God is our loving heavenly Father and He cares for every person on the earth. He sent us to earth so we could endure trials and one day return to live with Him again. He has given us many blessings. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to come to the earth to set up His church, to show us the way, and to sacrifice Himself to make up for the payment that is required when we break the laws of God. God has given us a way to know for ourselves if He is there and what he wants us to do, and that is prayer.
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| Jesus is always there for us if we will open the door |
Heavenly Father can and will answer the prayers of His children if we will go to Him humbly, in faith, and willing to act on the answer He gives us.
God has blessed us with families so we can learn and grow. He knew that we would come to love our families so He has provided a way for us to be together as a family forever even after we pass on and die.
Our Father in Heaven has called prophets in every age to show the way to eternal life and happiness. We see this throughout the bible - Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses etc. He always wants His children to know the way to true and lasting happiness (what perfect Father wouldn't?) Unfortunately people have often chosen to reject the prophets because we all have the ability to choose between right and wrong and sometimes we chose wrong. Throughout the bible we see a pattern of God calling a prophet and then the people rejecting the truth and falling away from the church, but God loves us so He always calls another prophet to guide His children back to Him.
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| Noah calling the people unto Christ |
The Saviour Jesus Christ came to the earth to retore the church after the people had rejected the last prophet, He was baptized to show us that we must be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God.
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| Christ being baptized by John the Baptist |
He set up the church in it's fulness and called 12 apostles.
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| Jesus Christ Giving the 12 Apostles the Priesthood power of God to lead and guide the church |
To these Apostles He gave priesthood power of God to guide the church and Baptize people for the remission of sins. The Saviour died for our sins when the people once again rejected God's prophet, and the 12 apostles were also rejected and killed.
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| The Savior Suffering in Garden of Gethsemene for us |
When the leaders of the church were gone, the power of God to guide the church on the Earth and to baptize was lost, and the people were left without a prophet. There was a long time called the Great Apostacy which means a large scale falling away from the church and truth. During this time there were many changes made to the church and it's structure and ordinances, but good people saw that these changes were not in sync with the bible and the teachings of the prophets therein so they started other churches to better conform witht he bible. Unfortunately these people still did not have the priesthood authority of God, so the church was not established in its fulness and perfection, and what resulted was the many many churches we see today.
Our Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever so when the time was right he called another prophet in our day and this is his story:
With all these churches around it is easy to wonder which church is true, and that is exactly what a young boy named Joseph Smith came to wonder around 1820 AD. He was one day reading in the book of James (
1:5)and found a scripture that hit him very hard, it said if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of god. He dicided to act on this scripture and go to God with his questions. He went into a grove of trees one spring morning and knelt down to pray. He said "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which decended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all decription, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other 'This is my Beloved Son, hear Him!'"
God the Father and His son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith to call another prophet to restore His church once again to the earth. We can know this is true by paying attention to how we feel when we pray, read the Book of Mormon, and go to church. The Holy Ghost will testify to our hearts that what we are doing is right. I know this is true because I have felt the Holy Ghost in my life through a peaceful feeling in my heart and comfort to my racing mind. I am a missionary for Jesus Christ and His church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, because I know that this really happened, and I know it can and will bless the lives off all those who are willing to test it's validity through praying sincerely, reading The Book of Mormon, and going to church.
The Book of Mormon is Another testament of Jesus Christ, God knew that the bible would not be perfect after it had been through many translations, and many years without his Priesthood authority on the earth so he gave us another record and we invite all people to read it and ponder it's message, that Jesus is the Christ and His church is once again restored to the Earth!
We can pray to know for ourselves if all this is true. As missionaries we don't want to convince people of ourselves that this is true. We want everyone to know from God that this is true, because through Jesus Christ is the only way to true and lasting happiness.
