Hey hey hey! Not too much has gone on since Thursday when I last wrote.
We got transfer information on Friday night, and I am staying with Sister Ngawharau for Christmas here in the Solano YSA Ward in Vacaville! I will be here until at least February 3rd (that's when the next transfer is). I am stoked! And blessed. Vacaville's winter weather is similar to Arizona's (except all the rain), so it is pretty mild.
Not only the weather, but also the fact I get to stay with Sister Ngawharau for this 7-week transfer! I absolutely love her and her New Zealand-ness haha. She has gotten me saying so many New Zealand phrases now like:
"Oh man that's guttering" (similar to our phrase, "Man what a bummer")
"There'll be heaps of people there" (heaps is used for "lots" of something)
"Please pop the boot" (trunk of a car haha)
I am also excited for her to get feeling better! It has been hard to go hard in the paint like I am used to missionary work-wise because of her stomach illness that the doctors are trying to figure out.
Sister Ngawharau's stomach has been sick since Thursday morning and persisted all Friday and the majority of Saturday and Sunday...and today, sadly. It hurts her to be sitting or standing. It is the same sickness she felt from the very beginning, so we went to get an abdominal ultrasound Friday and will be getting results either today or tomorrow. President Alba happened to come to Vacaville Thursday evening for the stake presidency/mission presidency/zone leaders/sister training leaders meeting Vacaville Stake holds each month and he was able to give her a beautiful blessing, where he promised that the doctors will find out what is truly wrong with her body and that if she follows the counsel of the doctors exactly, she will be fully healed and serve the Lord to her fullest capacity. Keep her and the doctors in your prayers this week!
In other news, it has been raining every day for about two weeks now! I love it :) Everything is turning super green (well, on the ground, that is...the trees leaves are almost all fallen down now ha). Like I mentioned Thursday, the temple trip to Oakland was fun and very very rainy! We didn't get to take a picture because it was raining too hard, so that was a bummer, but we did have a wonderful time in the temple and got there and back safely.
Destiny's baptism is this coming Saturday, December 20th! I am STOKED!! We only have a few more principles to teach her and then she will be set :) I am so grateful I am able to be a part of this amazing step in her journey. She truly is getting baptized with the end in mind - when we asked why she is excited for her baptism, she said, "Because I will be washed clean and then get a temple recommend to go inside the temple!" She is so incredible, I just love her so much. That is what it is all about! Going to the temple and partaking of the blessings God wants to give us there. Please keep her in your prayers, that she will be protected from Satan and that everything will run smoothly and that we can help her feel 100% prepared. Thank you!
As for the rest of the weekend, Friday evening Sister Ngawharau felt good enough to go out for a couple hours in the evening, and we attended the YSA ward's Christmas Party! It was a hit! So many less-active members came, and we had 3 nonmembers there: our two investigators Destiny and Kassandra, and a sister named Jessica who came with a less-active member. It was so much fun - we had dinner, games, and caroling and hot cocoa. It was so neat to just talk to people and feel the Spirit in the room touching everyone and softening their hearts.
Emily McCurdy came as well! She is the sister who got baptized back in October. She suffers from mental illness and because of that has not been extremely active since her baptism and confirmation, but had a great time and pulled Sis. Ngawharau and I aside to talk to us and let her know her situation, and her desire to move forward and become active. She is moving to Washington D.C. in a month with her parents, but wants to end her stay in the YSA ward being active. Thank goodness! We have been trying our best to help her but there is only so much you can do 1-sided before you run out. It takes two to tango!
Saturday was a sick day as well. We did have a wonderful dinner and lesson with Alex Wixom and his family! It is such a miracle to see their progression! The only person holding their whole family back from full activity and conversion in the Church is their mom. Their mom got baptized by Alex's dad when Bro. Wixom was on his mission in Italy! However, Sis. Wixom got baptized for the wrong reasons, mostly to please people, and never gained her own testimony. When Bro. Wixom finished his mission, he went back to Italy and they dated and eventually married. When they moved to America from Italy and had a family, Sis. Wixom told Bro. Wixom no more Mormon church and went whole-heartedly back to her Catholic traditions. Out of respect, she allowed the three boys to be baptized into the Mormon church. They also were baptized into the Catholic church as babies. Aside from their baptism and confirmation, however, she has not supported anything related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has discouraged activity and conversion. Bro. Wixom definitely has a burning testimony. It grows more and more each time we visit and we can see that. Will and Alex are also growing so much. The other brother, Sean, is indifferent and doesn't want to cause conflict, so he does not participate much but does like being present for the prayers. Sis. Wixom, though she still won't stay for lessons, really likes us and eats dinner with us now! So baby steps! Yay!
I see from this family the clear, simple principle that the Restored Gospel blesses families. Three of the five in that family are just gasping for the peace and sweet, soothing air of the Restored Gospel. As Bro. Wixom, Alex, and Will have been keeping commitments, however, I can see glimmers of their future family, should they all choose to participate. Alex shared that since he has been learning more, he has just felt happier. More confident. Brave. Hopeful. It's amazing how Christ's true, pure Gospel (or in other words, "Good News") can not only shape us spiritually, but help in every aspect of our lives. He made a gratitude poster for the Christmas party and looked SO happy to be there :) He and his family definitely hold a special place in my heart.
