Week 3 of MTC

Caissimo famiglia,

Many people are confused concerning why missionaries leave their families for two years to preach the gospel all around the world. Why do they have limited contact via phone, visits, etc. during this time. All we are allowed is email once a week for a half hour and letter writing. I've learned a lot this week about the reasons why Heavenly Father has inspired our Prophet with this counsel. I'll explain further in a bit.

A few nights ago, I prayed to Heavenly Father for some letters, because I was missing you all, especially mom and dad. As I said my prayer, I knew He was listening- i could feel Him near by. I loev what it says in the Bible Dictionary about faith : faith "enables the mind of man to place confidence in him [the Lord] without reservation...faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel and is more than belief, since true faith always moves its possessor to some kind of physical or mental action; it carries an assurance of the fulfillment of the things hoped for..." Read all of this- it's incredible. You will be amazed, like me, about how much you'll learn about the meaning of faith and how you can cultivate it. How faith is "a principle of action and power", how faith is a gift and how we can each personally develop this...

...Back to my experience. As I prayed before bed, I felt a peaceful assurance that Heavenly Father heard me, and wanted to give me my desire. I felt as a child. I felt like being a little girl again. Daddy, my loving mortal father cared about the things I wanted when I was young, a doll, to play with a friend, or even just receive a big daddy hug! Even if some of these things seem insignificant and unnessary, he wanted me to be happy. He cared about the things that I cared about, because he loved me so much. I will never forget those things, and the love that my dad showed me, by reading bedtimes stories, or learning how to french braid my hair so I could feel special at church on sundays. How many fathers can do that?! I love you dad. I can't find the scrip in time, please look it up and post it- I love the verse that says something along the lines of "if ye, being evil [imperfect and mortal], know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven, He being perfect, bless and give excellent gifts to His children.

Comparably, I know that our Heavenly Father feels the same way about each of us. We are literally His precious and beloved Spirit children. He is the Father of our spirits. Before we were born, we lived in the premortal world with Him and all our other brothers and sisters. Have you ever thought about this- it came to me as an epifany today- He misses us. Just as each earthly parent cries (with joy and pride, but also a bit of sadness) when their children leave the home for college or marriage, Heavenly Father misses physically seeing us and conversing with us in the flesh each day as we did in the premortal realm. He has taught us that we can pray, so that we can still interact with Him, personally, each day. He wants us to talk to Him, to let Him know that we know He is there for us. He wants us to express our gratitude to Him for all of the many many blessings that He gives us each day. Indeed, each day He gives us everything that we have, through others, through the beauty of the earth that He created, through the comfort and guidance of the Holy Ghost, His messenger. He sends us multiple "packages" each day- temporally and spiritually. All we need to do is receive these gifts, and RECOGNIZE that they come from him.

I prayed to receive some letters to come from my family. I hadn't received anything in a week. Sure enough, the following day, (yesterday) I received five letters, and two packages, all from my family. Thank you! I especially loved the letters from weylin, grandma and mom. Mom, "they were manna from heaven" for me as well :). Dad emailed me and I read it today! This was a little miracle/package that the Lord gave me. He helped me to know once again how much my family supports and loves me. He also wanted me to know how much He loves and cares about me. All I needed to do was ask Him. Yes, He knows all that I need, even before I ask Him, but through this experience, I was ABLE to recognize that He played a hand in this blessing. I'm glad that I didn't receive letters for six days. I came to desire a blessing, then come closer to Heaenly Father in prayer and receive an answer. Without this experience, I would have never recognized that this gift came from Him. I love my daddy in Heaven and know that He cares about the little things that I care about.

I am grateful for the letters that Heavenly Father gives to me. He gives me instruction and counsel for my happiness and safety in my life through the Bible and Book of Mormon. If I am obedient to these instructions, He can bless me to understand more of their meaning and how they apply to my life. He will give me further instruction as I receive His counsel. The reason why the true gospel of Jesus Christ is restored to the earth again is this- after Christ's death, as well as most of His apostles, there were so many evil people on the earth that did not want to obey God's counsel that He decided to take His complete truth from the earth. Evil men distorted the truths of the bible, and took out plain and precious parts to confuse us, or because they didn't have the inspiration of God, so they made their own decisions concerning how to correct and translate the bible. There are many truths in it still, but there are things scattered throughout that are confusing and not complete. After years and years, there were people who wanted to have the real and whole truth of God again, and obey His counsel. People such as Martin Luther and other reformers prepared a way for us to have the freedoms we enjoy in worshipping and believing what we want. Joseph Smith, a boy of 14 years old (!) was so confused about which church was true! He said a simple, humble but sincere prayer with all His might to know which church to join. He hadn't expected anything spectacular, but God and Jesus Christ appeared to Him in personage, and told Him that none of the churches were [completely] true and that He would be their servant to restore His truth.

Our central focus is Christ. We worship Him. The Book of Mormon is for our day, and was preserved and hid in the earth so that the wicked men could not distort it. It enhances the bible and they accompany each other. It is a perfect Book. Joseph Smith translated it through the power of God- He wasn't perfect by any means. he was a simple farm boy, a teenager. But he was humble and pure. God molded him, and could use him through his obedience and worthiness to restore the truth to the earth. I know these things are true because as I read the Book of Mormon, my relationship with my Savior Jesus Christ grows so much! I can feel the power of God so strongly in my whole soul and I know that it is the word without a doubt. I have no doubts, and I unreservedly would defend and testify of it to any person- even President Obama if I had too. I do not entail any of my political values in making that comment...haha. I love the Book of Mormon so much. If you want to strenghten your testimony to know if this church contains the FULNESS of the truth of God and Jesus' Christs' church, read it every day, little by little with a sincere prayer in your heart. Obey God's word, and He will give you all answers and blesses that are necessary for you. This gospel brings more happiness to me that anything else I've ever had. I feel closer to you, my family, more by coming closer to Christ. The family is central to God's plan for our happiness.

Love,

Sorella Oakes