What is Truth?

We live in a world that believes that it has most of the answers to questions such as how life began and how big and old our universe is. Much of this truth has no room for God. Those advocating these truths portray themselves as rational and factual ones and those of us who strive to hang on to the old truths about God and religion are portrayed as deluded or living a fairy-tale.

Here in Mexico, doing the work of the Lord, I have come down a very different path. Daily experiences feeling the guiding hand of the Lord and sensing his Spirit as I serve his missionaries and his children have taught me that he exists. More than that, he is very actively involved in all our lives because of his patient and long-suffering love for us. He takes us as we are and loves as we are and gently tugs us down a path that will lead us to real happiness if only we will listen. He is a perfect Father, knowing exactly what is best for us, his children. He is not judgmental but kind and very attentive to each of us personally. I have felt this love in my own life. I have seen it in the lives of those I come into contact with. It is for me as undeniable as the rising of the sun in the morning. The unchanging and undeniable truth is that God exists.

For example, I prayed this morning that the Lord would help me to do the things that he wanted me to do and to say the things that he wanted me to say. My eyes and heart were opened as I sought to follow the words of my prayer. I gave four blessings today to people who were sick or who needed comfort and guidance. In each of these blessings the words that I was to say came to my mind clearly and as I pronounced them I felt the certainty of the Lord’s approbation through a feeling of joy or a burning in my heart. I had used his priesthood in accordance with his will. 

A Key to Accessing the Privileges of Being a Member of the Lord's Church

This week we said goodbye to Elder Alvarado. He welcomed us into our mission almost fourteen months ago and has been a huge help to me and my wife. He completed an honorable mission and one dedicated to the service of the Lord. I miss him a lot.

For the past two weeks we had the privilege to work with two wonderful young sister missionaries in our ward. The senior companion is from Guatemala and I don’t think she reaches four feet in height, but she is a giant of a missionary. She and the other sister from Brazil have done an incredible amount of work in a very short time. I am inspired and awestruck by them both. It has been several months since my wife and I had the opportunity to work in the field with the young missionaries. It is incredible to see the dedication of these young sisters to the Lord and his work.

The Lord has blessed us with the opportunity to teach a woman, a grandmother, aptly named Magdalena. We look forward to going over to her house. All of her children and grandchildren live in the same compound and it’s easy to see that they all love her and are greatly influenced by her. The more we have come to know Magdalena the more we love her. She was living the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we ever met her. She spends much of her time serving her children and grandchildren and neighbors. She is very intelligent and often sees deep meaning to the questions we ask her. She wants to be baptized, but wanted to wait to surprise her son, who was the first member of her family to be baptized, on his birthday. I think we have convinced her that she is ready to be baptized long before that. We will help her surprise him anyway.

Last night I spoke at a stake conference in Cuautla in President Crickmore’s place because he had  another commitment. My wife didn’t know that she was asked to speak too and neither did I until they announced her name. I told her that Heavenly Father would be with her, but I didn’t need to. She stood and gave her first talk in Mexico in a wonderful and heartfelt fashion. One of the things I told congregation was that I felt a great key for obtaining the privileges or power and blessings of being a member of the Lord’s Church is in doing missionary work. It is very important to Him and He is so willing to pour down blessings upon the heads of those who do this work. Nothing compares to this. We will be serving another mission. 

What We Can Learn from Mexico

To people for the most part are happy and friendly here. Missionaries rarely have a door slammed in their faces and most who they run into are willing to listen. As I think about why they are that way, it occurs to me that perhaps Mexico is the way we were in the United States many decades ago. The culture here has not bought into advances in technology and of buying goods nearly as much as we. Craftsman and small tiendas still reign supreme even in the large cities. Nor is there the same addictions to TV and the internet down here. They do watch TV and they do use the internet but significantly less, which leads to a lot more face to face interaction. When we need directions or to find someone, I am always amazed that people can tell not only who lives up and down their streets but for blocks around. The people love to socialize and at dances you never see empty dance floors. Multi-generations of families commonly live together.

