High Profile Case

Well, Chris finally got baptized! He was investigating for 4 months.
The baptism was awesome! The font had a slow leak, so I dunked him in
knee deep water. That was quite the experience. He's now part of the
YSA Ward. I somehow always find YSA people...lol well, I actually know
the answer to that. But that will not be revealed here. :)

I am on cloud 9! I love my mission so much!

We found a family this week! There was a woman that we street
contacted, a subtle prompting brought us to her. Her house was covered
in posters that state "Bring our sister back". We started talking to
her, and it wasn't long before she began to cry, she told us a
sensitive story, about how her baby was kidnapped 5 years ago out of
her crib. The spirit was strong, and we bore simple testimony that our
father in heaven knows more about how she felt that anyone. He had to
watch each one of us make our journey to earth, and then struggle
through the years of life here. Her countenance changed, and a smile,
and sense of comfort came over her. We returned, and her family joined
in on the lesson.

The sad part of that story, is that the mother is one of the main
suspects in the case, and we might have to discontinue our visits with
them until the case is cleared. (Names have been Withheld per data
privacy laws)

I learned a great deal about the spirit in this work. Here are a few
impressions I received.

Many rely on their own learning, and deny the utterance of the Holy
Ghost. They pride themselves in their intellect, but lack the humility
needed to learn from the spirit.  Yet, they still yearn for spiritual
things. They seek comfortable doctrine, and pervert it for things of
godliness. They testify of the incomprehensible God. Which is a true
doctrine, but they lack the understanding that knowledge of his divine
nature is obtained "line upon line, precept upon precept" by the power
of the Holy Ghost. One who does not understand God, will not
understand himself, if he does not understand himself he will not
understand the truth, if the understanding of the truth is lost, the
man becomes carnal, subject to any "wind of doctrine by the sight of
man", and his "cunning craftiness" (Eph 4:11-14)

 "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor 2:14

One of Many reasons why the Natural Man does not sit comfortably in
the chapel of Latter Day Saints,  because they are not comfortable in
the presence of the Lord. They are more comfortable with the world,
because the world won't make them change. Those who do not practice
heavenly things, will never become heavenly. So the stand point of
those who do not comprehend the things of God is simply because they
never wanted to or they wanted to, but relied on man to tell them what
God is, rather than relying on the spirit to reveal to them the nature
of God. That is the concept of man creating God in his own image,
rather than God creating man in his image. The mislead idea is that
when we were born, we were created in gods image. YES. But I pose this
question: Is our creation ended at birth? Or do we continue to be
created throughout our mortal existence, or possibly further than
that? The thing that is needed to understand, is by whom are we
created? What materials are being used in the creation process? And
what are we trying to become.

When we follow the Lord, we build in the Light, and stature of Gods
materials. The commandments, the scriptures, the spirit, the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, are all materials needed to build our image and
countenance of the Almighty. We have been given a body, which is the
First step to Godhood. The Second step to Godhood however, is the
freedom to choose. The ability to act, rather than be acted upon. All
things are given to us which are expedient to us, they are subject for
us to grow in the knowledge and image of God, or the captivity and
power of the devil, his misery, his cunning craftiness.. We can choose
"Liberty, and eternal life through the great mediator of all men, or
to choose captivity and death according to the captivity and power of
the devil". (2 Nephi 2:27)  If we want to honor the doctrine of being
created in the image of God, we must learn his attributes. We learn
his attributes by the Holy Ghost through diligent scripture study, and
the words of the living prophet. So one who does not know the
attributes or cannot comprehend God, is because they have not looked
or searched for his spirit. They have not used his materials-the
gospel-to understand him.

Thus it is expedient to have his spirit in this work. The spirit is
the only tool we have to pierce the wall surrounded by the carnal.
Much opposite to the spirit is the carnal thinking of our own talents.
This is where most missionaries fall short of talking with everyone. I
myself struggled with this a great deal. In common social stand
points, it is un- natural to walk up to a random person, and declare
the gospel, or for that matter, to talk to any random person about
anything is un- heard of these days. When we don't have the spirit with
us, and the carnal has set in; the awkwardness of talking to strangers
settles in, we begin to fear, the isolation and single mindedness
begins, and we are left unto ourselves, it is interesting to note that
self centered attributes are applied to our lives as soon as mistakes
are made. But the only cure is to turn outward, to repent. With
repentance comes the Holy Ghost. Those people are now not as awkward
to talk to, the lord puts words in your mouth to say, and you are not
confounded before man. Any situation, and person. It is the only tool
needed in this work to pierce hearts, break down walls, and be
converted to the gospel.