TORTOLA

Well, well, well... GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

We start this off with a funny door-to-door contact we had last night with some Irish men. We knocked on their door, and they were definitely drunk. It was really funny. Here's the conversation—I hope you can understand what was happening (this is all in an Irish accent):

"Good afternoon, sir. How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks. I am not interested though, but I really do appreciate what you guys do. I left the religion thing a long time ago."

"Hey, Charlie, look! It's the Latter-day Saint boys."

"Hi, guys. I'm Charlie. Nice to meet you." (shakes our hand) "What brings you guys here to the B.V.I (British Virgin Islands)?"

"We are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (sits there pondering)..."Is that the Jehovah's Witnesses?"

"NOOOOO, THAT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!" (from his friend)

"Oh, okay. Good. I accidentally wished those lads a Merry Christmas for 19 years until someone told me." (very sadly, almost about to cry) "Me and Elder Teuscher" (laugh out loud for real) "Oh no, that's okay. We are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

The guy we found last week (that spiritual story finding), we had a lesson with him this week, and it was probably one of the most powerful lessons on the mission. We got there and we taught the Restoration, and I just felt the spirit so strongly. It just took over. My companion told me I was saying things he said that he didn't even remember Khalid saying. Then we taught the Restoration. I put him on a baptismal date, and he walked away with a smile on his face. I was shocked at how any of that came out of my mouth. We had another lesson with him two days later, and he read 3 Nephi 11 and four chapters of the Book of Mormon. Then he came to church. It was really cool.

Well, I heard something this week that really hit me: "It's actually easier to reconstruct the Salt Lake Temple or build a temple than it is to build a people worthy for the temple." - Russell M. Nelson

That was a pretty powerful thing to me—the fact that it's so hard to help people be worthy to be in the temple. It just hit me how sad God is about that. You realize we are all His children, and He wants all of us to be happy and live with Him again. But He's also God and has His laws and ways. And you must learn celestial law now to live the real celestial law later. It's just so unfortunate that so many people just don't choose God. And it's all a choice. All you have to do is choose Him. I love what Nephi says: "The Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commanded them." And it's that easy. We just have to choose God over our selfish desires.