"525,600 moments so dear. In 525,600 minutes. How do you measure, measure a year?"
Hahahahahaha I have been waiting a year to start my email with that heading!!!! Hahaahah how funny is that! And I am surprised that no one included THAT in their email. I was almost positive Audrey would have said that in her email. Hahahahaha. So I hope everyone is doing good. Can you believe it has already been a year? It really has flown by!
Can you believe it´s already time for General Conference again!? I am so exicted I can hardly wait. I am super excited for everything. To hear the Prophet of God speak to us and the 12 Apostles and to hear President Uchdorf! "LIFT VERE YOU STAND!!!" i´m excited to hear a story about someone flying an airplane!!!! hahaha but seriously. I love him. I get so happy when I see him talking. hahaha. When we were in the CTM a few missionaries played a joke on me sayin that President Uchdorf was coming to the CTM. I just about died. hahaha. but I am excited. Conference is a great time to reflect on the things that we need to better in our lives and how to become more Christlike and how to be better prepared. How wonderful it is to have a prophet of God and 12 apostles like in the days of Christ?
I was reading Tad R. Callister´s talk (from 2 years ago) that is intitled "Joseph Smith-- Prophet of the Restoration." Read it when you get the chance. It´s the most amazing talk I have ever read in a long time. In it he talks about 4 truths that Joseph Smith learned in the first vision in 1820. I would like to quote one of the truths:
"The third truth that Joseph Smith learned was that God still speaks to man today—that the heavens are not closed. One need but ask three questions, once proposed by President Hugh B. Brown, to arrive at that conclusion (see “The Profile of a Prophet,” Liahona, June 2006, 13; Ensign, June 2006, 37). First, does God love us as much today as He loved the people to whom He spoke in New Testament times? Second, does God have the same power today as He did then? And third, do we need Him as much today as they needed Him anciently? If the answers to those questions are yes and if God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, as the scriptures so declare (see Mormon 9:9), then there is little doubt: God does speak to man today exactly as Joseph Smith testified. (see Joseph Smith- Prophet of the Restoration by Tad R. Callister in the October Conference in 2009)"
God still speaks to man! And that is an awesome truth that has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. It´s been a rough week for me, but I remembered what President Uchdorf taught in the last conference: When we go through turbulance in our lives, we nee to slow down and return to the basics. So I have been focusing a lot on the Book of Mormon this week and 'feasting on the words of Christ'.
One of the reasons it was so hard is because we were at Suely´s house a few days ago and she walked in and Elder Medeiros asked her why she didn´t go to church on Sunday and she said because she didn´t think it was true anymore and that she didn´t want to go back to church because she didn´t feel good there. I kept quiet the entire time, but I was really really really REALLY mad. Then she said the wrong thing, at the wrong time. She said that she never wanted to get baptized and we forced her to be baptized and that´s when I stood up and said "Whoa. whoa. Don´t you dare lie to me. I was with you when you felt the Spirit. I felt it with you and with your daughter and with your son. I heard you say you that the day you went to church was one of the best days of your lives. So you either lied to me then or you are lying to me now. Which is it?" and she kept quiet. and I continued "and more even, the Lord manifested to you several times that this church was true. You had at least 2 dreams about the church and you know this is true. If you deny the truthfulness of this church and this Book, you are not denying us, you aren´t denying the church but you are denying God, why? Because He is the one who answered your prayers and now you are going to tell me that THAT NEVER HAPPENED? Don´t you dare. You can tell me that now you don´t want to be a member of the church. but don´t you dare tell me that you were forced into this church."
And then the Spirit whispered to me that the reason why she stopped going to church wasn´t because she doesn´t feel good there, but because someone had said something to her. So I said "What did they tell you? Who told you this?" and she said "oh elder no one told me anything. I just don´t feel like this is true anymore, I like my old church." Oh man... wrong answer. And so I said "so what is it about our church that you don´t like? Is it because we don´t scream at you? it is because we don´t scream at God? is it because we don´t ask you for our money and tell you that if you sell us your house, God will give you 3 houses (because they do that!) is it because we don´t sell 'land plots in Heaven'?(because they do that too! You can by 'Land in heaven´) What is it?"
She said "I just don´t want it anymore." I was done. I sat down and shut up. I was ticked off and I knew if I continued to talk I would start saying things that a representative of Christ shouldn´t say. But I remembered the talk by Tad Callister that I read that said this:
"Yet sorrowfully, on occasion, some are willing to set aside the precious gospel truths restored by Joseph Smith because they get diverted on some historical issue or some scientific hypothesis not central to their exaltation, and in so doing they trade their spiritual birthright for a mess of pottage. They exchange the absolute certainty of the Restoration for a doubt, and in that process they fall into the trap of losing faith in the many things they do know because of a few things they do not know. There will always be some seemingly intellectual crisis looming on the horizon as long as faith is required and our minds are finite, but likewise there will always be the sure and solid doctrines of the Restoration to cling to, which will provide the rock foundation upon which our testimonies may be built. When many of Christ’s followers turned from Him, He asked His Apostles, “Will ye also go away?” Peter then responded with an answer that should be engraved on every heart: “To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:66–68).
If someone turns from these restored doctrines, where will he go to learn the true nature of God as taught in the grove of trees?"
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. That´s all there is to it and the thing about it is that it´s not a hard concept to understand. God always talked to His people through prophets (Amos 3:7) and He does so now. and if you don´t know, ask God and He will tell you. I know that God lives and that this is His True Church reestablished on the earth again. Restored by a prophet of God. Joseph Smith was a prophet. He saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ in that grove of trees. We have a living prophet that is on the earth today that speaks to God as Moses did. We have 12 Apostles JUST like they had in Christ´s ancient church. and they are going to speak to us this weekend. I don´t know about you but I am so excited to hear what they have to say! I know that Book of Mormon is the word of God and is true. I love you all. Happy one year!!!!
-elder askins
P.S. I am super excited to talk to you all next month!!!
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