July 22, 2013

Mom,

So first thing about blacks and the Priesthood. It's kind of a weird part of our history. However, I have full confidence that Jesus Christ Himself is totally and completely in charge of His Church, and although we may never fully comprehend the 'why' behind some things in His Church, we must know that He personally guides the Church through His authorized servants: the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. There can be many reasons behind that: As King Benjamin states in Mosiah 4:9 "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." We simply cannot understand all things. Isaiah also understood that in Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." We simply will never be able to understand all things. That's where faith comes into play. First principle of the Gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Two other things, Alex Boye talked to us a while ago and touched a little bit on this topic. He said that every single other church somewhere in their history has had discrimination against black people. He said that if we can find any other church that has not had any discrimination against black people in their history, he will join that church. Kind of a joke, but he got across his point. I thought that was pretty interesting. Another thing is that there are so many faithful members of the Church in Africa. Just this last General Conference, Elder John B. Dickson talked about the all-African Stake and Temple Presidencies in Africa. They should understand better than any of us the truthfulness of that Official Declaration in 1978.

Here's what Preach My Gospel says:

"But all of this goes back to the Book of Mormon. “… The only problem the objector has to resolve for himself is whether the Book of Mormon is true. For if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelation.

“Our main task is to declare the gospel and do it effectively. We are not obligated to answer every objection. Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand” (A Witness and a Warning, 4–5).

For example, sincere investigators might object to what you have taught about the Word of Wisdom. Help them see that their real question is whether Joseph Smith was speaking as God’s prophet when this commandment was renewed in this dispensation. You might say: “Having the faith to accept this teaching will require the assurance that this commandment came to us through revelation from God to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The way to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God is to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.”"

Aside from that, I found a really cool article about physical evidence of the Book of Mormon: http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/01/mounting-evidence-for-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

So that's my refute on that topic. Hope it helped. I could go on a little more even.. :)

That's way cool to hear about the St. George trip. I hope we can go next year. It's so weird that I don't have to refer to very far away to refer to being 'back home'. I'm coming up on 5 months left. I have a couple friends in the mission that are leaving this Wednesday and a couple more that are leaving the beginning of September. I'm going to miss teaching a lot. Walking around in the heat, not so much.. haha.

I can't believe that William and Luke Thompson are going out already! If they give out William's email address, could you send it to me? I think that Tanner hits his year mark this week and Luke will hit his year mark the beginning of this next month. We're so old!

Q of the W:

1.  Do you ever/or have you ever just given a stranger a Book of Mormon?

Yes. Usually we bring up the Book of Mormon with whoever we talk to. Some people will ask if we have a copy. Sometimes they even ask how much it costs :) They're happy when we tell them it's free. So I've given out the Book of Mormon to many strangers.

2.  What have you noticed the one thing people ask most about our church?

A lot of people ask about the "Mormon's book" or the "Mormon Bible". That's a big one. We get all sorts of responses to that. Some people are automatically bitter about it and they said that they've read it and it comes from the devil. Our response to that is "obviously you've never read it." Lots of people are pretty open to it and are willing to learn more about it. Few dumb people ask about polygamy or blacks and the priesthood.

3.  Do complete strangers ever just stop you on the streets to ask you who you are?

They do. They almost always ask, "What you guys sellin'?" or "Y'all Mormons?" or "Where y'all from?"

Well, this last week was a little rough. We had many people not show up for our appointments. We ended up calling them on their front door asking where they were. They always say, "Oh... We forgot." It's starting to frustrate me more. I was talking to Michael Allongo, our Elders Quorum President. He told me that most of the members here have only been members for a few years. He told me about the Church of Jesus Christ of ancient-day Saints was run by 12 recent converts of three years after the death of Jesus Christ. The 12 Apostles had only been disciples for three years. Imagine a recent convert of three years already serving as Bishop or Stake President. Crazy! Well the original 12 Apostles didn't always know exactly what they were doing. Same with us. The New Brunswick ward has many, many recent converts serving in leadership positions. Sometimes it can be overwhelming for them, especially as converts. It was only a few years ago that two kids knocked on their door to tell them that they've been living their life wrong. It'll take some time for them to fully get adjusted to the culture in the Church, more than just a few years. It's still frustrating! Haha. But I guess that's the furnace of the mission. It refines you and molds you to the person Heavenly Father wants you to be. Sometimes it can be painful.

We had a lesson last Tuesday with a guy that's a Seven Day Adventist. Their basic belief is that Sabbath Day observance was never changed from Saturday to Sunday. It was a difficult lesson. He didn't want to really change his ideas, and for that reason he didn't want to read the Book of Mormon. This guy has been taught for a while on and off. It was hard, but eventually we got him back onto the Book of Mormon. It's so amazing. The Book of Mormon is the key. It's the keystone of our religion as President Benson explained. Everything revolves around it. The Sabbath Day observance is a solid doubt that many people have and that I understand. But the Book of Mormon makes it so clear. If you know that the Book of Mormon is true, there's absolutely no doubt about it. It's just a little hard for this guy to understand that.

Other than that, this week was just another hot week. I'm looking forward to August. Hopefully it'll cool down a little. I'm looking forward to September even more. I think that I would prefer the cold over the heat in missionary work. I'll be spending my last fall in New Jersey coming up pretty soon.

I have to say, that the mission has taught me so much so far. I understand the Gospel so much more. I also understand that I still don't understand it completely! I have lots to learn! I love it.

Love you mom! Ask me any gospel questions you'd like!

-Justin