November 5, 2013

Elder Low's report:

This week I've been studying a lot in Mosiah, and felt really overwhelmed after reading King Benjamin’s address as he stated at the end of the fourth chapter:

"But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives,
ye must perish.
And now, O man, remember, and perish not."
To me this is a very powerful statement, as it demonstrates very simply that the doctrine of Christ and his gospel are not condemning, but saving. To me it feels like King Benjamin is almost begging his people to follow the commandments of God that they may be able live spiritually rather than perish.
His people thought it was powerful too, as after saying this he looks around to find that the whole nation had fallen to the ground. By acting on the words and promises of this man that they believed to be a servant of God, obtained a remission of their sins unto great joy.

This week my companion and I have been teaching a man who had contacted us on the street, and having a father who was a faithful member of the church asked us to come over and teach him.
Through out these lessons we've had a lot of success. This man has felt the spirit and knows what we are telling him is true, but this man has had a very difficult time quitting smoking.
Though he knew it was bad for him, though he knew he needed to stop, and wanted to stop, somehow he still was smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. We tried teaching the Word of Wisdom and promise the blessings that were associated with it many times, but still nothing.
Finally one day my companion and I got the impression that we needed to teach this man more about the Book of Mormon. We weren't exactly sure how that was going to help him as we thought he already had a strong testimony of it, but we both felt that was what we needed to do.
So next lesson we walked up to his house just as our investigator was walking in from smoking.
We asked if we could share a message, and he said that was fine.
We talked about the Book of Mormon and he listened and answered our questions, but we felt like we were still missing something. Looking about the room I saw his cigarettes, and I stated,
"John, we know you're trying to stop smoking, and wondering how to do it,"
I then pointed at the Book of Mormon and said,
"the word of God has an incredible power on men, and I promise you that if you read this book every time you have a craving to smoke that craving will go away."
The spirit just filled the room and he agreed to do that.
That was three days ago.
Two days ago we followed up and he'd gone from 16 to 2 cigarettes a day.
I know that the gospel of Christ can and will help us if we let it, and use it in our lives, that through it we can live a fuller and happier life and that it's profound and saving power has the ability to change lives.

Elder Low