Milagros (Miracles!)

Subject:	Milagros
Date:	Mon, 5 Nov 2018 12:31:19 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

Hola family!

This awesome family we have been teaching just continues to be awesome. First of all we've been worried sick about teaching then the Word of Wisdom, on account of the fact that every time we go over there they have several vape things on the coffee table and end tables, and outside have two big ashtrays with cigarette butts and cigars. The Lord had prepared them however. The lesson before they were asking a couple little questions and dietary restrictions came up and we gave them a tiny primer for the WoW, and they seemed to really accept it. Then when we came back to talk about it some more, he just said yep, that makes sense. Turns out he's been trying to quit for the last year, and has pretty much kicked the nicotine! We were so relieved, it feels so great to see people willing to keep commandment, because that's really where their teeth can really sink into the gospel, really live it. THEN on top of that, the Lord had heard ours and everyone else's cries, they FINALLY made it to church!! Before the mission I never really appreciated the sacrament as much as I do now. When I looked over and saw this sweet family take the sacrament I was filled with the spirit. I was so happy for them! I imagine that's a tiny sliver of how the Lord feels when he watches us worthily take the sacrament. Keep the families here in your prayers!

We were also able to go spend a night with the Elders in the Barn again! When it was dark out we were hanging out on their little balcony thing and stargazing. It was pretty neat. They live kind of in the middle of no where, so you could see sooo many stars. We even saw several shooting stars. You could even see, even if faintly, the Milky Way, it was awesome. While in their area we contacted a random guy who was outside smoking and playing crazy music from his car. He said he almost went on a mission himself! Turns out he joined the church in his youth down in Louisiana. He said he just kind of got distracted, and has a family now, but he is down to meet with missionaries again and get back on track. Miracles!

Another weird thing this week, we ran into an RLDS person! She's not active in it anymore, nor has been for a while it sounded like. Apparently she joined when she was living in Missouri. It was interesting, but we only chatted for a minute, and set up a time we can come by again. That was actually the same day as Halloween now that I think about it. Halloween on the mission is kind of boring haha. We have to be in the apartment by 6:00pm. We got some snacks and just did administrative stuff/planning/studying. We made a short appearance at the Branch Halloween party, eat a hotdog and get outta there.

We also met this really cool guy. We taught him The Restoration on his porch and it seemed to make a lot of sense to him. When we came back to visit him again we read the Introduction of the Book of Mormon with him and and he was freaking out, he was like "This makes so much sense!" At one point was like "How come- oh wait never mind. I was going to ask how come no ones out talking about this. Lol" that's what we're doin'!! Lol hes a funny guy, hopefully more to report on him in the future. 

Anyway that's about it for this week. Love y'all!

Elder Hogg

Here is the text to the Introduction to the Book of Mormon (click to go to site/full text):

The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel.

The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon. The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in 600 B.C. and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues at the Tower of Babel. This group is known as the Jaredites. After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.

The crowning event recorded in the Book of Mormon is the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ among the Nephites soon after His resurrection. It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.

After Mormon completed his writings, he delivered the account to his son Moroni, who added a few words of his own and hid up the plates in the Hill Cumorah. On September 21, 1823, the same Moroni, then a glorified, resurrected being, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and instructed him relative to the ancient record and its destined translation into the English language.

In due course the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith, who translated them by the gift and power of God. The record is now published in many languages as a new and additional witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that all who will come unto Him and obey the laws and ordinances of His gospel may be saved.

Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

In addition to Joseph Smith, the Lord provided for eleven others to see the gold plates for themselves and to be special witnesses of the truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon. Their written testimonies are included herewith as “The Testimony of Three Witnesses” and “The Testimony of Eight Witnesses.”

We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah.