We are now Missionaries

This afternoon at 4pm we went to the home of President Phillip Wightman, our Stake President, and were set apart as full time missionaries in the Idaho Pocatello Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We received blessings and promises that if we do our best to follow the directions contained therein we will have a successful mission experience. We need your prayers to help sustain us in this effort. Thank you.

Here we go Again!

In our last post we indicated that we had submitted papers for another mission. And guess what? We received our call letter signed by President Monson a week ago. We will be serving a Live At Home Member and Leader Support mission in the Idaho Pocatello Mission. Our assignment will be to work with less active individuals and families in trying to bring them back into the fold and prepare them to go to the temple and be sealed. It should be a real challenge for us. We are certainly excited to say the least.

Next week we will go to the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah. We will be staying there and will finish that part of our training on Friday. I'm certain it will be very intense. A week from Sunday we are to meet with Mission President Colton, President Howard, Elder Clarke and a nearby Stake President (and maybe some Bishops) and start planning our effort. We expect to be assigned to a Stake somewhere nearby Rexburg so we will be able to attend meetings etc., with the people we will be working with.

One might ask why would we want to do this? Why not just sit back and play golf, travel and plant gardens, etc.? The reason is simply that I know that everything that relates to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. When I pick up the scriptures and read them I know that they contain a history of mankind's effort on earth. I know that those who have written their experiences were there and they saw what they saw. I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ and that we have modern scripture provided to us by living prophets. I know that Joseph Smith was the instrument by which the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to this earth after the great apostasy and that he saw Our Heavenly Father and Our Savior when they appeared to him as a 14 year boy. I have a testimony that these events did really happen, are continuing to happen as prophesied, and that if one jot of the things that are written are true, then all of it is true.

I know that Our Father in Heaven provided this earth for us to receive our bodies and to come here to experience life and to exercise our free agency. We have the choice to either accept or reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can choose to have faith that the Savior came to earth, lived and taught us the Gospel Plan that will bring about eternal life. We have the opportunity to accept that he paid for our sins with His blood and overcame death for all mankind by being resurrected. We have a choice to be baptized by full immersion by one who has authority from God, as he showed us by His example; to receive the Holy Ghost and to endure to the end of our lives or not. It is up to each of us individually. All I can do is testify that I know that the Plan of Salvation; (ie. the Gospel) is real and it is there for each of us as individuals to act. In fact, I know these things to be true and I testify of them in His Holy Name - even Jesus Christ, Amen.

That is why we are doing this mission.