Sunday, October 19, 2014
Conference
Dear Mother,
We had a great week!! Every week is great as a missionary being able to share the gospel with those around us! Did ya'll get my notes for the boys this week? General Conference was amazing!!! I loved every second of it. We watched the second session on Sunday at the Houseman's home. They fed us dinner right before and then we watched conference. This ward is amazing and I have loved every single one of my areas!! My favorite speakers were Elder Robbins from the first session and President Uchtdorf form priesthood session! I also enjoyed Elder Christofferson's talk as well! Conference really is an amazing experience!
These last couple of weeks we have been getting a lot of questions about grace and being saved!! I love talking about grace
So what happened to both of these things after His death. The body was placed in the tomb, where it laid until he was resurrected. (Matthew 27: 59- 63, Matthew 28: 6-9) In Acts 1: 11 it says, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." So after he even ascended into heaven he took His body with Him to one day return WITH His body.
So during all this where was his spirit? In 1 Peter 3: 18- 20 it says, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing," So during the time of His death to His resurrection he went to a place we call the "spirit world" and He there preached the gospel to those who were disobedient. So following the example of Jesus The Christ. When we die our bodies will be placed in a grave and our spirits will go to the "spirit world" where the gospel will be preached to all.
There in the spirit world we wait, we wait for the second coming of Christ when all who believed on His name will be SAVED from death! This is through the grace of Christ's resurrection. This is only according to His grace that we will be saved from death. Through the grace of the resurrection of Christ we will be saved from death. Then we will stand before God to be judged of our works! As it teaches in the Bible in 2 Corinthians 5: 10 it says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ: that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." This is where the majority of Christianity errors. There is more than one meaning of the word saved. Yes what is says in Romans 10: 9 is correct, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." People just don't understand the scriptures! If we believe in the resurrection we will be resurrected when Christ comes. Then after the 1000 years of Christ's reign called the Millenium. Those other people who did not confess Christ's name will be saved from death by being resurrected!
We had a great week!! Every week is great as a missionary being able to share the gospel with those around us! Did ya'll get my notes for the boys this week? General Conference was amazing!!! I loved every second of it. We watched the second session on Sunday at the Houseman's home. They fed us dinner right before and then we watched conference. This ward is amazing and I have loved every single one of my areas!! My favorite speakers were Elder Robbins from the first session and President Uchtdorf form priesthood session! I also enjoyed Elder Christofferson's talk as well! Conference really is an amazing experience!
These last couple of weeks we have been getting a lot of questions about grace and being saved!! I love talking about grace
and being saved! I also love how most people don't believe
that WE believe that we are saved through grace!! As members of The Church of Jesus Christ, we believe that we are saved through grace!! This is where
most of Christianity
goes
wrong.... What does it mean to be saved? There are many different types of Salvation talked about in the holy scriptures, but in order to understand what it means to be saved we first, have to understand what will happen after we die! So what happens? Lets take a look at the life of Jesus Christ. When He willingly gave His life on the cross, in Matthew 27 verse 50 it says, "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." What did he yield? In Luke it clarifies this in chapter 23 verse 46, it says, "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." What did he give up? His spirit. Every one on earth has two components that makes up who they are, the spirit and the body.So what happened to both of these things after His death. The body was placed in the tomb, where it laid until he was resurrected. (Matthew 27: 59- 63, Matthew 28: 6-9) In Acts 1: 11 it says, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." So after he even ascended into heaven he took His body with Him to one day return WITH His body.
So during all this where was his spirit? In 1 Peter 3: 18- 20 it says, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing," So during the time of His death to His resurrection he went to a place we call the "spirit world" and He there preached the gospel to those who were disobedient. So following the example of Jesus The Christ. When we die our bodies will be placed in a grave and our spirits will go to the "spirit world" where the gospel will be preached to all.
There in the spirit world we wait, we wait for the second coming of Christ when all who believed on His name will be SAVED from death! This is through the grace of Christ's resurrection. This is only according to His grace that we will be saved from death. Through the grace of the resurrection of Christ we will be saved from death. Then we will stand before God to be judged of our works! As it teaches in the Bible in 2 Corinthians 5: 10 it says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ: that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." This is where the majority of Christianity errors. There is more than one meaning of the word saved. Yes what is says in Romans 10: 9 is correct, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." People just don't understand the scriptures! If we believe in the resurrection we will be resurrected when Christ comes. Then after the 1000 years of Christ's reign called the Millenium. Those other people who did not confess Christ's name will be saved from death by being resurrected!
But in order to be saved in the Kingdom of God we have to do more than just believe. Look at the difference between what Paul said in Romans to what Jesus said in John 3: 3-5, "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the KINGDOM OF GOD. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the KINGDOM OF GOD." In order for us to be saved in God's Kingdom we have to have faith in His name, Repent, Be Baptized, Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands (Acts 19: 1-6) and Endure To The End. (if you want more references just ask me) Now what about those who don't do this but are saved? That is why God has prepared three different places in heaven for all of us. Because all of our works are different. "What three heavens?? How can that be?? Its heaven or hell!" Sorry sir but you need to read the bible more and understand what you read! In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 2 it says, "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven." Wow!! The answer right there in the bible! Crazy right? Paul taught us more about these 3 kingdoms in 1 Corinthians 15: 40-41' "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory." Can you refute the teaching of the bible?? If you don't believe this you don't believe in the bible.
