Hello again!
I hit my one month mark two days ago, which is crazy. The first transfer ends next week.
It's been another solid week. I learned a couple things about the Book of Mormon. For one thing, a story with someone named Aminadi is mentioned with the Lord writing on a wall or something to that effect, but it's mentioned as if the story is in its full form elsewhere in the Book of Mormon when it totally isn't. There's a missing Book of Mormon story somewhere!
Another thing is the people of Hagoth, who were Nephites who sailed away from America and never returned. All that's said of them is "we presume they were drowned in the sea", but when visiting New Zealand, President Joseph Fielding Smith said to the Maori people present, "I want you to know that you are the people of Hagoth." Not only that, but prior to the Restoration, Maori wise men prophesied that a "true religion" would someday be revealed unto them. Awesome. Did any of you guys know about that?
One thing you find out on a mission is how many crazy guys there are in the world. We talked to one such fellow last week. He was nuts--if there is a conspiracy out there to believe, he is sold on it and was trying to convince us. The world is flat, the moon is a light in the sky (ergo moon landing is faked), chemtrails are a thing, the government is poisoning our food, the Illuminati is a thing, and every woman in Hollywood is secretly a man. Quite hard to keep a straight face. The worst part is, he started off telling us that he reads the Bible every day. When we mildly pressed his Bible knowledge, however (he didn't know who Melchezidek was), he admitted that he actually just watches YouTube videos about the Bible. He wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon from us cuz Mormons (and all churches) are just trying to make money, according to him, and we're "being deceived". It's amazing how many people don't actually care about God's word; they just want to use the Bible's most basic principles (there's good and evil out there) to confirm whatever nonsense they want to believe. It's sad.
One of my favorite questions to ask Christians: "How did you come to know that the Bible was the Word of God?" It actually makes them think about how they can receive answers from God and how they can discern truth. But most people just say "I know the Bible is true cuz it's the Bible! The Bible's the Bible's the Bible!" They don't actually know that it's true, or they aren't admitting that like they did with the Bible, they can use the Holy Ghost to find out what other books are true scripture. (*COUGH* Book of Mormon *COUGH*) My other favorite question for those who think church is unnecessary: "If Jesus Christ were leading a church today, wouldn't you want to be part of that church?" It stumps them, usually. What are they gonna say? Admit that they would rather have church their own way than find and follow the true church?
Of course, it's not always easy to be confident. A lot of times I'm unable to say anything convincing to people, and that's discouraging. People we hope might have listened to us raise all these objections. "Why do I need to go through a prophet to get to God?" They don't think we need prophets now that we have the Bible. But I actually thought of something today. In Revelation 11 it describes a last days prophecy: two people will be killed and then resurrected in Jerusalem. Who are these two people? PROPHETS! They're referred to in the KJV text as both "witnesses of God" and "prophets". To me that's the final stroke in the "there won't ever be prophets again" fallacy. I don't know what mainstream Christianity thinks of Rev. 11, but we know that the two prophets described will be LDS Apostles. (Man, that's awesome to think about.)
President Nelson is coming to a Las Vegas Stake to speak to the young single adults on the 17th! I really, really hope the missionaries will be allowed to go, but I'm not holding my breath. We might not.
Here's a great Book of Mormon chapter for you all to read: 2 Nephi 9. Let me know your thoughts on it.
Godspeed,
Elder Gallagher
It's been another solid week. I learned a couple things about the Book of Mormon. For one thing, a story with someone named Aminadi is mentioned with the Lord writing on a wall or something to that effect, but it's mentioned as if the story is in its full form elsewhere in the Book of Mormon when it totally isn't. There's a missing Book of Mormon story somewhere!
Another thing is the people of Hagoth, who were Nephites who sailed away from America and never returned. All that's said of them is "we presume they were drowned in the sea", but when visiting New Zealand, President Joseph Fielding Smith said to the Maori people present, "I want you to know that you are the people of Hagoth." Not only that, but prior to the Restoration, Maori wise men prophesied that a "true religion" would someday be revealed unto them. Awesome. Did any of you guys know about that?
One thing you find out on a mission is how many crazy guys there are in the world. We talked to one such fellow last week. He was nuts--if there is a conspiracy out there to believe, he is sold on it and was trying to convince us. The world is flat, the moon is a light in the sky (ergo moon landing is faked), chemtrails are a thing, the government is poisoning our food, the Illuminati is a thing, and every woman in Hollywood is secretly a man. Quite hard to keep a straight face. The worst part is, he started off telling us that he reads the Bible every day. When we mildly pressed his Bible knowledge, however (he didn't know who Melchezidek was), he admitted that he actually just watches YouTube videos about the Bible. He wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon from us cuz Mormons (and all churches) are just trying to make money, according to him, and we're "being deceived". It's amazing how many people don't actually care about God's word; they just want to use the Bible's most basic principles (there's good and evil out there) to confirm whatever nonsense they want to believe. It's sad.
One of my favorite questions to ask Christians: "How did you come to know that the Bible was the Word of God?" It actually makes them think about how they can receive answers from God and how they can discern truth. But most people just say "I know the Bible is true cuz it's the Bible! The Bible's the Bible's the Bible!" They don't actually know that it's true, or they aren't admitting that like they did with the Bible, they can use the Holy Ghost to find out what other books are true scripture. (*COUGH* Book of Mormon *COUGH*) My other favorite question for those who think church is unnecessary: "If Jesus Christ were leading a church today, wouldn't you want to be part of that church?" It stumps them, usually. What are they gonna say? Admit that they would rather have church their own way than find and follow the true church?
Of course, it's not always easy to be confident. A lot of times I'm unable to say anything convincing to people, and that's discouraging. People we hope might have listened to us raise all these objections. "Why do I need to go through a prophet to get to God?" They don't think we need prophets now that we have the Bible. But I actually thought of something today. In Revelation 11 it describes a last days prophecy: two people will be killed and then resurrected in Jerusalem. Who are these two people? PROPHETS! They're referred to in the KJV text as both "witnesses of God" and "prophets". To me that's the final stroke in the "there won't ever be prophets again" fallacy. I don't know what mainstream Christianity thinks of Rev. 11, but we know that the two prophets described will be LDS Apostles. (Man, that's awesome to think about.)
President Nelson is coming to a Las Vegas Stake to speak to the young single adults on the 17th! I really, really hope the missionaries will be allowed to go, but I'm not holding my breath. We might not.
Here's a great Book of Mormon chapter for you all to read: 2 Nephi 9. Let me know your thoughts on it.
Godspeed,
Elder Gallagher
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