August 4, 2014

Elder Low's report:

This week I was reading quite a bit in Jacob. For a reason I never can quite put my finger on, one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is Jacob chapter 4 which talks quite a bit about our belief in the coming of Christ. In particular this week what caught my attention was verse 3 which talks about the power of Christ in relation to the purpose for which Jacob goes (as well as why we should go) to such lengths to bring the gospel to others:

3 Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents.

Jacob and the other prophets of the book of Mormon engraved ever word we read in the
Book of Mormon into metal. The reason they did it was to help those they loved to understand the joy the Christ brought them, and as a result the joy that it would bring those who would continue to believe.

This week the great miracle in our area was not worked by me. Elder B while on an exchange with Elder T during a particularly difficult harvest session knocked a door of an elderly man. He answered the door and let them in. They prayed with him and invited him to be baptized. He was an avid reader of the bible, and in spite of him being 75 years old, he accepted the invitation with thanksgiving, knowing it was what Jesus wanted for him. In the middle of this his daughter came down and being of another religion told him not to accept our invitations. Instead of giving heed, he simply stated, "I need to be baptized." I can personally attest to this man's firmness. Though I did not meet him in the beginning, he came to church this week. Throughout the whole meeting block, he referred to us as representatives of Jesus Christ. He will be baptized this week.

I know as we diligently strive to help others to receive the joy that Jacob talks about, we will, as he did be given the urgency and diligence that drove those men to spend such painstaking hours carving the Book of Mormon, and we will do great things despite our weakness, being made joyful ourselves in the process.

Elder Low.