Church/Gospel

Dear Mother,

I am doing fantastic as always! I love serving and being a missionary! 

Lately, I have started something new with my reading in the scriptures. I have started to cross reference everything and to use the footnotes! Did you know how amazing those things are! In my reading I just started Doctrine and Covenants over again in the new scriptures y'all sent me and WOW. One verse that stood out to me a lot is in Doctrine and Covenants 1: 16, "They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own God, whose image is in the likeness of the world." As I went back over that verse and put a little thought into it I realized that I could replace the word righteousness and way with church or gospel. It would read, "They seek not the Lord to establish his church/gospel, but every man walketh in his own church/gospel, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world." How sad it is that everyone we come into contact with has no clue that God can and has established His own Church. To many people walk in their own way or own church and they forget or limit God to say that he cannot and has not established His church. But I thank God every day that he has opened my eyes to see His kingdom again on earth! We get the question a lot that why would God call Joseph Smith to be a prophet?  Well, who better to answer that question than God himself in Doctrine and Covenants 1: 17 God says, "Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth called upon my servant Joseph Smith,Jun. and spake unto from heaven, and gave him commandments" How wonderful is it that God loves us enough to call another prophet in these difficult days to help us and guide us to the right path. God has restored/reestablished His church to the earth with the fullness of the gospel or the fullness of the teachings of Jesus Christ. I know this with all my heart because I have prayed and have asked God directly if this is true and I have received an answer from him that it is! I know that my Savior, Jesus Christ, LIVES and that He loves us.  That he rules high in the heavens, but knows each of us so independently and personally because he has experienced everything in which we go through in this life. Love y'all Elder Johnson