I wish I had more time and could even explain further but I know that God Loves us and He wants each of us to be saved! We can only be saved through His grace. But there is more than one meaning to being saved. We need to study the scripture and follow the things they teach. We need to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to receive the proper ordinances, such as baptism, by proper priesthood authority. Which is only found in this church! Love ya'll if you have any questions or want to learn more contact me! -Elder Michael Johnson
Baptism
Hows it going gentiles!!! We had a super good week!! We found, we taught and we BAPTIZED!!! I could literally stay in the water all day long!! Alberto asked me to baptize him (one next to me) and Max asked brother Nickel to baptize him. Alberto was confirmed by brother Groves and Max asked me to confirm him! It was an amazing week! We work so hard to baptize here that when we are blessed with a baptism, they are the most memorable experiences! With Max and Alberto, Elder Carroll and I knew they would be baptized from the very first lesson! They are the most amazing people! They have the most sincere desire to follow Jesus Christ and are soooo humble. Every lesson we had with these two they would let us know they were never going to leave this church. Both are so excited to do missionary work and spread the word!! I love these two! I feel like they are two long lost brothers of mine!! Its amazing how much the gospel changes people. The change in these two is amazing! They are ready to take on the world now! Many people will join the church because of these two!!
We found several new investigators this week and taught some great lessons. A man named Ozzie came to church. We are working with him and his family. On Sunday morning Ozzie was going to sleep in and skip church! But Ozzie's little 9 year old sister came into his room ready to go to church and woke him up and said, "Lets go!!" They both came to church and had an amazing experience! I love the faith of little children!! Its so pure and amazing!! This has been a good week and I look forward to what the future holds for them all! Love ya'll!!!
We found several new investigators this week and taught some great lessons. A man named Ozzie came to church. We are working with him and his family. On Sunday morning Ozzie was going to sleep in and skip church! But Ozzie's little 9 year old sister came into his room ready to go to church and woke him up and said, "Lets go!!" They both came to church and had an amazing experience! I love the faith of little children!! Its so pure and amazing!! This has been a good week and I look forward to what the future holds for them all! Love ya'll!!!
No Regrets
So I will try and be better about doing weekly updates!! As ya'll know I am the worse at writing/emailing! But all is well here! The work is progressing and we are experiencing miracles! We were suppose to have a baptism this week but because of a huge opportunity to work that Max and Alberto had, they had to postpone the date to this weekend! We are so excited for them. I am sad Elder Carroll is not here to see them. We worked so hard together to teach them and prepare them for it! Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and I hope it went well. I think it did. I talked on extending commitments. I love talking and teaching in church. I enjoy it now. I love using scriptures to teach and basing my talks off of what they say. Its crazy how now when I give talks in church all I have is like a note card of outline and not anything what I need to say on it. I use to have to write out word for word what I have to say and now wham just follow the spirit.
I am staying focused... 80 days left!! I read a scripture today in my Book of Mormon reading in Jacob 7: 26 it says "By saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream" I feel the same way!! Time is flying so fast and it feels like a huge dream. For 19 years all I wanted to be was a missionary and now I have to look in the mirror just to see myself with a tag on and remind my self that this is real!! Its going way to quick. Some one told me that while on your mission you don't have time to think about what you are doing. That time to think of what you did will be for the rest of your life! Its true, just means I need to keep repenting and be better and better each day!
We were on bikes this weeks and it had to have been the most humid week of my entire mission. We biked to go visit people and wow. I wasn't biking in the rain or walking in rain water up to my knees like Cody but I was soaked! Looked like I had went swimming in my church clothes. We were very successful though. We set up an appointment with a family we have been trying to visit for like weeks! It was great! I love working hard. I love this quote that Elder Carroll shared with me, "Hell is when the man you are meets the man you could have become!" I don't want to have any regrets and I am super excited for the miracles that we have this week!
This week we taught a new family. The Lopez family! Ozzie their son came to church with the a family here in the ward. We set up an appointment with him to come and see his family. He called us twice in the week to make sure that we were coming and even offered to drive 30 minutes to pick us up! When we got to their house they had a huge meal prepared for us and were super kind and received us so well. Sister Lopez is a joker and she kept talking about how we can't drink coffee, and she loves here coffee, so she could never be a Mormon! Well as were eating a member who drove us out there, Brother George, was talking about his son serving as a missionary in Ecuador. Well he was telling 'em how his son eats lots of guinea pigs over there and Sister Lopez looked so disgusted! So I made the comment, "We cant drink coffee but we can eat guinea pig!" She got up from her seat and was like I'm leaving! Of course she was joking but it was funny! This family is amazing and we look forward to seeing their progression in the gospel! After dinner we taught the resturation and they love it!! They want the peace it brings and the joy so bad!! We go back on Wednesday to teach 'em! We are super excited for them!! Love Ya'll!!
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