WEEK 56 "The True Blue Book"

Friends and Family,

How truly grateful I am for you.  

I had the wonderful opportunity of conducting an interview this week for a sister ready to be baptized. We walked into her home and I could feel that the spirit was there and that she had prepared herself. When we saw her she was quietly sitting in a corner of here home reading her Book of Mormon. I asked if she thought she was ready to start the interview. She quietly said i'm nervous but I know this is true now is the time. I preceded with the interview and I could feel that she was prepared. She was so excited that she was going to be able to have an eternal family. Every answer she gave in some way related back to her living with her husband forever.  She testified of it over and over and over again that the Plan of Salvation was real. I asked her how her reading of The Book of Mormon was going and she started of my saying I have a testimony of it. She told me that at first she started to read it with the purpose of keeping her commitment with the missionaries. She said that she understood nothing that she was reading. She went back to the missionaries and said that she was getting discouraged about reading. They asked her is she was praying before she read and how she was reading. She told them that she had forgotten to pray and that she was reading it to just keep her part of the commitment. That told her to start reading it for herself and to gain her own testimony of it, not just to please the missionaries. She said that after they left her house she offered a pray and then began to read. She told me that it all unfolded and everything was and an answer in some way to one of the questions she had in her life. She again testified of it and said I am ready to put all the things i've learned into action by becoming  a member of this true church.

Its through The Book of Mormon that we come to find peace in our lives and direction in this journey on earth. This is written of r our day because we have a loving Heavenly Father want us to be happy. Jesus Christ atoned for us that we may make the necessary changes in our livers to say on the "Happy Path" of this journey. I love each of you.

Elder O'Neil

WEEK 34: PHILIPPINES

Friends and family,

As I have come to find out throughout my life, and now more than ever being a missionary, I need the daily strength that the Book of Mormon gives. I have come to this knowledge as I have prayerfully read and pondered the sacred message it contains of our Savior Jesus Christ and his commandment. I have also come to a knowledge that I can only receive that power if I am obedient to the things in which I read. Obedience is key to receiving revelation and answers to concerns and questions we may have. At times we need to exercise our faith when a decision needs to be made, knowing that Heavenly Father is aware of us and will guide our paths only to help us progress. We may fall or become lost sometimes, but through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ we can be made whole and return back to our path of obedience and righteous. Its in the Book of Mormon that we find true and everlasting peace in this life and the life to come. 

My humble prayer is that we all take the time to read daily the Book of Mormon even if it is just five minutes. I can promise that you will see the hand of the Lord more abundantly in your life just as I have seen in mine own.

We had 13 people in sacrament meeting on Sunday, but it felt as though it was an army of 1,000. The members are strong and faithful. We are steadily growing and gaining power from heaven as Elder Gallen and I join in praying for these people. The investigators are beginning to progress at a more rapid pace in just 2 weeks since I first got here. I can attribute this to the sacred power that is in the Book of Mormon and the obedience we have given to the words in which it contains. This is the Lords true church upon the earth today and he is watching over all of us.

Faith + Obedience = Miracles

I love you all and am indebted to my Heavenly father for the blessings in which you are to me. The Book of Mormon is true. Jesus is the Christ. President Monson is at the head of this church. He leads and guides us through divine revelation. As we obey we will be blessed. This is a gospel of happiness, smile and enjoy the blessings it brings.

Elder O'Neil