Dear
Missionaries,
I love the great promise that Moroni gives when he
testifies of how we can know "the truth of all things". President
Hinckley teaches:
"The Holy Ghost is the Testifier of Truth, who can
teach men things they cannot teach one another. In those great and challenging
words of Moroni, a knowledge of the truth of the Book of Mormon is promised ‘by
the power of the Holy Ghost.’ Moroni then declares, ‘And by the power of the
Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things’ ( Moro. 10:4-5). I believe
this power, this gift, is available to us today.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, October
1986, General Conference)
The "Testifier of Truth", the Holy Ghost, is a
tremendous resource for us today to strengthen our knowledge and understanding
of truth, as well as to invoke its power for others to understand and recognize
truth. One of the important ways to feel that truth is reading and studying the
scriptures, as Elder Hales teaches:
"The scriptures which we have, give prophecies and
promises, and they have been fulfilled in our day. What a glorious blessing!
For when we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want Him to speak to us,
we search the scriptures; for His words are spoken through His prophets. He
will then teach us as we listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If you
have not heard His voice speaking to you lately, return with new eyes and new
ears to the scriptures. They are our spiritual lifeline.” (Elder Robert D.
Hales, October General Conference, 2006)
Another conduit of the Holy Ghost testifying of God's truth
is through the power of prayer, for us and for those we teach. We receive the
promptings of the Spirit every day as we pray and plead to God for His
promptings and direction. President Eyring teaches:
"Just as pondering the scriptures invites the Holy
Ghost, so does daily pleading in prayer. If we do not ask in prayer, He will
rarely come, and without our petition He is not likely to linger. ‘And the
Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not
the Spirit ye shall not teach’ ( D&C 42:14). Heartfelt, constant pleading
for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, with the pure intent to nourish our
Father’s children, will surely bring blessings to us and to those we love and
serve." (President Henry B. Eyring, October 1997, General Conference)
Teaching our investigators to "feel" the truth
and not try to reason with their own limited knowledge will cause them to
embrace the Gospel and be converted to our message of Jesus Christ. As
President Packer teaches us:
“But if you learn by reason only, you will never
understand the Spirit and how it works—regardless of how much you learn about
other things... Your spirit learns in a different way than does your
intellect... For ‘there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty
giveth them understanding,’[ Job 32:8.] and the Spirit of Christ “giveth light
to every man that cometh into the world.”[D&C 84:46.] ... We are told
that ‘angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.’[2 Ne. 32:3.] We are even
told that when we speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, we ‘speak with the
tongue [or in the same language] of angels.’[ 2 Ne. 31:13; 2 Ne. 32:2.].
The Holy Ghost speaks with a voice that you feel more than you hear. It
is described as a ‘still small voice.’[D&C 85:6.] And while we speak of
‘listening’ to the whisperings of the Spirit, most often one describes a
spiritual prompting by saying, ‘I had a feeling …’ Revelation comes as words we
feel more than hear. Nephi told his wayward brothers, who were visited by an
angel, ‘Ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words.’ [ 1
Ne. 17:45] (President Boyd K. Packer, October 1994, General Conference)
As we follow the Spirit, God will put us in the path of
those who need his Gospel:
“On
our way out the door we prayed that the Lord would show us miracles and use us
for His work. The miracles started 2 minutes after leaving our house. We bumped
into one of our potential investigators that had been hesitant about giving us
the address to his apartment. When he saw us, his face split with a smile, and
he slammed on his brakes. We talked to him for a couple minutes about his day
and where he works, and then scheduled an appointment with him for the next day
after getting his address. 200 yards up the street we stopped and contacted a
lady in front of an apartment complex. After sharing a powerful harvest
blessing she explained to us that she had just barely left a friend’s house
because she had felt prompted to walk towards home, and that she believed that
this was why. We testified of our callings as representatives of Christ and our
purpose to help everyone to come closer to Christ, and then invited her to be
baptized. She said yes i have never been baptized because I came form Cuba just
one month ago.”
As
we follow the Spirit, God will connect us with those searching for truth:
“We
had been harvesting and weren't seeing too much success. We stopped and we
prayed to ask God where he would have us go and we both got the distinct
impression that we needed to go to the street just over from where we were. We
walked through an ally to get there and when we came out the other side we saw
a house right in front of us. We looked at each other and without even saying
anything both made our way to the house. We knocked the door and out came a
woman! She was excited to see us and felt the spirit so strongly during the
blessing. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. As we began to teach
her, throughout the next few weeks, she was so accepting of everything! She
already knew most of the things we talked to her about!! She told us that the
day that we knocked her house that she wasn't going to open the door because
she never opens the door for people like us, but when she saw us she said that
something tugged at her soul, telling her she had to open the door! I will
never forget the smile that was on her face as she came out of the waters of
baptism yesterday, clean and on her path to living with God again.”
When
we follow the promptings of the Spirit, God is prompting others to receive us:
“We
blessed a family, a single mother, and then people down the street began to be
rude. But we didn't let that stop us, we continued to stay steadfast and then
as we were wrapping up our harvest, I felt a prompting to go one house more. We
knocked, a woman opens the door and we introduce ourselves and then she stated
she was busy cooking. We testified... and she accepted and gladly invited us
into her home. We left a powerful blessing and she then told us ‘I told my
husband after I was done cooking that I was going to go upstairs to pray, and
then you both come knocking on the door’, She was just beyond amazed how God
sent us to her at the specific time and day she needed us! The experience was
so amazing to me because these past few weeks I’ve been praying specifically to
know how to follow the spirit and as I did this woman’s experience became
reality!”
We invoke the Spirit when we testify who we are and who we
represent. The Spirit then takes charge. If we allow it to, it will reveal truths
to those we testify of Christ as Elder McConkie teaches:
“When men are quickened by the power of the Spirit, then
the Lord can reveal his truths to them in whatever way he chooses.” (Elder
Bruce R. McConkie, October 1978, General Conference)
And that quickening power will give them a conviction of
all truth as Elder Bednar shares:
“The Holy Ghost is manifested to men and women on the
earth both as the power and as the gift of the Holy Ghost. The power can come
upon a person before baptism; it is the convincing witness that Jesus Christ is
our Savior and Redeemer. Through the power of the Holy Ghost, sincere
investigators can acquire a conviction of the truthfulness of the Savior’s
gospel, of the Book of Mormon, of the reality of the Restoration, and of the
prophetic calling of Joseph Smith.” (Elder David A. Bernard, October 2010, General
Conference).
Elder McConkie teaches the importance of speaking and being
directed by the Spirit:
“I desire very much to be directed by the Spirit,
because I know that when a man speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost ( 2 Ne.
33:1), that holy being carries the word of truth into the heart of every
receptive soul.” (Bruce R. McConkie, October 1970, General Conference)
Missionaries, let’s connect with the wonderful Spirit, the
Power of the Holy Ghost to the convincing of all that Jesus is the Christ and
that we represent Him. I know God will bless our efforts.
Let us get 175
Baptisms !!! November will be our miracle month!!!
You
are Amazing!!! You are Incredible!!! You are Wonderful!!! And you are in the
“Exciting Mission”!!! Remember our promise and that our names will be sealed
in the Temple!!!
We
Love you, We Pray For You, We can do this,
We have work to do!!! Let us follow and
invoke the power of the Holy Ghost!!!
President Don E. Anderson
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