It is such a blessing to be on a mission at this time. Never in my whole mission have i seem such yelling and jesters towards us as missionaries due to the situations that are happening in national news. Indeed it is safe to say that Peoria Illinois is one of the most dangerous cities to be in at night if your in the south side ( which is where I serve). I love the people here, don't get me wrong, but the stabs and pokes at our faith at times is hard to bare. Remember this is the city that I had a gun to my face nearly a year ago, but I almost see that as a blessing. If that moment wouldn't have happened I wouldn't be as strong or fearless to say walking down these streets and declaring in to most straight forward language I know that "Jesus is the Christ, and now more then ever has he a message for you". I want you all to know that I love you and I think frequently about the love that has been shown by you my entire life. I need your help, please pray for my protection and for us to be successful as we try to find God's children that are being reared deep in enemy territory. Tony knows what I'm talking about. I take 3 Nephi 22:13-17 very seriously. Most of all verse 17 is very much applied here. I know that this is all testing of faith and a challenge that I had to come back to and not be afraid of. Why did I come back to Peoria? I was ment for this city, I was ment for the people, I was ment to preach the gospel to God's children here long before the world even started. I want to quote the part of a talk given by Hyrum Smith of Centerville Ut.
Brothers and sisters, I would like to suggest to you today that the gospel of Jesus
Christ was restored in 1820 because that’s the only time it could have survived. There
is a more pointed question that needs to be asked. Why were you born when you
were born? Why weren’t you born in 911, or 1215? Is it because some computer in
the cosmos blipped and you came out now? I don’t buy that. I believe you were born
in this dispensation, with the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today, because you
were somebody before you got here. If you had any idea of who you were before you
got here, the hair would stand up on the back of your neck. Joseph Smith said on one
occasion, “If I were to tell you who I am, you’d slay me for blasphemy.” Wisely
never told anybody who he was, but he knew.
On one occasion
, President McKay, president of the Church, several years before his
death, on a Sunday evening, didn’t have anything to do, so he took his wife, said
“Let’s go to a fireside.” They went down to a stake center. There were lots of cars in
the parking lot so he walks in and their stake president was speaking to a group of
young people your age. Eight hundred of them. President McKay and his wife.
Hyrum W. Smith
8
walked in. The stake president about swallowed his tie. Walked down to about the
eighth row. He said, “Don’t get excited. I want to hear what you have to say.” The
president continued with his talk. About halfway through his talk, he stopped and
said, “You know, young people, I feel impressed to tell you that before the world was,
before the world was, in that war in heaven, each of you in this room served as
captains and generals in the Lord’s army.” And then he went on with his talk. It had
nothing to do with what he was talking about. As he finished his talk, he looked
down at President McKay and noticed President McKay was drilling him with his
eyes. His heart stopped. He sat down and thought, “Boy, what have I said?” The
closing prayer ended. He jumped up and ran down to President McKay. Looked up
to President McKay – everybody looked up to President McKay, he’s a great big guy
– and he said, “You know, President McKay, I got a little carried away in my talk
tonight. Did I say anything that was inappropriate?” He said, “No, you didn’t say
anything that was inappropriate, you were just inaccurate.” “Well, what did I say?”
He said, “There were no captains here tonight. They were all generals.” And he said,
“Don’t you ever forget it.” And he turned around and walked out.I know and I feel it that I have a great work that needs to be done here in this area. It was something that I promised our Heavenly Father that I would do before the world was ever created.
I love you all and I'll talk to ya next week!
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