My Testimony

10/18/13

My testimony of missionary work:  I know personally from experience that God is our Heavenly Father and that Jesus is His son.  They know and love each of us individually and will make manifest to us that love in our lives if we will ask and look for it.  Jesus Christ really is our Savior and Redeemer, and he truly came to earth to atone for our sins and to teach His gospel and prepare the way so that we can each return to live with our Heavenly Father and our families eternally in a state of never ending happiness.  What an amazing blessing and hope!  I also know that through Joseph Smith, the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God given to man--the Priesthood, the Book of Mormon, and all keys and ordinances of Salvation were restored.  Joseph Smith truly saw what he sad he saw on that spring morning in 1820.  God the Father and Jesus Christ truly did appear to him and restore all truth through him.  There is no doubt in my mind that he truly was a prophet called of God.  I also know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet of God on the earth today and that his counsel is inspired and will help us in our lives.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that it is the word of God, and that it will help us in all aspects of our lives.  I know that this church is true and that it has brought me so much joy in my life and I have seen int change the lives of others too!  I testify that missionary work is absolutely amazing, and is the greatest opportunity of my life!  To see others find truth and knowledge that they have been hungering or thirsting for, whether they knew it or not, is such an awesome feeling!  The work is truly hastening, and members truly are the key!  I know that the focus of so much of conferences has been member missionary work lately and you are probably tired of hearing about it.  But, it is because it is true!  Members are the key to the hastening of this great work!  And, though it may seem like a hard thing to do, just remember, opening your mouth to share the gospel is the same as anything else scary to do--take skydiving for example--it only takes 1 second of great courage to jump out of the plane and then you are out there flying.  Same with sharing the gospel.  One second to get it out there and then you can have an amazing experience and memory!  I love this gospel and the chance I have to be a missionary!  I grow closer to my Savior every day, and see His hand in this work, because it is truly His work, and it is amazing!  I know that this is the best place I could possibly be right now, and I love it!  And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

So, sorry I don't have too much time to share a whole lot else.  This week has been fairly slow except a few big events.  We have an investigator who for a while has not really been progressing at all.  His name is P.D.  I was running out of ideas on how to help him, and just hoping that something good would happen to help him.  Well, last week on Tuesday we did a "district fast" for all of our investigators.  Then, on Thursday when we met with him, he directly asked when can he get baptized!  I was in shock and didn't know what to say, and honestly had a bit of a hard time not showing it!  We had seriously just been talking about how much longer to keep teaching him before dropping him, at least temporarily.  But, he now wants to get baptized!  So that is awesome and we are super excited about it and can't wait to keep helping him along the path to get there!  

Then yesterday we had a young man just randomly show up at church.  So, we sat with him and he attended all 3 hours, and really liked it.  Later he texted us and said he felt extremely blessed by the talks that were given, and that he wants to meet again to learn more about the church!  What an amazing blessing!  I don't know what we have done to deserve this, but it is amazing to see!  And I feel so blessed!

I keep praying for you guys to get blessed with an opportunity to do missionary work yourselves, too! Just keep looking and talking to everyone!  You never know who wants to hear about it!  Like P.D., he was talking to someone at the ward the other day--a mom whose kids go to the same school as his kids. They had met before but never really knew each other.  But they recognized each other at church the other day and P.D. asked, "SO you are a member of this church.  How come you never told me about it?"  The lady was telling me about it later, and how it made her realize we truly never know who we can help by sharing out testimony with!  I thought that was so cool!  And it helped her want to always share her beliefs with people now!

Today for P-Day we went up to the bishop's mountain villa to hang out and mess around.  We played some soccer and tag and stuff, ate some good food, and had a ton of fun!  They are awesome!  Now we are just finishing up emailing, and were going to go to a family home evening appointment but it just cancelled, so I am not sure what we are going to do for the rest of the night.  Well, that's about it for this week!  Sorry this is so short and lame, I will do better next week!

I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Wood