[translation: I know The Book of Mormon is True... too bad myldsmail doesn't let you do accent marks or cosas como asi! ...]
That truly is my thought this week! The Book of Mormon is SO powerful!
I couldn't be a missionary without it.
seriously.
Here are some excerpts from the Introduction of The Book of Mormon:
The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the everlasting gospel.
The crowning event recorded in the Book of Mormon is the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ among the Nephites soon after his resurrection. It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.
In due course the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith, who translated them by the gift and power of God. The record is now published in many languages as a new and additional witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that all who will come unto him and obey the laws and ordinances of his gospel may be saved.
Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10: 3-5.)
Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.
...
How could I help people come to know their Savior without The Book of Mormon? I couldn't. Through this AmAzing book people can come to know, by the power of God, thru the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is a prophet and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true.
I love the Book of Mormon.
Recently, I have been choosing a story a day to study out of the BOM. I have studied Lehonti, Nephi and the Boat, The Brother of Jared, Alma the Younger, Korihor and many others. Each time I study a story I think about how I can apply it to my life and how I can apply it to the lives of those we are teaching, it's SO effective. I am learning so much from stories I have read time and time again, that's what makes the Book of Mormon the best, you'll never learn everything, there is always more to gleen [sp?] from it! Even one phrase can make a profound impact in someone's life! [remember elder bednar and "tender mercies" from 1Ne 1:20?]
This was such a good week. So many changes. So much good...
[mon] pday. our last pday with our district... :[ ... we went to the library, emailed. played disc golf with the elders in Kenosha at UW Parkside [we want to start working there on campus... it would be fun. we need an LDSSA there] Disc Golf was a lot of fun, 18 holes, and surprisingly, i am not too bad at it! it's all the ultimate frisbee practice! Then after we were hot and sweaty from disc golf we went to the church which is like 2 minutes away and watched the Joseph Smith Movie: Prophet of the Restoration. One of the elders had a copy. I love that movie! Then we headed back to Racine for dinner at the Konieczko's [she is an abbott] and AMY was there! I love amy. We had a really good lesson with her talking about nephi building the boat and the plan of salvation and how all her questions/ concerns were answered and talked about when she attended church the day before. amazing. God really does hear and answer our sincere prayers.
[tues] combined district meeting w/ the english district. We talked about D&C 4 and the qualities a missionary must possess. It was a really good meeting. I love elder petrie and elder hutchins, they're really good district leaders. we then had lunch and went and tried to visit a part member family. . . they live on jacato street. IT WAS BY FAR THE SCARIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN TOO! it wasn't 'til later on that i found out that people say DON'T GO THERE... we won't go there again. the apt building we went into was FREAKY! Trash lined the stairs and it was dark and the carpet was NASTY... anyways, we learned our lesson- and the people weren't even there, thankfully! We had dinner at the Abbott's, love that family, visited Tiffany McGee and then had our last appointment with elders stribling and julian and Temika's house with janelle.
[wed] we taught english in kenosha with elder campbell and elder petrie. so fun. i learn so MUCH. way more spanish than they do english, that's for sure. then we came back to the Blake's so sister behrends could pack to go to RHINELANDER [out in the boondocks!] [[ps... did i tell you the BLAKE'S are MOVING? ya they announced it last sunday! so SAD! He is being transferred to SLC with his CO, he works for CASE, the tractor company, he's an engineer. They are sad to go, but happy it's SLC... they've lived all over. I am happy they are going there... i told them I will be having sunday dinners at their house when I go back to the Y! The ward is devestated though. They will move before thanksgiving. He starts traveling next week. ]]We went out to Pizza with the SUrA's at 5:30. I love them. They are so good to us. Then we went to volleyball at the church... amy came. i love playing volleyball.
