December 8, 2016

Today I had the amazing experience of going to the temple. I feel that
this time I had left with many new and wonderful ideas on how I can
become a better representative of the Lord. I am so grateful that in
this mission we have the blessing of having 3 temples that we can go
to on occasion. It's always a wonderful opportunity to learn how we
can improve ourselves and find answers to our questions. The Bible
dictionary states:

> "A temple is literally a house of the Lord, a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead. A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness."

Let all of our homes become comparable to the sacredness of a temple.
I hope then that this Christmas, Christ's Spirit will be present in
each home as we remember his birth, life, and Atonement.

A wonderful experience that we had this week happened with a returning
member. This man, 2 years ago, suffered a serious Brian injury falling
from 20 feet onto his head. When he woke up, he couldn't remember
anything from his past life except for his testimony of the restored
gospel. Over the next 2 years, he had to meet his wife, kids, home,
and parents as of it was for the first time. We ate dinner with them
last Sunday and his wife invited us to teach this brother the
missionary lessons over again. She told us that he has a testimony of
the gospel but just doesn't remember what the gospel is. So we taught
him the first lesson. He stopped us in the middle of the lesson
excitedly and said "Elders I remembered! I remember the Elders
teaching this to me just before I was baptized! The feelings and the
joy it's all back!" He then said "you know, the man who lives
downstairs isn't a member. Let me talk to him and I'll set up a lesson
for you both to meet him." We were overjoyed! It reminded me of the
scripture in John 14:26,

> "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."


I hope everyone has a great week and a wonderful time participating in
the new Christmas initiative "Light The World." If you want to know
more about it, go to Mormon.org and you'll see many videos and
suggestions on what you can do to serve as the Savior did.

I love you all,