September 17, 2018

Fam, 

The mission was visited by Elder Kapischke of the Seventy this week. I truly love when the senior brethren of the church visit. They bring a powerful spirit and energy. He instructed us for about an hour and a half before lunch which was fantastic then four straight hours after lunch - it was fantastic, long, but fantastic. 

He told a bunch of funny stories about his time as a mission president in Berlin. He also spent a significant portion of time expounding the scriptures with us. President Brennan does extremely well and is always the highlight in zone conferences, but the assistant and zone leader trainings in zone conference for the last 6 months to a year really have decreased in quality, with the exception of our current zone leaders. 

We left conference with a new energy to go out and help the people we teach. There was one moment that really stuck out. Very expertly taking from the instruction in D&C 121:43 Elder Kapischke rebuked one of the Elders who mentioned something he was doing that wasn't strictly bad but wasn't in accordance to one of the rules in the missionary handbook. It was not grandiose but was very simple and direct. Elder Kapischke seemed very happy. He was an incredible and effective teacher, really pretty awe inspiring. It's a pretty close tie between when President Nelson came to visit the mission. The only thing I didn't appreciate were the questions he would extend which were not really PMG questions, namely non-specific questions looking for specific answers. All in all, a great visit. 

Good news for the week is that Patricia is getting baptized this Sunday. We briefly stopped teaching her but Elder Guerrero and Elder Berry have picked the teaching back up and have been doing great. We anticipate a great service this next Sunday. Our friend Carlos in Lansing is also doing well. He works Sundays which would be the only delay on his baptism but beyond that he is doing great. We ran through the baptismal questions with him during our last lesson and he is pretty ready. It's really nice when people just read the Book of Mormon and pray sincerely about if it's true or not. 

Two other notable events that passed this week were our lessons with a woman named Nuvia and a man named Jorge. 

Nuvia we met about a week or two ago. Despite seemingly everything fighting against our progress, she is doing pretty good. We teach her and her 8 year old son, normally outside on their porch. Our past lesson we drove up and she is outside like normal. As we walked up it was apparent that something had just gone down. Their house was beaten up and their windows were smashed in. We spoke with her and figured out what had happened and basically were with her waiting for the police to arrive. About 20 minutes into our visit this guy parked his car on their lawn and with his meanest face on strolled up to us looking very angry. I remember thinking, "Wow, we are about to get beaten up." Luckily the guy pretty much walked up to us and seeing who we were turned and left. I think it wasn't an accident that our appointment was at the moment it was. Whatever would have happened wasn't going to happen with us there. It reminded me of a moment we had with an investigator named Carmen about 14 or so months ago. Miracle. 

Jorge's lesson was also great. We taught a few principles out of the Restoration and focused on the necessity of prayer a little more directly. The last few lessons with him have been pretty intense, but I think he has made some progress.

The Book of Mormon more than the Bible really helps us discern things that are good and true. While the Bible explains "ask and ye shall receive" (James 1:5) and later explains the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25) but the Book of Mormon takes the cake. To name a few, these scriptures outline one or more ways that we can know for our selves if something is true. 

1 Nephi 15:11
2 Nephi 31:3
2 Nephi 32:3-5
2 Nephi 33:1,10
Jacob 4:13
Mosiah 5:2
Alma 5:45-46
Alma 32:27-29
Moroni 7:13, 19
Moroni 10:3-5

The Book of Mormon really speaks for itself, challenging any and all readers to find out for themselves. I really know it to be true. There really isn't anything we can do to convince someone aside from allowing the spirit to confirm what we teach. Endlessly we are bashed and that is terribly annoying and it's exceedingly unfortunately because those people have hardened their hearts and refuse to think or test things out beyond the words of their pastor. The Restoration of the Gospel truly is a miracle. 

God has not changed, revelation does not have some prescribed ending after the revelation of John. If that were to be true then everything after Deuteronomy 4:2 is void and if their Bibles are anything like mine there can't be prophets after the old testament because it says "the end of the prophets." Lastly, if there weren't going to be prophets in the lasts days why did Jesus take time give instruction on how to figure out if someone is a false prophet instead of saying, sorry guys I'm the last one! 

Being a missionary is pretty great. The Gospel is true. 

-eric

September 10, 2018

Eric Henry Johnson
12:24 PM (2 hours ago)

Tuesday Elder Rencher and I went on trade-offs. I've literally served my entire mission with Elder Rencher in the same district. It's a little weird watching him die (in missionary lingo, that means finishing the mission) and go home. 

