A week with a miracle

Hey Everyone!

Glad to see that everyone is doing awesome! This week has been a frozen terror when we had to walk. The winds would howl and the layers I would wear would do little to nothing since the wind would cut right through me like a knife to butter. Anyhow, this week has been a fantastic week of both miracles and growth. I am noticing the change in the day when you CHOOSE to be positive and not complain. I only recently learned that I can be happy despite hard circumstances. Because of my personal attitude adjustment, I feel more invigorated to work hard and to never quit. I wish I had learned this lesson when I was younger, then maybe some things that I thought were hard or dumb or that caused me to become miserable to be around wouldn't have happened. I could've learned more in Arizona, I maybe would've made more friends or been more fun to be around; but the benefit of me learning and applying it out here is that I can look back and say "Yes, I could've learned something here, but I will move on and surely God will still lead me to where I need to go."

The largest miracle this week was when Elder Coles and I went out finding. We decided to stop by a potential that Elder Richards and Elder Coles had found and see if she was home. She was and was extremely surprised that we were walking around on a night like that (it was somewhere around 14 degrees plus wind chill) and she let us in. We sat down and started to discuss the Restoration of God's gospel. She agreed with all we said and then we got to the Great Apostasy (after Christ died and was resurrected). I gave the analogy of a beautiful glass table (since we were sitting around one) and explained that Christ's church was like the table: the glass tabletop was the truth and all of Christ's teachings and the legs were the apostles. As each of the apostles were killed, banished, or in other ways removed, there was nothing left to uphold Christ's church. And so, like a table with no legs, the church fell and the truth was scattered abroad. That's why we have so many churches today. Each church found a little "glass shard" of truth from Christ's original church (the table) and made "clay plates and vessels" with a small shred of gospel truth. But since God loves us all and is an unchangeable God; He knew that the earth would be ready for a restoration, or bringing back to its original form, of His church. That is why He called and ordained Joseph Smith as the Prophet to bring back the Priesthood authority (or ability to act in God's name) and Christ's church upon the earth once more. She understood this completely and told us it made so much sense to her now. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she committed herself to read it all and said she would challenge our knowledge of it when she was done. She is so excited and I know she truly is ready for this change to happen in her life. I love to see the joy the gospel message brings to those who are seeking for truth and are able to feel the Holy Ghost when he is present. I pray that we may all again have that desire to seek out God and to know what His will is for each and every one of us. This I know will bring us all happiness and peace in a world full of challenges and turmoil. With God, all things are possible. I bear you this witness in the name of our Savior, even Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Melanson