Hello once again my wonderful family and dear friends!
I don't even know how much I can even begin to express how much I love the General Conference of the Church. Every year the speakers are so amazing. I am so glad that my amazing parents would always be faithful in watching General Conference each year and raising me to have the desire to hear from the Prophet and Apostles every 6 months. I just love it! When I was at BYU I had the chance to attend Conference in the Conference center, and boy that was a fantastic experience. I am so grateful to the God of Heaven for allowing me to listen to Conference once again in English! (being in the middle of nowheresvillle Nebraska has some very awesome perks) As always, Elder Russell M. Nelson was my favorite. I mean, I love all of them, and Elder Holland is one of my absolute favorites especially when he throws it down about the truthfulness of the Church, and so is Elder Bednar because of how direct he is, but Elder Nelson is just my favorite apostle. He's what I call my classic favorite, kind of like how everyone just has that fondness for Nintendo 64 yet loves the intensity as well of an HD PlayStation or X Box.
Even though Nelson is my favorite apostle (I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I met the man) President Uchtdorf always manages to touch my soul and give me an inspirational quote to take away. He said something so profound. He said, "Doubt your doubts but never doubt your faith" (or at least that is what I believe he said they haven't printed the talks yet) Regardless of the exact wording that is so true! Faith is a principle of action, and when we have doubts that come we should hold fast to the ground of faith that we have instead of worrying about how much faith we don't have or why such and such doesn't make perfect sense. God knows all things and he will reveal them to us "line upon line, precept on precept". God only reveals truth to us if we ask him, so we must ask! And then after asking, we must act! One thing I have come to see is the divine mercy that our Heavenly Father has for each of us as his children. Unless we are willing to act on promptings or answers, he will withhold them so we can exercise and develop that faith! Why would he reveal to his children greater light and knowledge if they are not willing to act on it? He protects us that way. We know that when we sin against a greater light we receive a greater condemnation, and God, I don;'t think, wants to condemn his children by giving them a witness of the truth of the restored gospel, or anything for that matter, if they do not have real intent. What mercy! The Savior demonstrated this principle perfectly in how he taught the Jews through parables. This protected those who were not sincere about his teachings from gaining a witness they were not willing to act upon and from learning of a Savior who they were not willing to follow. As Nephi says, the Jews were the only ones who would crucify their God, and surly their inability to act on spiritual witnesses is one of the many reasons for that. They could not recognize his role as their Messiah, and so now God has once again extended mercy to all his children. If we desire a witness that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that the Book of Mormon is true than we must be willing to act on the answer that comes. And that answer is that he was a Prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is nothing but pure truth. I know it, because I have received my witness of the truth. I know that God lives and that he is my Eternal Father. As Elder Cortez, my amazing companion, put it, you cannot have faith without doubts that come occasionally, because if you do not have doubts then there is no reason to walk by faith. The only way we can come to a perfect knowledge of things is by excising faith upon him who is mighty to save, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel. That is what the Brother of Jared did, and we must do the same until our faith grows to a perfect knowledge.
Well everyone, time is short today but I am so grateful for your love. Send letters! I love to hear from you and read of your experiences! so many things have happened on this mission already and even in this past week, you will all just have to read my journal when I get back to find out. Oh, I guess one more thing I could say that happened is that I met a lady who has a flying squirrel. Well, a sugar glider is what it is called, but it is pretty much a miniature flying squirrel.
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