Wednesday was a pretty good day. Last Friday I got the scriptures dad and mom sent me. Elder Magalei and I added our testimonies to both the Book of Mormon (triple combination) and to the Bible. We printed off a few pictures of his baptism and glued them right in. When we met with him we talked about some longer term discipleship goals. He wrote them into his triple combination. He really, really appreciated the gift.  

Our mission is striving to "flood the world" with the Book of Mormon. We use the Book of Mormon simply because it's the keystone that establishes the truthfulness of the Restoration of the Gospel. In the words of Bruce R McConkie, "Either the Book of Mormon is true, or it is false; either it came from God, or it was spawned in the infernal realms." Trying to use the Book of Mormon more in our finding efforts we've had some fun experiences. 

The first was with this one lady on Saturday. We spoke with her and briefly explained the Book of Mormon and read with her Moroni 10:4-5 and 3 Nephi 11:3-7. Moroni explains that one has to pray to gain a testimony by the power of the spirit, and 3 Nephi 11 contains the moment when Jesus appears in the Americas. Truly powerful scriptures. As we read with the lady we all could feel the spirit testify that the record was true. She asked for a copy which we happily supplied her with along with a return appointment. 

The other cool moment happened yesterday. We pulled up to the home of someone we are teaching. Outside was a hispanic family of 10 or so people so we walked right up to them and started talking with them. We introduced the Book of Mormon to them. Unfortunately people began to slowly filter away until we were left with just one person. We spoke with him and testified of how the Book of Mormon was written for our days and contains the fulness of the gospel. You could tell something clicked and he was extremely interested, he wanted to make changes in his life and we promised that through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the authority of the priesthood that has been restored he could receive the ordinances of the gospel that help in that process. 

The Book of Mormon truly speaks for itself. Occasionally we get people who try to be faith shakers but without exception they haven't really done that with the Book of Mormon. No argument stands up against truth. The spirit I feel reading the stories of Jesus in the Bible is the same which permeates the pages of the Book of Mormon. Though there are a bunch of cool things which have been learned after the printing of the Book of Mormon that support the veracity of the truth of the record, my testimony is founded in the power of the Holy Ghost. Truly, it is by the power of the Holy Ghost by which we may know the truth of all things. 

On the same train of thought we had a lesson with Jorge this week. He is very intelectual, which isn't bad (2 Nephi 9:29), but has given up in part on the Book of Mormon. He has allowed, or pins an unexpressed concern, on one small insignificant detail which has eclipsed the magnificence and miraculousness of the Book of Mormon. We planned out a lesson which if it carried a title, would be, "seek learning by study and by faith," using the principle found on D&C 88:118. We used a bunch of scriptures and it was pretty direct. We outlined how truth is the knowledge of how things are, were, and will be (D&C 93:24) and that while study is necessary it is incomplete without the spirit of truth to accompany any finding. Jorge seeks out to prove or disprove the Book of Mormon by the current understanding of the American continent between 600 BC - 400 Ad (the time period of the Book of Mormon with the exception of the book of Ether), but shies away from trying to accompany that study by seeking the spirit of truth. Moroni 10:5 is pretty clear, we can know the truth of all things by the power of the Holy Ghost. "All things" is a lot of things, and it's not going to be until he accepts that principle that he will find the answer that satisfies him. 

We watched the face-to-face yesterday and it was really impressive up to one point. They seemed to have practiced their responses significantly. The point I referred to was when poor Elder Quintin L Cook misspoke when he said that "the Savior was martyred in Carthage jail." Surely someone has already taken advantage of taking this out of context. It's comforting to know that God will still work with imperfect people. 

-eric

September 3, 2018

Fam,

Turns out this never got sent! 

Today marks twenty months of missionary service. 2.7 months were spent with Elder Guerrero, 1.5 with Elder Waters, 9.3 of those months have been spent with Elder Magalei, and 8.2 of those months have been spent with Elder Rencher. It's crazy to think how young the district was when I first got here. Elder Waters, the district leader had 6 months. Elder Guerrero had about 4 months and Elder Rencher had just finished training with about 3 months. Elder Rencher and Elder Guerrero will also be finishing their missions together at the end of this transfer. Time really does fly. 