As for Sunday...yep, another sick day. We attended ward council and just barely made it through Sacrament Meeting, then Sis. Ngawharau felt nauseous and her stomach was in a lot of pain from sitting for so long, so we had to leave :/ It was really hard not being at all three hours of church. It's been a pretty hard weekend, actually.
Being inside all day with little to do except read scriptures and ponder has been very...introspective. I had a humbling experience yesterday, though, with learning about the Great Apostasy after Christ's apostles died. I wanted to share my insight (warning, it is SUPER long) because lately many people we have been talking with on the streets have been telling us about the Trinity - this Godhead who is one-in-three and yet also three-in-one; who has a body sometimes and not at others; who is everywhere and nowhere. And it makes absolutely no sense to pray to this far-away, science-fiction, mysterious all-powerful being. Especially if the scriptures say God is the same yesterday, today, and forever... If that is true, then why is He a "shape-shifter?" Why do so many people claim that He cannot call another prophet if He has called prophets in the past? Why does He now expect innocent babies to be baptized for the remission of sins when He did not in Old Testament or New Testament times? Why do people say that you can't just "feel" something is right when God has told us over and over that we receive confirmation by the Holy Spirit, who works through our feelings? Why did Christ pray to Heavenly Father if They were the same? Why did a voice come from Heaven after Christ was baptized and say "this is my beloved Son" and then the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove if They are all the same? And I do not ask these questions not out of disrespect to ANY other religion. These were real questions that rolled through my mind yesterday and this past week.
I really felt like Enos in the Book of Mormon - I had a long struggle with God yesterday on my knees and also in the scriptures, and now "I will tell you of the wrestle I had before God...my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away" (Enos 1:2,4-6). It was seriously JUST like the scriptures, but instead of guilt for my sins, it was doubt in my soul. So I prayed in "mighty prayer and supplication" and searched the word of God in the Bible and Book of Mormon and the words of an Apostle of God today, and I asked God to help me...and just like Enos' guilt was swept away, so was my doubt. :) It was so amazing!
I was wondering how there could be so many people and yet only one Heavenly Father. How does He answer and hear all our prayers? Then this thought came to mind: "Even though there is only 1 router, we all have Wi-Fi." Sounds silly, but then it clicked: God is only 1 person, and He DOES love us and wants us to feel His love. So He provided His Son so we could overcome death and sin and have an example to follow to help us get back to Him. He also provided the Holy Ghost so we could feel His love all the time. Just like the router/wi-fi example, even though there is one God, we can ALL feel His love.
Then I was studying in Jesus the Christ, chapters 40-41, and trying to understand the Godhead more - how Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost work together as three separate personages, or if they really are this weird "all-in-one" deal. I remembered some great history as I was pondering, and thought about Constantine. He was the ruler over the Roman Empire for a loooong time. In about 315 AD, Constantine took over the Roman Empire and adopted Christianity as the religion of the empire to ease persecutions caused by Roman emperors over time, especially Nero. Diocletian, the emperor before Constantine, was not too bad.
Constantine decided to make himself the head of the church, even though he was not baptized. God never called Constantine to lead, Constantine called Constantine to lead. He named a capitol after himself (Constantinople) and called himself Pope, which means "Father." (The same time, priests in Greece protested and broke off as the Greek Catholic church) He exercised worldly and "spiritual" dominion and used the Church as a tool for dominance and "being the best," basically. Under Constantine, who again, lacked ANY authority from God, he changed the doctrine of baptism. He made the Sacrament a weird ritual of transubstantiation (the Sacrament was started by Christ to remember the symbols of His Atonement. Constantine had priests "change" the bread and wine into Christ's "actual" body and blood...) instead of repentant followers of Christ renewing sacred covenants made at baptism. He made up the act of spending money to be forgiven of sins, and confessing in advance so you could sin and then be forgiven. Over time, the Bible was taken away from the common people.
At this time, about 325 AD, he had a council of smart men get together and come up with a formal declaration about God. Notice that this man-called Pope called together smart men, but not men of Christ's original church, to come up with who God was. Talk about man creating God in their own image! (See Jeffrey R. Holland's talk from April 2014 General Conference) With that, a declaration came out about who God was, and the concept of Trinity - or the three-in-one and everywhere but nowhere concept of God that many Christian churches have today - was born. The idea of Trinity did not come from the scriptures or from a prophet of God. It came forth from an unbaptized man who claimed himself to be Pope and his council of smart men. That sounds promising, huh? This creed was called the Nicean Creed or the Creed of Athanasius.
If you have never read this creed, then please do so, and ask God for yourself if this is a creed of man or of God. This creed is still up in many, many churches today.
So many people ask me out here, "You are sincere, but do you even know where your faith comes from? Do you know God?" Yes, I do. I study God's word every day for three hours. I am constantly praying and reading and pondering. Every time someone asks me this question I want to shake them haha. But of course, I don't because I KNOW WHO GOD IS!! I KNOW MY SAVIOR!! Do you? Where does your faith come from? Just as people tell me to study history and the scriptures out for myself, I am. I did just yesterday, and look what I found? The truth.
