Querida Familia y Amigos
That was a good question you asked me yesterday about letters, Mom. I think one thing that I would love to hear more of in letters is experiences from your missions. And pictures certainly never hurt!
On Sunday we had only one investigator at church. That might seem good, but for us it really isn't very much. It was disappointing because many of our plans fell through at the last minute and everyone that we're working with who has a baptismal date did not come to church. However, with every disappointment comes blessings in disguise. We're able to better see weaknesses in testimony that we were not attuned to earlier and we were able to sort through the interest level of other investigators.
Lately I have been doing all of my studies in Spanish. I've found that it's easier to follow the Spirit and find scriptures that meet their needs in the lessons when I study in Spanish. Right now I am reading in Mosiah 26 and am working hard to complete El Libro de Mormón. It's nice to be able to tell investigators that I am reading the book in Spanish so you can do it too! Reading in Spanish (and as a missionary) has helped me to notice many things that I had never payed attention to all of the other times I read The Book of Mormon. The book of Mosiah talks a lot about authority and makes it so clear the importance of authority in the church of Jesus Christ. In Mosiah 21 there is an interesting little story from verses 31 to 35. Here it talks about how the people repented and regretted that they had not listened to the words of Abinadi. They decided that they wanted to make a covenant with God to serve him and keep his commandments. This covenant is very similar to what we know to be the baptismal covenant. In verse 33 it says that they all desired to be baptized. It is interested that even though what they did was similar to baptism, they recognized that it was not a baptism and they still longed to be baptized because as it goes on to say in verse 33, they saw that there was not anyone among them who had the authority of God. So they went forward with the covenant that they had made, with desires to be baptized, but they did not try to say they had an authority that they had not been granted. Later in verse 35 we read that later on they were able to receive the desires of the hearts and be baptized. What a beautiful story of faith and what great understanding those people had.
We often work with people who do not know how to recognize an answer to their prayer. They do not know how they can really know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and The Book of Mormon is the word of God. Most of these people are Christian, so I ask them how they know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. They usually tell us that they have never thought of that before, they just know. Then we are able to look at how they feel in their heart and their minds when they hear of Christ or read of Him. In the process of helping them to develop their testimonies and recognize answers to their prayers, I am blessed immensely. There are moments when everything is so clear to me and I feel like I can see eternity. And then as fast as it came, it leaves. But the impressions that came cannot be denied and will always remain with me.
The church is true. It is great to be a missionary!
Love,
Hermana Kinghorn