[thurs] sister behrends last day in racine. we went and said goodbye to s. calderwood ... then JAIME and his wife, from ENGLISH CLASSES, made us and the elders POPUSAS... YUM! They are like the best thing you have EVER eaten in your life. It's a tortilla with beans and meat in the middle, then you put cabbagge and salsa on top and eat it ... YUM! It's a food from El Salvador... SO GOOD! being a HERMANA has it's pluses! I said the prayer to close... en ESPANOL! [ e. petrie was trying to make me give the scripture/ thought in spa! i am not quite ready for that yet!] then we met the racine elders for lunch at the beach and they played scrabble... LAME! i took a nap with my blanky on the sand.... heavenly... we said goodbye to ted and cheryl and joannie farley and then janelle and then headed to the Crowthers for a relief society dinner! yum yum! [ i love the racine ward sisters! we had such a good time! ]
[fri] TRANSFER DAY! We drove up to Milwaukee... sister behrends left on the transfer van [aka the fun bus] to go to GB to meet sister roth there to be her companion in RHINELANDER... sianara sister! ... I hung out all day with sister WARNER... it was the best!, while waiting for my new companion sister johnson [little j] to come! I was so excited. Warner trained little j two transfers after she left me... i got to know little j pretty well because they were down 45 minutes away in appleton and i was in GB. [we call her little j bc there are 2 sister johnsons in the mission!] While waiting for j to come we went to KOPP'S for lunch... mm mmm my favorite. Then we stopped by at the Kozlosky's and i got some pics off of warners camera and vice versa at the library ... then sister warner had to go to the church to pick up the NEW MISSIONARY she's be training... THIS IS HER FOURTH TIME TRAINING!... we stayed with her [we meaning me and BIG J, who will be in a trio with warner in MIL] and listened to the training, helped the assistants track down their backpacks etc etc... it was fun. I love the spirit of new missionaries. Then we went to the mission home and helped sister barrett make dinner for the missionaries going home... i miss that- the mission home being SO CLOSE! FINALLY sister J came! I LOVE HER... we drove back to Racine and had dinner with the petricecks... poor elder STRIBLING was VERY sick, so we ate and left promptly so he could go home... He's training a new missionary too, elder Warner. [e. julian went to Onieda. .. sad] ps i am the driver now... no more CAR SICKNESS... sister behrends was the WORST DRIVER I HAVE EVER MET IN MY WHOLE LIFE... it was a challenge. I am learning to look at the GPS... sometimes i forget about it.
[sat] SOCCER AT NINE AM! so fun... elder Trauntvein's new companero, elder smith, is AmAZing [elder kelly went to mil, again... sad.] ... between him and elder campbell and the hispanics, we can barely keep up... I LOVE PLAYING SOCCER.... but... i was SO SORE AFTERWARDS... good sore. Hermano Cabrales came up to me afterwards and said in his thick accent, "wow, you play better this time!" haha it was funny, it's only because i stayed with him, even knocked him down once [i thought i was kicking the ball... didn't know it was his ankles :] I love little j, did i mention that- we had a great first full day together. we went to a baby shower in the branch for daisy betanko, then visited some people, invited lupita, a RC, to come to the branch. THEN PLANNING... and DINNER AT THE DAVIS'. . . i love that family! we had fajitas... yum yum.
[sun] we spent from 8 am 'til 7 pm at the church. we lived there yesterday. president calderwood made me report on our area in spanish. . . it went well... we practiced our three different musical numbers we will be singing at womens conference next saturday [GO TO THAT... it's the ANNUAL 1st Presidency broadcast to the RS before general conference!]... remember how i don't sing? doesn't matter when you wear a teg!! they think you can play the piano too! we studied a little at the church... then we went to the calderwood's for dinner and dessert with the elders to celebrate the beginning of Yom Kippor [his mom is jewish] good day. long day. lupita came to church. amy came to church.
i love little j! it' so great serving with her, she's been out six months.. finally a breath of fresh air! sorry this email is so choppy. i am starving.. i must go eat, i forgot to eat breakfast! a member brought us lasagna yesterday, she made it just for us, so nice... it is in the fridge at the church... then we're playing disc golf... i love pdays like this, busy and fun! we gotta make the most of this good weather while it lasts! we are emailing today at UW parkside... first time, i LOVE these computers, we play disc golf here too and the church is less than a mile away, why didn't we think of this before? It's way better than the ghetto computers at the racine library!
i love you all! You're always in my prayers!
Love, sister pamella jo black!
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