Monday evening we had a great lesson with Wilfred and William. They really are two amazing guys. They are humble and a joy to teach. We brought our new Branch missionary leader and his wife with us and we had planned to teach the Plan of Savation. We knocked the door and could see Wilfred was reading and after we walked in we had asked what he was reading. He described the first few verses of Alma 32 and the spirit made a clear impression that we should continue reading with him. We did so and had a stellar lesson with them. Alma 32 is just full of goodness. We read that and the spirit was very strong. Outside of the quality of how the lesson turned out, something that struck me was the fluency and proficiency of the members who came out with us. Obviously they know Spanish and grew up speaking it, but for whatever reason that night the separation of my own Spanish abilities and that of theirs really stuck out in my mind. It was pretty awe inspiring, language learning really is the process of a life time to be able to dominate a language like a native speaker. 

We've slowly been working through the new member lessons with Edin. He is doing great. We taught a lesson on tithing this last Wednesday. The presence of the spirit is dependent on all parties involved. If there is unity the spirit much more capable of being able to testify of truth. Edin's teaching has exemplified this truth. Every lesson we have with him is a spiritual highlight of the day. He is so receptive to truth that it really is a joy to teach him. 

We had another good lesson with him where we reviewed the gospel of Jesus Christ. We hadn't really covered why we don't baptized infants so we decided to use Moroni 8 to cover the topic. Moroni 8 really is a pretty great chapter on baptism, specifically verse 25-26. He explained that he had always thought what the chapter teaches was right but found no support on that idea in his previous church. It reminded me of when we taught the 10 commandments and how he was blown away by the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." He explained that he had always prayed to other people and never realized that that was blatantly against the very first of the 10 commandments. 

Friday we were stopping by a person we had lost contact with. Their neighbor was home so we talked with her for a few minutes on her porch. We were able to share with her a shortened restoration lesson. As we taught about the first vision I was watching her reaction. Joseph Smith had a question about which of all the sects of his time was right and which he should join. He brought his question to a grove of trees and asked God in sincere prayer that he would reveal to him what he should do. He was answered by a personal visitation from God the father and Jesus Christ. They instructed him in what to do. Nuvia was surprised. She said, in reference to the painting depicting the first vision, "but there are two people in the photo?" We smiled and explained that the first revealed truth in the process of the Restoration of the Gospel Jesus Christ is that the non-biblical doctrine of the trinity was false. God is a personal God who knows his children and cares for them, he has a body of Flesh and bone, only glorified. Jesus Christ is his son, the Savior of the world. Previously she was left confused by the doctrine of the trinity and didn't really know how to pray because of that. Thankfully, first and foremost, the restoration just makes sense (Deut 32:17). 

We also have pictures of the two elders coming in next transfer! We also heard that the transfer after that there will be another Spanish Elder. Another! There is the danger of me leaving the branch before I finish my mission............ I really don't want to. I'd rather train two greenies at once. 

- Eric 

27 August 2018

Fam,


I think I now more than ever understand the words of Nephi found in the 32nd chapter of the second book of Nephi which says, 

"8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. "

We've had four lessons with David and they go pretty well. The only problem is after the first lesson he felt really uncomfortable praying and wouldn't. Missionaries are here to invite people to come closer to Jesus Christ. Prayer is pivotal to that process. Prayer moves our lessons from convincing someone logically of the truth to helping them discern by the spirit the truthfulness of our message. People progress once they pray with real intent, with faith in Christ, and a willing heart because it's once they start doing that that the spirit is able to direct their path for good. If they refuse to ask in prayer if what we share is true or do so without faith, real intent, or a willing heart they won't receive direction from the spirit. The problem was that David wouldn't pray. During our first lesson with him, we tried to figure out why. After a fair amount of pushing we couldn't get anything out of him to explain why. Even after teaching him how to pray, he wouldn't. Giving him a second chance we taught the Plan of Salvation with a significant emphasis on how prayer is a key step in our progression. Still nothing. Feeling there was something deeper going on than just not wanting to learn, we spoke with Teodoro who was there with us and he said, "you need to break him, you just need to be as persistant as the Elders were with me." 

