Monday, March 6, 2017

Believing Joseph Smith




Dear Family,

It was another great week here in the Idaho Nampa Mission! I have been truly blessed to be put in this area. Our wards are fabulous and there are many people who have been prepared by the members to receive the gospel. I’m hoping to stay a while :) We talked to 3 or 4 people briefly this week who are interested in meeting with us and learning more about the gospel.  We are looking forward to working with them. 

One highlight from this week is J.  We were told that she would be a good visit, so we visited with her. We were having a lovely talk with her, just getting to know her and her story. She has had some really hard things happen to her in her life. Growing up, she lived in Salt Lake so she always went to church with her friends and became active in the church. She kept on saying that she knew she was happiest when she was active in church. Then, she asked us if we could teach her the first missionary discussion. We were like, "Yes, of course!!!" We taught her, and the Spirit was really strong. She kept on saying that she was glad we came and that she thought we were supposed to come. It was just one of those great missionary moments that you know that you are where Heavenly Father wants you to be, helping his children be brought back to His warm embrace. 

We also got to meet with I. again. We finished talking about the Restoration and that Book of Mormon. She was so excited about having a living prophet and is looking forward to General Conference next month. I have been thinking a lot lately about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith. It is so incredibly important for us to have strong testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet, because our religion does stand on the fact that he was called as a prophet. If he wasn't, it would fall. And how do we know that he was a prophet? It is quite simply by the power of the Holy Ghost. We read the Book of Mormon and ask Heavenly Father in prayer if it is true not. It is so simple They only way we can receive truth is from Heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Ghost. 
I love this quote from Brigham Young:

“If all the talent, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world had been sent to me with the Book of Mormon, and had declared, in the most exalted of earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like smoke which arises only to vanish away. But when I saw a man without eloquence or talents for public speaking, who could only say, ‘I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord,’ the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my understanding, and a light, glory, and immortality were before me. I was encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true." 

I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, called to restore the church of Jesus Christ. And I know it by the power of the Holy Ghost. I invite all who do not have this life changing knowledge to read the Book of Mormon, and ask Heavenly Father if it is His word and if He did call Joseph Smith as a prophet and gave him power to translate it. And as Moroni promises "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

I love being a missionary, I love this gospel and I know that it is true. It is the only way to find peace in this life, and ever-lasting happiness in the next. 

Love,
Sister Jensen 


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