The people here are very pragmatic. A janitor on the street and a salesman in a convenience store are honored as much as most other professions. People work where and at what they can get a job, and it doesn’t seem to matter if it is a step down from their education. There don´t seem to be a lot of entitlement programs nor are there many homeless. The rich live in the same neighborhoods with the poor here. Not out of any government program, but just because that is the way it is. Houses and roads are built provide what is necessary. You don’t see many cloverleaves on highways nor do the houses of even the rich have insulation, heat or air conditioning. There seem to be far fewer laws or they are not enforced. This particularly evident on the highways where people do pretty much what they want. But with this lack of law enforcement, drivers are far more aware of what is around them. I have seen a lot less accidents here even though there are a ton of cars.

Finally, the people of Mexico seem to be more religious and prone to decency and to help someone in need. I can’t say how many times someone has stopped what they are doing to even walk down the street with me to help me find my way. Many of the people I have taught have readily accepted the Gospel.

The Miracle of Conversion

Chrise and I are currently working with three very good investigators. Two of them we have been teaching for some time. They all have challenges. Two have addictions to alcohol or tobacco to overcome and one has a lot of opposition within her family. You also need to understand that we, Chrise and I, don’t claim to be the most powerful teachers to ever grace the mission field.

I’m going to talk first about a woman whom we’ve been teaching more a less since her daughter was baptized in December. As we taught her daughter the new member discussions, her mother would come and sit with us. She seemed to really like what we were teaching, but then we would not see her for a few weeks. Finally, we decided to make the visit explicitly to teach her. When we taught the Plan of Salvation, we sensed a wonderful change occurring. I felt inspired at the end of that discussion to show her the three-minute video which includes President Uchtdorf’s talk on who we really are and used the story of the Ugly Duckling. We could see this had really touched her and that she was accepting completely what we taught. She is a very intelligent and relatively wealthy woman and thinks and understands very deeply. Our biggest problem was getting her to come to Church. This was a problem because her oldest daughter, a strong Catholic, did everything in her power to dissuade her, but she believed and wanted to act upon those beliefs, so today for the first time she came to Church. We have a firm date to baptize her.

A few weeks ago a man his wife came to church. The members of our ward pointed us to him, saying that he was not a member. We met to have a discussion with him a few days later. At first, I thought that he was not going to be very interested, but I was wrong. There was a light in his eyes from the start and he readily accepted everything we were saying and embracing it. On our next discussion he talked about what we had talked about the time before and how he had meditated on it. We also discovered that he recently quit drinking and that he had had a problem for many years. That worried us and we have been praying that he will have the strength to continue. We have been teaching him for nearly a month and he has not fallen. Our hope is that in three weeks he will be ready to be baptized.

The third man we have been teaching since we arrived in this ward in October. He has a really bad smoking problem. We have talked to him many times and tried to fortify his faith. We even stopped teaching for a few weeks. Then suddenly there was a change very evident in his demeanor. He said that he was ready to move one. We have high hopes that he too will be baptized now.

What I have noted in each of these experiences is that the change has come because of our message and the Spirit that we carry. We are not selling them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is not us. We are only messengers and instruments in the hands of a loving Father in Heaven. We open our mouths and He does the rest.

What is the Difference?

Though I am far from being the prophet or the great man that Alma was, missionary work has a similar effect on me in wanting to be able to sing like an angel and convince all that I meet of the truth and power of what I teach. But I realize that is not the Lord’s way. He has given all of his children free agency to choose.

I am left wondering why some accept our message with glad hearts and let the Gospel of Jesus Christ work a mighty change in them while others may accept it for a time, but it does not work a change in them, rather other things get in way and soon they no longer want to hear it. I have seen it over and over again. Some advance farther and seem to come to a moment of truth in their lives—will they change or not, but in the end they are not yet ready to take the last step of faith.

In looking at my own humble beginnings, I marvel that I was willing and ready to make that change. 

