The Spirit is the same

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Another good week!! It went by incredibly fast. 

It's been another week in paradise!! Island life is so good, you guys. 

We've still been making a lot of visits, and it's going well! We're getting to know a lot of members and we're getting to know our area better, too. Speaking of members: we have been fed at least once a day by members! In my other areas we definitely got fed, but not quite like this. Our fridge is completely full of leftovers haha. 

We've also had lots of good lessons! We met with our friend Leo this week and it was great! He's about to turn 90 but he still loves learning and really likes the Book of Mormon. He said he already thinks it's true! We brought Sister Sweetwood with us, and her and Leo just hit it off! Leo was in the Air Force, and so was Sister Sweetwood's father-in-law. We're pretty excited about Leo!

We also met a couple of times with Phil. He has a really cool story and it has been fun to watch him learn. He's really busy with work but he always makes time to learn more!

We've still never met Billy in person, but we do a lot of phone calls with him! He's struggling with a lot of things right now, but he's been reading the Book of Mormon!! Last we heard, he's finished 1 Nephi! We're just praying that he can turn to God for help with his trials and overcome them. 

One of the highlights of the week has been nature!! We've been trying to get out of the apartment as soon as possible every day, which means we do a lot of our studies at parks! We've found a few we LOVE. Obviously there are a lot of parks on the waterfront, because it's an Island haha. We've found lots of beautiful parks, which come with lots of great views, and often a few crazy animals. We've had squirrels take our go-go squeeze, seen some wacky birds, and watched a couple of pods swim by our new favorite personal study spot. I won't lie to you, this week has definitely strengthened my desire to move out here. Merritt Island is so quaint and strange and beautiful!

Small Plates 

The Spirit is the same

When I moved to Merritt Island, I picked up my English book of Mormon for pretty much the first time on my whole mission. For the last year or so, I have loved studying for the Spanish Book of Mormon. After all, it is the language of heaven, as they say. 

The reason I enjoy studying the scriptures in Spanish is because I feel like it allows me to see God's word through a new lense. However, when I moved out here I saw it as God giving me the opportunity to see the scriptures with new eyes, again. It was a good opportunity, too. Something that happens a lot for language missionaries, whether they serve in the States or not, is they forget how to feel the Spirit in their own language. It's happened to friends of mine, and I've been trying pretty actively to not let that happen to me. 

So, on day 1 of being in this area, I dusted off my Book of Mormon with a determination to search its pages, as I had been doing in Spanish for so long. 

It's been like reading the Book of Mormon in a new language all over again! By reading so much in Spanish, I had developed a tendency to pay closer attention to each individual word and what it teaches me, and that tendency has carried on as I've switched back to English! 

That's what happened as I read this verse in the beginning of 2 Nephi 2 the other day:

"Thou hast beheld in thy youth his glory; wherefore thou art blessed even as they unto whom he shall minister in the flesh; for the spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever."

I had never really paid much attention to this verse. I saw it more as Lehi saying "Jacob, you're a good kid, you believe in Christ,'' before jumping into some eye-opening doctrine about the Plan of Salvation in the following verses. 

But no, this verse actually teaches us a lot. Not only did Jacob believe in Christ, he beheld His glory. What does that mean? It means he had a sure testimony of Him and His existence. 

But Lehi goes on to say, "thou art blessed even as they unto whom he shall minister in the flesh." Jacob, who was born almost 600 years before Christ, beheld His glory even as those unto whom he would minister in the flesh. How is that so?

"For the Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever."

The Spirit who testified unto Jacob of his Redeemer is the same Spirit that caused shepherds to fall down and adore a baby in a manger. He's the same Spirit who caused Christ's disciples to wonder aloud, "what manner of man is this!" That Spirit is the very Spirit who testifies to us, and makes us sing "I know that my Redeemer lives" and mean each word we say. 

I've always thought that I would have a stronger testimony of Christ if I had lived in His time and seen him in the flesh. But after reading this verse and pondering on it a bit, I'm not so sure that would be true. 

Without the Spirit, no one, not even those who knew Him personally, would have recognized Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of the world. Without the Spirit, anyone who saw that baby in a manger would have seen nothing but a newborn with an unfortunate living space. Without the Spirit, everyone would have just seen Him as a man, and maybe a prophet, but certainly not as their personal Savior. Without the Spirit, we would probably just see Him as some person from the history books. Or maybe we wouldn't know anything about Him at all. 

No one saw Him suffer for their sins, not even the people who were alive at the time. But many still believed that He did so. They believed because they allowed the Spirit to testify to them. 

We can have the very same testimony they did, because the Holy Ghost still testifies unto us the way that He did unto them, thousands of years ago. It reminds me of a quote from Bruce R. McConkie's final General Conference address. With tears in his eyes and emotion in his voice, he wrapped up his concluding discourse with these words, "as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then, than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way."

We can know of a surety, for ourselves, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, even the Savior of the World. We don't have to see Him to know Him. That would be my challenge, and my plea, to each of you. We have less than a week until Christmas. Take some time to gain, strengthen or renew the testimony you have of Christ as your Redeemer. I know He is just that. I know He knows you personally. And I know that we can know Him personally. I may have never seen His face or shaken His hand, but I do know Him. And I'm getting to know Him better every single day.