I have had a lot of spiritual experiences on my mission, but I'll try to give you a couple... I don't have a whole lot of time. My companion's name is Elder Vilorio. He is from Honduras.
About 4 weeks into my mission I was still writing Chelsey, Ana, and Caitlin and I realized that it was honestly distracting me from the work. I would write them and then I would think about what I wrote for a couple of days after and then a couple of days before Preparation Day, I would think about what I was going to write... It was just distracting me. One day during companionship study, we read the part of our call letter that says to "leave all personal affairs behind" so after a lot of prayer and thought, I decided that I should probably stop writing them, so I did about a week later. The day that I wrote those three letters, I was so sad and just didn't want to send them, but then I did. Later that day we were driving in the car and somebody called us that we had never heard of in our lives. He told us that he had been talking to the missionaries somewhere else and that he wanted to get baptized. We taught him for a while and I think he was baptized later, but I left before I could figure that out. That night I had kind of a vision in my mind of where we could find our next investigator, so we went to that place and the lady I pictured in my mind answered the door. The next morning we went tracting in the flea market and the very last lady that i talked to was baptized 3 weeks later. It really is true that "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven."
I have always known that the church is true, but not until I was in the MTC had I realized that the Book of Mormon tells us to read and pray to know if it is true, which is all that I tell people now. It has always made so much sense to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but I hadn't ever actually prayed to ask Heavenly Father if it was true. I was just about to finish the Book of Mormon and I still wasn't 100% sure without a doubt that all of it was true, so while I was in the MTC I prayed harder and probably more sincere than I ever had up to that point in my life. About a week later, I was reading in the Joseph Smith History and I can't even begin to tell you about the wave of emotion that came over me as I read verse 12. Some Elders in my district started to watch the Restoration and I felt that same feeling again during that movie and that night we talked about the prophet in District Meeting and the movie that we watched in the auditorium was Prophet of the Restoration. Every one of those things that happened all in one day on top of the huge amount of the spirit that I felt was enough to know that was an answer from God. Ever since I have come to know that the Book of Mormon is true, I have grown more spiritually than in the rest of my life put together. It is a part of my testimony that I have of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is one of my slivers of perfect faith.
When i found out that I had Chron's Disease I was told that I needed to go into a follow-up appointment a week later so I did and when I was there the Doctor asked me where I wanted to go on my mission when I had already been told I was almost assuredly going stateside. I told him Mexico, obviously, and he said, "Then let's send you off to Mexico." I was so happy and excited I couldn't contain myself when he left the room. I then got this horrible pit in my stomach and realized that it might not be what the Lord has in mind for me to go to Cuernavaca and I just felt like it wasn't where I was going and then when I was pretty much humbled by the Spirit, I felt the biggest sense of peace in knowing that I was probably going to the States anyway. I know that I am supposed to be in Jacksonville, even though my whole district is in Mexico.
I really do have a lot of spiritual experiences that have happened on my mission, but I am seriously just drawing a blank it feels. I hope that those are good enough and that you can change up the wording or something so that it will sound better than I put it. I love you a lot and it really was great talking to you yesterday.
Elder Eric Austin Moore
507 NW 39th Rd. Apt. 216
Gainesville, FL 32607
Love,
Eric
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