I think the difference for me was that I was looking for it. Something within me drove me to find what I knew was out there. I knew there was a God even without knowing much about Him and I knew that God loved me. I think that knowledge led me to believe in and search for His truth and the path of happiness he had laid for me in this life. I knew it was there. I did not find it easily. Many things distracted me, most of my own making, but I kept looking.

Alone in my brother’s apartment after months of searching, I found a rather plain looking book on a coffee table. Something inside compelled me to pick up that book, and when I began reading it, I knew and recognized immediately it contained what I was looking for. I cried and laughed for joy and I willing let its power work a mighty change in me, so powerful that it still influences my life nearly forty-seven years later.

What is the difference? I know that we are all God’s children and that He is reaching out to all of us and loves us equally. Why did I look for it and embrace it and others cannot see it?

Youth

Today at our ward meeting someone asked me if had any great grandchildren. My virtual image of myself is still young and that was a blow to it. My oldest grandson Tyler turned thirteen this week. We talked on FaceTime for a while. I said something to the effect that he would be going on a mission. And he replied something like, “Yeah Grandpa, I’ll be going in five years.” That really blew me away. Five years seemed so short. I can remember taking him to his kindergarten class and hundreds of other things that we have shared. I want so much of the best for him and he has so much of his life ahead of him.

Today a member of our ward took us to see a family where the mother had died just a couple of months ago. We met the teenage daughter on the street as walked toward the house. She warned us that her father was tomado or drunk. Then we met the father staggering around the street. It was a little after ten in the morning. He invited us into his house and I cringed thinking of some of the houses of drunks I have visited over my lifetime, expecting broken bottles and broken furniture and an unearthly smell. The house was beautiful. It reminded me of a teenager’s bedroom. Then I realized that beautiful young teenage girl we had met on way here had taken over the duties of her mother. What a heavy responsibility to put upon someone who looked like she was barely fifteen, but she took it upon herself. I suddenly felt the same way about her as I had about my grandson. I wanted the best of everything for her. My wife and I are going to pass by to see her again and see what we can do to help and encourage her.

Back at the ward, I encountered another teenage girl, gazing intently at her cell phone. I struck up a conversation with her, and, her aunt, who was standing by her, told me that the young lady had lost her father just two years ago to alcoholism and that she was staying with them. I stretched on my and shook hers saying, “I’m so impressed with you being here at Church when you have so little support at home. I know it’s not easy.” She gave me a shy smile. I wanted all of the best for her too. I was her age nearly fifty years ago.

Fifty years ago I made some disastrous decisions and some really great ones. Somehow the good far outweighed the bad. Many of my friends of that era were not so blessed. As I look back now, what mattered most was the support I received from people like my mother, grandparents, cousins, aunt, and uncle that helped me make it through that tumultuous time in my life. I had so little experience and wisdom but a lot of dreams.

Feeling Close to Our Father in Heaven

Today we were teaching a woman named Magdalena. She is matriarch of a family where two of her grown children have already accepted the gospel. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. While I was teaching her, the Spirit burned in my heart. I felt several promptings on what principles I should teach, and near the end, while we were talking about where would go after death, I felt a very strong prompting to read to her from Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants. As I read Joseph Smith’s description and testimony of his vision of Jesus Christ and the Celestial and Telestial Kingdoms, I saw and felt that it touched her.

This entire week as with almost every week here in the mission, I have felt that same closeness to my Heavenly Father that I felt in that discussion. I sense His presence. I feel His love for those we teach. I feel His love for me. It brings me a quiet joy, knowing that it is all true. Those I love, whom have died, yet live and I will see them again.

There is a great fog over our world created by the teachings and doctrines of men that obscures and hides the things that should matter to us most and keeps us from feeling what I feel now. I wish that there was a way that I could help you feel what I feel and know, it is so sure and real to me, but it is not in my power to do so. That is left to your own relationship with your Father. I can say that it is worth every sacrifice that you could make to do it. It is indeed the pearl of great price for which a man would sell everything he owns to have.