22 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area (Mom)

If you truly believe that you were guided by the Holy Spirit then you were, and nothing anyone says can take that away. I was talking about this yesterday during the lesson for Relief Society, the teacher asked me to talk about the Gift of Tongues. Anyway I was talking about how we as members have the right and ability to have the spirit. Nobody can take that from us, nobody can take the feelings that we had or the thoughts of when we felt the spirit. They aren't physical, they are spiritual. They are in us forever. The 2 of the 3 witnesses left the Church but nobody could take away the fact that they saw what they saw.

When the spirit guides, just follow. I had an experience in my last area with this. We were teaching an elect of God ( all missionaries say that about every investigator :) ). We were teaching about the Law of Chastity and he was accepting everything but he is separated from his wife. He was truly hurting as he told us about the love for his wife and children etc. He didn't know if he could ever fix whatever happened or if he should just look for another wife. I wanted to say something to help him but we just continued giving him advice etc about it. Then I felt I should tell him to pray and do everything he can to reunite with his wife, because it was God's will. He was meant to be with this woman. I thought "Are you crazy?? This is some serious stuff and I don't know his situation!!" But I felt it again, and me being a doubting Thomas, I thought of what I should say again and thought "This is what I should say?" and a horse kicked me in the chest and I felt more than ever I needed to say it. So I did, I poured out the spirit that was in me and told him what I felt. Needless to say I cried :) as I usually did in his house. I never felt the spirit so strongly before in my life than in his house, every lesson. I don't know what will happen and I was transferred but could I deny that man what I felt? Is it right for me to hold it in and not tell?? No, I felt I had to say it, and after a bit I did. Never deny the Spirit, never think that His revelations are strange or not "cool" enough to say, just say them. If you hold it in, He will stop talking to you! That's the end of my sermon :)

22 Nov 2010 - Alvorada Area (Dad)

[Response to a comment Dad made about Elder Christofferson's conference talk where he mentioned the old film "Man's Search for Happiness," and how it reminded Dad of showing the filmstrip back in the day he was a missionary.] They had film back in your mission? :) The thing that stood out to me when I was reading this is how much the missionary stuff has changed. I haven't heard anyone teach anything like this in the trainings etc. We don't talk about time I guess :) ["Life offers you two precious gifts—one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will."] Also, in your day it seems they encouraged carrying as much as possible, projectors, stone-age cameras, flip-charts, filmstrips. I have a backpack but all it has is Bible, Book of Mormon, and 6 pamphlets. Things are a lot different these days, but things are the same too. I'm pretty sure some of these houses here looked exactly the same 600 years ago when you served. I thought it was hard at first to just talk, but now it's a lot easier than memorizing every lesson. Elder Jeffrey R Holland talked about that a little bit during a devotional in the MTC. He told a story about 2 Americans on a Spanish speaking mission and they were in the age of memorized lessons. They found this one lady and they were talking to her, and she found out they spoke English. She wanted to practice her English so she asked them to leave the message in English rather than Spanish. The missionaries just looked at each other and started in Spanish. She stopped them and asked for English once again but the missionaries began in Spanish again. They had memorized it in Spanish after all. The lady stopped them and asked them why they couldn't teach her in English if this message was so important. She was disturbed that the missionaries only knew the memorized Spanish lesson but couldn't testify in their native language the truth of the gospel and she asked them to leave. Just a story, but it doesn't matter if the lesson is memorized or not, a missionary should be able to testify by the Spirit and not what he memorized or what he practiced 100 times in the MTC. In that way missionary work is the same forever and for always. We teach by the Spirit, no matter how smart or how much we know the language, the lesson will mean nothing without the Spirit. Paul taught by the spirit, Dan Jones too, You, Michael, Me all teach by the spirit and that is what missionary work is. That is why we don't need a badge or calling to teach the gospel, just the Spirit.