The Absolute Power Of The Book of Mormon

This week, I had exchanges... wait a second.

So, Elder Christensen was flying back from Dominica, and he made a pit stop in Tortola to spend a night with me. The Lord truly does love each and every one of us. After Monday last week, we got a call that his flight got canceled from Tortola to Puerto Rico, so he had to spend the day with Elder Tew(scher). It was such a little blessing and a sign of how much God does love his children. Relationships and people are super important to me, so being able to see him again right before he went home was awesome!

We went to Khaled's house this week, and we taught him. We invited him to church, and he told us, "I haven't been to my Methodist church in a while. They've been asking where I am. I told them I would be there this week." I got this overwhelming feeling to just keep him reading the Book of Mormon and not to get worried or angry or frustrated (because it is kind of frustrating when they just don't understand after you've taught them the restoration like 3 times. It's like, "This is Jesus Christ's church, the only church with authority"). And sometimes, you become so missionary and a fallen man and just get frustrated because you've taught it so many times that this is the true church, and you don't understand why anyone would want to go to another church where the authority isn't and where the sacrament isn't. And you forget because you are a missionary and study so much and teach the lessons and have your own testimony. It makes it so much more frustrating because you are like, "Why don't you just understand?" But there I was with the strongest feeling ever that it will be okay, just keep inviting him to read the Book of Mormon. So we told him to read every day, and his problems would go away if he read the book every day. We went back two days later and checked in, and you could see the difference in his countenance. You could tell he had been reading by the true joy just coming from deep inside him. So we taught him a good lesson and invited him to church, and he said, "Yes, I will be there" without anything to do with the Methodist church. And we didn't even change anything; we just literally taught a lesson and invited him again. But there I was with this feeling again that the Book of Mormon is the key and the thing that did the work. Now, as missionaries, we know the Book of Mormon is the key to conversion, but it really hit me hard this week, the power of the Book of Mormon.

The power and effect of the Book of Mormon on your character and your disposition to do evil just goes away. I've never become so happy and had such a desire to be better and do better every day, and I think it all comes from the Holy Ghost, which you receive while reading the Book of Mormon. President Marion G. Romney described it this way: "In one who is wholly converted, desire for things [contrary] to the gospel of Jesus Christ has actually died, and substituted therefore is a love of God with a fixed and controlling determination to keep His commandments." The best way to become converted is to read the Book of Mormon. I have never witnessed people change so much in my life than here in Tortola, all because they actually take the time to read the Book of Mormon. They all have their difficult things, but the Book of Mormon and the power inside that book is absolutely mind-blowing. The examples in the Book of Mormon and the power on your character, courage, and desire to follow God are absolutely mind-blowing. Some of my most powerful lessons on my mission were literally just reading the Book of Mormon and testifying about it to people in the lesson. A whole lesson about the Book of Mormon. I mean, the Book of Mormon is what got me through my hard times and my difficulties, just the power inside that book. The whole book is centered on Jesus Christ. Anyone who truly reads that book with real intent will end up knowing truthfully that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, Joseph Smith was His prophet in the latter days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ is the Lord's kingdom on the earth.

I remember being in the position of the children of God without the knowledge of the Book of Mormon. There was a feeling of darkness and sadness; I felt lost and confused. It seemed like God doesn't really exist. "Why do we feel guilty when we do bad things if God doesn't really exist?" I would say it over and over. "Why am I here on this earth?" It all came down to one special event when I kneeled and prayed to know if God truly did exist, and I heard a voice saying 2 Nephi 2, and I was so confused. I mean, I had gone to this church my whole life and I graduated seminary and never even knew Christ came to the Americas. Like, isn't that the coolest thing? Jesus Christ in ancient America? How have I never heard of this before? It really did just go in one ear and out the other until I was ready to listen, ready to listen to what God had to tell me and what He was trying to say to me. Jesus Christ taught in a lot of parables because He didn't want the people who weren't ready for the gospel to live in sin. I feel like that happens to us as missionaries all the time. We will be explaining something so simple, and it goes in one ear and out the other. I feel like I am not being understood. I am asking the most simple question, and they just don't understand. And how does someone so smart just not understand what we just said about the Book of Mormon? That was the easiest thing, I think, ever to understand. "Jesus Christ came to ancient America after His death and resurrection and taught His gospel to the children that lived on that side of the world as well." And it goes over their head, and it did mine for 17 years until I finally was ready, and God had His timing for me to understand. And He answered my prayer. He showed me He existed and He talked to me. He spoke to me. And then, when I followed the counsel of my bishop to pray about the Book of Mormon a few months later, I got my answer immediately. That the Book of Mormon was true. It was the word of God. And then, once I knew it was true, nothing else mattered. I was going on a mission, and I never looked back. And it wasn't easy, but the Book of Mormon helped it become easy, reading that book daily after I got my answer, and having read it since I got my answer daily, has completely changed my life. And I have witnessed it change the lives of many people here in the Caribbean. There is nothing I can do to help these people except give them a Book of Mormon, testify of it, and keep them having that desire to read. And then, you see their lives completely change for the better.

I know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I will stand for this book forever. It is that safety; it does have those answers that are unanswered, and it does explain who God truly is and how much He cares about us. It outlines His plan of happiness for us and teaches us how to utilize the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I would, like Abinadi, die for the cause. The Book of Mormon can and will change your life if you let it.

"Your copy of the Book of Mormon may be hidden from your view by cares and attention to all you have accumulated in your journey. I plead with you to drink deeply and often from its pages. It has in it the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the only way home to God." - Henry B. Eyring