Determined we planned a lesson on prayer covering the who, what, why, and how of prayer ending with an invitation to pray, having 2 Nephi 32:8 ready if he repeated "maybe next time." He really liked the lesson. We liked the lesson too, but as we extended the invite he looked down and wouldn't. As we spoke with him we felt deeply that there was some significant unknown barrier making this abnormally difficult for him. Saddened by his unwillingness to progress we discussed our purpose with him and how even though we like him alot we couldn't come back if he wasn't progressing towards baptism. We discussed with him our purpose and bore testimony about the truthfulness of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Truly we felt as Nephi likely felt by the words he used to describe his situation, "it grieveth [us]" 

I really like the statement made by Jesus in Matthew 18:12. The shepherd, looking for the one lost sheep of his herd of 99 sheep, needed to leave and go searching in the mountains for the one. True ministering is going for that one who had left. To help that sheep you need to find them. That might mean physically finding them but I think often times for issues more ingrained, it's more like trying to come to an understanding of who they are and why they feel the way they feel. 

Something clicked on Monday for us because when we came back, something about David just looked better. There seemed to be more light in him. We met on his porch as usual and finished the Plan of Salvation and asked if we could end in prayer. He folded his arms and looked down readying himself for the prayer. After about 10 seconds I saw him open his eyes, still looking down, and solemnly realize we were arriving at a fork in the road. We really didn't say anything. He slowly looked up at us and then back down, and after a few long seconds offered a humble quiet prayer. Honestly I just about jumped off my chair. He had taken a step that turned out to be much more significant and difficult for himself than I think we might ever realize. We were pretty happy and he was too. I'm not even sure I touched the ground as we walked back to the car. 

Latter we got a pretty good referral for the first time from other missionaries. Some sisters in Lansing reached out to us to teach a man they had met. Within a week of getting a Libro de Mormón he had read up to about Moroni 8. We had a good lesson and challenged him to baptism. He accepted! Now we have to just figure out if his English abilities are strong enough for him to function well in a Lansing English congregation or if he is willing to make the hour drive to Grand Rapids. The Book of Mormon really resonates with the spirit and is normally the most important tool in conversion to the fulness of the gospel. 

We've spoken of Alex the missionary pastor. Unfortunately we parted ways this week. The french-portuguese-spanish-english didn't help. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure his comprehension is around 0%. Also side note he turned out to be an apostle and part prophet. He showed us some weird magazines of stuff he did back in Africa. We attempted to show the Restoration movie in Portuguese but he still wasn't understanding. He was confused why we were teaching him. He used Matthew 10:6 to make his point. Matthew 10 starts with the ordaining and commission of the 12 Apostles. Verse 6 says "6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He felt he already knew what he needed to do, but we tried to explain the story of Apollos found in Acts 18:24- Acts 19:6. Basically Apollos is doing a bunch of good teaching and baptizing--- but all without authority. The church reaches out to him and he is taught "more perfectly" by the church and given authority by the "brethren" or Apostles in that time. Paul later baptized Apollos' converts again with authority and gives them the gift of the Holy Ghost, Apollos then continued to "help them much." Alex was pretty great but didn't understand. He would be a great addition to the Church but unfortunately there are no French speaking missionaries who could have helped us when we needed them. He even wanted to go teaching with us. 

Saturday was also my busiest proselyting day yet. We left the apartment at 7:30 a.m. and had a meeting from 8-9:30, lessons from 10-12, a trip out to Grant Michigan after those lessons which took 5 hours in total, and lessons in the evening, compelling us to arrive home just before 9:30. It was a pretty good day. Most days we can't proselyte for 14 hours. 

As Joseph Smith said, "the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel." 

-eric 

August 20, 2018

fam,

About half way through morning planning there was some sort of system crash on Elder Magalei's phone. The Missionary smart phones we use are locked down with an application named Mass360 and for what ever reason it deleted a few critical applications, including facebook, daily planner, notes, gospel library, and much more. We finished planning and I was able to synch our data only to find moments after having sunk the same failures accurred to me. Turns out the system glich is not an isolated issue but at the very least mission wide and likely covers other missions with smart phones. We are kind of hosed. We had a pretty busy day tomorrow but I couldn't say which lessons were at what times.    :/    This will be fun.


Sunday was interesting. Zoey and Christian, and a family we've recently started teaching. Things went smoothly. We were able to meet with Zoey and Christian after church to talk about some questions they had. They wanted to know what they could do to come closer to God. We outlined how baptism would be an essential step in their progression and were able to challenge them to a specific baptismal date.  


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Now even gmail has failed me. I had finished up what had turned out to be a really good email and it failed to save the most recent draft 😣😭

I'm sorry but I don't think I'll try to replicate it. Hopefully a brief summary will sufice to outline what once was. 

