Ye May Know
9:58 AM
Iaorana tatou! Eaha te parau api?
We had an awesome week in Uturoa! Our big little miracle was that every lesson had a member present! I'm not sure I've ever seen that in my mission, let alone this secteur. Plus our members are awesome and I don't know where we'd be without them.
For example, Thursday we went to see D as usual. Soeur U came with us and Frère M said he would be there too. But when we got there, D was drinking with his friends and he asked if we could do the lesson the next day. We were about to call Frere M to say the lesson was cancelled, when he arrived. He said hi to us and then went back to talk to D and his friends. He comes back to us a few moments later and says, "hey, come here, D's friend says he wants to take the lessons." We go back, and end up teaching D and all his friends!
On Friday night I finished the Book of Mormon for the nth time! I started sometime last fall, don't remember when, following the advice of Elder Holland to take a paperback copy and a question that you want to answer, read, and mark anything that applies. I focused on missionary work, of course, and have been reading little by little every day. On Friday, I'm not sure why but I started reading out loud as I read the beautiful last chapter, the last words of the prophet Moroni.
As I said last week, we started teaching Mami R, Soeur U's mother, which is a miracle because she always turned away the missionaries before. What's more, she's starting to believe! It's a little difficult but funny because she doesn't understand French and we don't completely understand or speak Tahitian. Thankfully we had a good translator, Frere U. Also, she's getting old and starting to lose her memory so she doesn't really remember new information. She loves to read, so she reads the pamphlets or the chapters in the Book of Mormon that we give her, but then she forgets what she learned. Pray that she'll be able to remember what we're teaching her!
"I, Moroni, write somewhat as seemeth me good; and I write unto my brethren, the Lamanites; ... I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
I was a bit stubborn and this time I didn't exactly follow what we call 'Moroni's promise.' He asks us that "when ye may read these things... ponder it in your hearts... ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true." The promise is "by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know."
When I say I didn't exactly do what he said, it's because I read, I pondered, but I didn't really pray and ask God. Why? Because I would have felt a little ridiculous doing so - I already know the Book of Mormon is true. So instead I just prayed for gratitude that I have this book in my life! I love the testimony of President Ezra Taft Benson "It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book." I have certainly felt that power as I study the Book of Mormon, as the words and stories that I read each day apply to me personally and provide answers to my questions and prayers.
Je sais que le Livre de Mormon est vrai.
Ua ite au e, e parau mau te Buka a Moromona.
I know the Book of Mormon is true!
Do you?
Je vous aime,
Soeur Ladd
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