very real question, and one that I thought a lot about and struggled with for a long time- and I was so glad that Heavenly Father guided me through my struggles to be able to understand it as it is. The question I´d like to pose as a response to you is, "What next?". I of course, answered him much more bluntly- and I will show you the answer too- but to really understand it, you have to start at the beginning.
God is our Heavenly Father- our creator and the person whom we chose to follow before this life even started. He loves us, and He wants us to attain the same level that He has- Immortal and Glorified. We agreed that in order to become like Him, we needed to have our own experience and opportunity to choose- to the end that we would know for ourselves how to act and what would bring us the most happiness. This is what we call "Salvation"; it is the manner of life that will bring us the most happiness, or save us from the most grief. Unfortunately, we are not perfect. We knew that we would make mistakes, but we also knew that nothing impure could return to His presence and obtain this higher level of existence. Our Father knew this too- and as any good father would, He created a way for us to overcome these small weaknesses and begin to obtain that Happiness in this life.
This was and is the purpose of Jesus Christ- to provide a way that we can make our own mistakes and still return through our work to overcome them. He led the Prophets of the old testament and taught them standards of living that would allow them to be the happiest they could in this life, and obtain that unending happiness, or Eternal Life, after their time of probation was over. Moreover, Christ gave them two things- Power and Authority. He gave them Power to do the things that He would do- to heal, to bless, to create, and to perform every variety of miracle imaginable- and He gave them the Authority to act in His name- to be leaders, teachers, revelators, and to help others gain a remission of their sins and errors. Unfortunately the weakness of humanity is such that while these prophets did many wonderful things, after a time they would be rejected, and a new prophet would need to be called after a period of darkness. Ultimately Christ Himself came to the earth and established His church on two continents- but even He and His disciples were rejected after a time, and the precious truths and teachings that He had given were changed to the whims of the people or rulers, lost, or forgotten. Thus, the world plunged into a time of spiritual darkness we know as the Dark Ages, where even professors of Christianity warred one against another without the Power and Authority of Christ to guide them.
Much time passed, and eventually the preachers of Christianity began to realize and call for a restoration of the original truths of the gospel. People began searching for the truth, and for the same wonderful blessings that were found in the Church of old. Finally, in 1820 God the Father and Jesus Christ Himself appeared to a boy named Joseph Smith and announced that He was to be the Prophet of this restoration. Over the next few years, the teachings that Christ originally taught and the Power and Authority that He originally bestowed were brought back- and God once again spoke through a Prophet on Earth! Through this restoration we finally received the fullness of His Plan for us- that not only are we to be happy, but that He wants us to live with our families forever; that He wants us to gain the power that He has; and that each of us has a specific role to play in helping all return to Him. This is why we needed (and need) a restoration. This is why we need the church and priesthood of Christ on the Earth. I know for myself that many churches are good churches, and teach true principles. I know that many of them teach us to believe in Christ, and many more in God- but the question is, "What next?". When we believe in Him what are we bound to do, and what do we really know? This is a question that can be answered only through Him, and in the manner that He has used since the beginning of time.
I know for myself- not because of anyone else, but by my own studies and my own personal petition to and answer from God Himself- that His power is on the Earth, and that it is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If I sound like a religious fanatic, so be it- but I KNOW for myself, and you can too. You are God´s Child, and He knows you. When he ceases to be Heavenly Father because of where He is and becomes Heavenly Father because of who He Is is when we can begin to attain His glory in this life. Ask Him if what I have said is true, with the intention to act upon the answer you receive- and when you know, act. I promise you that you will not be forsaken nor ashamed. You Will Know.
I love you all. Sorry for the delay. It was important that I finished this.
-Elder Wheelhouse
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