Anyway, the Nicean Creed is not written like scripture, which scripture is written to help us come closer to God and His Son, Jesus Christ. There is an odd quote from it where after making the claim that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all just a mass of togetherness and power, they say this: "For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity; to acknowledge every Person [capitalized to mean every member of the Godhead] by himself to be God and Lord; so we are forbidden by the Catholick Religion: to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords."
Later, good people protested against different doctrines, such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wickliffe. John Wickliffe brought forth the Bible in English to the common people. Protestant churches have that name because they protested against practices of that time. The Church of England came about through Henry VIII, who supported the pope and was nicknamed the "Defender of the Faith." He was excommunicated from the Catholic church because he wanted a divorce from his wife to marry a maid and created his own church called the Church of England. Sadly, from then on and even in times before all the new churches who claimed to follow Christ did so through violent means and claimed to be doing things in Christ's name, even though Christ's church preached turning the other cheek and loving your enemies.
So, now, hundreds of other churches are here on Earth. People kept protesting and over and over churches broke off of churches and formed their own to help make their church more like Christ's. This led to an increased emphasis on religious freedom over the years. And where everyone in these break-off churches of Catholicism came from, they innocently inherited a state of apostasy, or incorrect doctrine. Many people accepted these concepts of God, the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, baptism, forgiveness of sins, etc. and tried their best to follow Christ with what they had.
"There are sects named from circumstances of their origin - as the Church of England; others after their famous founders or promoters - as Lutheran, Calvinist, Wesleyen; some are known by peculiarities of doctrine or plan of administration - as Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregationalist; but down to the third decade of the nineteenth century there was no church on earth affirming name or title as the Church of Jesus Christ. The only organization called a church existing at that time and venturing to assert claim to authority by succession was the Catholic church, which for centuries had been apostate and wholly bereft of divine authority or recognition. If the "mother church" be without a valid priesthood, and devoid of spiritual power, how can her offspring derive from her the right to officiate in the things of God? Who would dare to affirm that man can originate a priesthood which God is bound to honor and acknowledge?" (Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage, Ch. 40, p. 752...all historical references are also from ch. 40 of Jesus the Christ, to credit the author)
So, a Restoration, not a Reformation, was needed. And I know that that was made possible through Joseph Smith, who lived in New York in a fairly new country called the United States of America that also incidentally held religious freedom as one of its most sacred freedoms. And Joseph Smith wanted to know which of all these churches was true. So he followed counsel in the Bible in James 1:5 and asked God, because he lacked wisdom. And God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith and told him none of the churches on the Earth were Christ's church that He had established, but that Joseph would be called as a prophet to re-establish Christ's church for the last time before Christ comes again.
We have evidence of this Restoration through the Book of Mormon, which also testifies of Jesus Christ. It is a record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of America. It gives us solid proof of what Christ's doctrine is because it was only translated once from ancient Egyptian to English. It was given to everyone as soon as it was published to help people truly know from the Bible and Book of Mormon that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Son of God; that God loves His children all over the world, not just in Jerusalem and lands round about the Middle East; that God has always called prophets and always will; and that Joseph Smith truly was called as a prophet of God to restore Christ's church to Earth once again (see intro to the Book of Mormon). We can know if it is true or not by reading it, pondering it, and sincerely asking God - the source of all truth - in the name of Christ if it is true (see Moroni 10:3-5). We know that where Christ is, Satan cannot be, so we know that when we pray to our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, the answers we receive will be from God. And those answers come from the Holy Ghost, who is God's messenger. The Holy Ghost works in feelings and thoughts. He works from the inside-out, not the other way around. Men work from the outside-in.
That's my story. And my testimony.
More than my testimony, the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ has become a part of who I am. I know this is true, all of it, because God told me so through the Spirit, and God is a God of truth. Just like Enos, I know that "God cannot lie." I wanted to share this with you so you can know that I have a testimony of these things. I KNOW it. I don't just have a wishy-washy "belief." I know Christ lives. I know He is our Savior and Mediator and Advocate. I know by following Him, He will lead us back to our Heavenly Father. I know all Heavenly Father wants for us is to be happy, learn and grow to become like Him, and live with Him again. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latte-Day Saints is truly Christ's church in its fullness back on the Earth today.
And if you are curious or annoyed or angry at this claim, then why don't you come and see for yourself? Try it out, ask God, read the Book of Mormon. We don't have all the answers, but we have enough to inspire faith.
So yes. Haha pretty long, but hope you received some type of insight like I did. I am trying to stay positive and upbeat and am praying Sis. Ngawharau will heal and get better quickly or I will go CRAZY sitting inside all day haha. It is hard to sit inside all day. Really really hard. It has made me realize how grateful I am for a healthy body and for the opportunity to work hard.
I love you all! Have a good week and remember that God loves you :) Remember the reason for the season! #sharethegift
P.S. I go home in exactly 3 months from Wednesday.