"No 'missionary pastor' alex you can't preach in our church, but look at the introduction to the book of mormon"

"I don't believe in God, I believe in the great spirit.........The world is going to be destroyed by a giant volcano somewhere under the pacific ocean" - crazy native american (see Alma 18) who had some interesting additional interpretations of the end of the world.

Our tiwi isn't working and we keep getting the same indian guy who is starting to not like us anymore. 

An in-depth comparison on the doctrines of baptism as contained in The Book of Mormon and Bible. The Book of Mormon supports everything the bible says, clarifies many things, and reveals many key doctrines pertaining to baptism. Basicly, the Book of Mormon is super cool. 

Jose who we read the account in 3 nephi 11 of the coming of Jesus Christ is super cool. He even watched the restoration on his own and we had a great lesson.

We had a fantastic lesson on the plan of salvation with Zoey and Christian. We taught how in temples, families can be bound/sealed for time and all eternity as well as we can preform vicarious baptisms for our ancestors who never had the opportunity to receive the blessings found in the fulness of the gospel. It was a super powerful lesson and not to be forgotten. 

-eric

August 13, 2018

Fam,

Transfer calls were this past Friday. Elder Magalei and I are staying together. I think we've been together for more than 9 months but I've stopped counting. Transfers no longer mean anything when we know what's going to happen for at least the next 6 months . We will also be moving early September to a new apartment. 

Wednesday we had a pretty great visit with Edin. We helped him prepare for the Branch temple trip on the 25th of this month. We set up his LDS account and got him running on his family history. I'm so grateful for the family history my mom graciously filled out for me before I left on my mission. I was able to use the pamphlet to show Edin a short history of my family and talk about the ordinances performed in the temple. He is excited and we are pumped things are going well for him.

Thursday I had a seriously bad sore throat, almost to the point of losing my voice. We took things slowly for a few hours but were able to go out proselyting in the afternoon. We met two seriously cool people that night. The first guy we had a short lesson with on the book of Mormon. We had a pretty good visit with him and ended by reading with him in the 11th chapter of 3 Nephi when Jesus begins his ministry in the Americas. The Spirit was strong and at the end of the visit he explained that he had spoken with missionaries in Mexico many years back. The other guy was a "Missionary Pastor." Introducing himself as Pastor Alex he explained the things he had done as a pastor for the past few years. We were able to strike common ground on the importance on missionary work and he shared some cool stories about his own missionary work. Unlike most pastors, Alex was kind and respectful. We shared common ground on many truths including the apostasy of the early Christian church. He even pulled out scriptures we like to use to teach about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson was made slightly difficult because of the language barrier. Alex is African and his English isn't that great but he speaks French, Portuguese, Spanish and sometimes all at the same time. It was quite the struggle. We talked about how God has restored many lost truths as well as his priesthood authority to the earth today and offered him a Book of Mormon. He gladly accepted and committed himself to read it before we came back next Saturday. Hopefully he'll actually read!

Saturday we had the baptism of José Manuel! It was a great service. Manuel is the older brother to Francisca and Daniel. Francisca spoke and did a fantastic job. She ended her talk telling her mom and Daniel that she's anxiously awaiting their baptisms, all still in process. Elder Guerrero and I stood as witnesses to make sure the baptism was performed correctly. There was a great reverence as the congregation moved from the Chapel to room with the baptismal font. Being a saving ordinance the spirit was able to powerfully witness to me its importance as people quietly shuffled in and Manuel was baptized by Elder Wilkins. Baptism is a simple yet powerful ordinance. 

There were some refreshments after the service. With some transfer math I have three transfers cycles left. The last two will be spent training the Elder who will come out in September. We should get two (they should be entering the MTC around now) and Elder Magalei should train the other. Elder Guerrero and Rencher go home in September as the two new Elders come out. That leaves Elder Berry and Wilkins to be companions. Elder Berry will have 12 weeks under his belt and Elder Wilkins a meager 18 weeks. As I walked by after we were enjoying refreshments I heard the conversation they were having. You could say they are feeling the pressure and nerves caused by their decreed fate. It reminded me of when Elder Guerrero trained me. Elder Guerrero was really young, he only had about 24 weeks when he trained me. He was a little nervous and likely felt as I was training, under pressure with a slight doubt of your own capabilities, but we just worked and things eventually worked themselves out. In that time we were able to gain much needed experience. I'm excited for them and the lessons they'll learn being on their own. 

Listening to one of President Monson's talk made me ponder the effects of our missionary work and how often they go beyond what we will ever see or realize. I've noticed many of the people we speak with either have known a Latter-day Saint or have spoken with missionaries in the past. Each contact either moves someone closer to the fullness of the gospel or further. Contact could be as little as seeing us walking down the street or nervously peeking through their blinds at what looks like the CIA or ICE parked on their street. Everything counts and it's probable that we might never really know the full effect of our service. 

Yesterday we had dinner with the Duran family. I doubt there are words worthy of describing them. In few words, they're awesome. Brother Duran has quite the garden this year filled with a large variety of hot peppers. We were treated to a great carne asada with a side of habaneros. Brother Duran is a monster or a champion, that's left undecided. He chomped down massive bites of some seriously hot habaneros. I took a few bites, swallowing them instead of chewing but as I finished the pepper I made the mistake of biting down. The darn pepper nearly killed me. I don't know how people actually eat peppers that hot aside from literally burning the feeling out of their mouths. 

-Eric 

August 6, 2018

Fam, 

Gander 
[gan-dur] 
1. [N] resident, or native of Michigan (Michi - Gander) 
2. [V] to continuous talking aimlessly without purpose or destination
3. Mature male goose 

Juan, the guy from last week who had the lesson on authority, is a Gander through and through. To teach him you really have to take control of the situation. Our lesson this past Tuesday was another story. His wife, Esperanza, was able to join us. The lesson went really well, like surprisingly well. Esperanza is super cool. PMG says that people progress in the gospel best as families and Tuesday really demonstrated why. Esperanza was really receptive but more importantly by her presence kept Juan calmed and less prone to interupt. Esperanza only speaks Spanish which also helped. Juan's language skills are not as developed in Spanish which greatly mitigated his tendencies to gander and dominate lessons.  Esperanza's presence allowed us to more effectively share a good lesson. 

This week was pretty tough when it comes to talking with people. For some reason it felt like no one was outside or home even. Monday we had appointments during our entire proselytizing time but Tuesday and Wednesday were more open. Those two days I think we talked with a total of three or four people.

Though the week was less productive, we've been really focusing on building the priesthood in the branch. For the last month or two we've prayed a lot to be lead to men who can hold the priesthood. It's been pretty miraculous. Just recently we posted a free Book of Mormon on the Facebook market place and had to turn off comments due to just a bunch of anti. Feeling like we had learned our lesson for posting stuff like that on the local Hispanic Garage sale we turned off comments. A few hours later we received a private message from someone asking when and where our church meets. While conversing with them it turned out he was a member who just moved here who had lost contact with the church and had been looking for the Latter-day Saints in Grand Rapids. No effort wasted: the unintended consequence was meeting a guy who had been looking for the church. 

We have also been able to get our recent converts to come with us as we visit with the people we teach. Teodoro has been doing super well. The gospel has really latched on to him. We talked with his neighbors on the way to one lesson. In the lesson he did fantastically and on the way back he invited the people we saw walking back to the car to meet with us and come to church. He really enjoys missionary work and is keen to continue to come out with us. 

Here is a list of a few talks I've listened this week that I particularly liked. Losing interest in listening to all the talks by speaker I've moved to the topic of priesthood. Here are a few I've enjoyed, in no particular order, also there are a few added not about the priesthood. 



The Power of the Priesthood in the Boy, April 2013 - Elder Tad R. Callister  Listen or Read

God’s Compelling Witness: The Book of Mormon, October 2017 - Tad R. Callister  Listen or Read

See Others as They May Become, October 2012 - President Thomas S. Monson  Listen or Read

The Powers of Heaven, April 2012 - Elder David A. Bednar
Listen or Read

What Lack I Yet? October 2015 - Elder Larry R. Lawrence
Listen or Read

Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament, October 2008 - Elder Dallin H. Oaks 
Listen or Read

Like a watered garden, October 2001 - Elder Jeffery R. Holland (side note: though the word holy appears many times in the scriptures, what it refers to  basically falls within a few sections; sacrifices, specifically tithing as well as animal sacrifices under the mosaic law; commandments, specifically the Sabbath day but also a few others; things pertaining to the temple, such as ceremonial clothing, altars, etc; and God. Tithing is secretly one of the coolest commandments) Listen or Read