As we gather Israel

 We were invited over last minute to one of the Bishops counselors for dinner. While we were there, he brought up very suddenly and unexpectedly that a speaker cancelled last minute for the coming Sunday.

(It was Thursday) So I gave a talk on Sunday!

(It'll be at the bottom of this email )

But we had a really cool experience this week! We had a friend put in a request to learn about prayer and we reached out, and said that we're from the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. She told us that She used to go to the church when she was 9, which was 40 years ago and she was baptized! But she hadn't gone to church since that time. And she asked for a Book of Mormon and was excited to go to church, and she's been a miracle ever since and it's been 2 weeks! She has been a blessing in our lives. And we're so excited to continue to meet with her and teach her family as well!

Love,

Hermana Dittmer

It took 21 months from the moment I decided to serve a mission to the day I was set apart as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. 

But I stuck with that decision, why? You may ask. Because I had gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and have felt the love of Jesus Christ. 

Believe it or not, I did not always want to serve a mission. Actually, the thought didn't even cross my mind until a couple of years ago when I received my own personal testimony of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This didn't come quickly or easily for me. Going back to when I was 16 years old, I had been a member my whole life it was all I really knew about the world. But there was one problem. I didn't truly understand why I was there. I didn't have my own personal testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hard things happened at church that made me not want to go and my testimony that was built on sand was slowly slipping away and eventually I made the decision not to go to church. I finished high school and started at a community college, I had part time jobs. I was choosing the course of my life all on my own. 4 years after I stopped going to church. I had a decision to make. A big one. I was choosing what school I wanted to transfer to to finish up my bachelors degree. Around this time I started to wonder what the purpose of my life was going to be and looked back at what I had been doing. Something was missing. I felt a hole in my life. I decided that thing to be church. But going back to church after not going for four years is hard. So I started to read the Book of Mormon. This completely changed the course of my life. I gained my own personal testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Seeing and feeling the difference of quality in my life I wanted to share that happiness with others, to bring them unto this peace. To gain a personal testimony is not as easy as we hope it would be because we are in a confusing world full of the influence of the adversary. 

My small testimony of this book and God's perfect timing granted a small yet powerful desire to simply share with someone this feeling and change that had occurred in my own life. 

Even though I grew up in the church, I had never put thought into what a missionary really does at any given moment. So going through the Missionary Training center and into the field of North Carolina. I had no idea what was going on. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was called spanish speaking and didn't know a link of spanish before my call. So going to lessons with my trainer and sitting there not knowing what was going on at all and then she would turn to me, and I would stare blankly and say something along the lines of, “yo sé que Jesucristo vive” which means I know that Jesus Christ lives. But, I felt the spirit working through me during this time.

It was a lot to adjust to. But that desire from when I decided to serve a mission was still burning in my heart. I wondered what I was doing but continued in faith (and a lot of spanish study) 

It wasn't until many months later that I started to truly understand the purpose of what missionary work really is and that it is the MOST important work happening on the earth today. We are bringing souls back to our Father in heaven. We are bringing our brothers and sisters back to their father. Bringing our family back together again. We do this by helping them understand the doctrine and principles of the Gospel of Jesus Chrsit that has been restored fully to the earth through modern day prophets. Missionaries help them understand by inviting them to learn on their own, promising blessings and testifying that they know it to be true for themselves. President Ezra Taft Benson stated simply what our goal is,” This is our first interest as a church—to save and exalt the souls of the children of men” We are to direct them back to their savior Jesus Christ.

This is something everyone can be a part of, not just missionaries like me.

Elder Bennett said,”First, members of the Church everywhere should remind themselves that the gospel is to be preached and taught by example and not just by word of mouth. The lives of all Church members should be shining examples of the gospel of Jesus Christ in action. Second, as members of the Church, it is our responsibility to assist the missionaries in finding investigators to whom the message of the gospel can be taught. The missionary program needs the help of all of us—young and old—and it needs our help now.”

Can you feel the sense of urgency in his words. We need the help of everyone! We call you our secret sauce, because you are how we can become successful. You are the roots that keep the tree grounded. 

But as my mission president would say, let's turn to the scriptures: In Alma chapter 29 we have alma the younger speaking, it starts off with him saying that he wishes to have a voice mighty enough, a voice of thunder and to speak with the trump of god, to be an angel just so that there would be no more sorrow in the world. Immediately after he is like ok i know this is a sinful desire! And I should be content with what I have been given. God gives us what we desire, whether that be good or evil. We get to choose between joy and remorse of conscience. Alma 29:6 Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called? Continuing into the next verse, why do I want to be an angel and declare unto all nations if god has a perfect knowledge of what people need and will give them the gospel. Then in verse 9 he gives the glory to god and says yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance: and this is my joy. The lord is merciful, verse 13. Yea, and that same God did establish his church among them: yea, and that same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy is full. 14, so great will be his joy.

Alma wished with his whole heart that everyone would understand the things he did, and we went about teaching the word unto whom the lord has asked him to teach. He received so much joy because of seeing his brothers and sisters turning to Jesus Christ and accepting His gospel. Today the same missionary work is happening and we are receiving the same blessing of true joy that comes from bringing others to the gospel. 

One person I was able to teach in the beginning months of my mission was Richard Barandica. From what I understood and what my companion told me after lessons with him, he was excited to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day saints. He had been living in North Carolina for a couple of years earning money so his family, who were living in Venezuela, could move to the states. As he learned about the word of wisdom, it was hard for him to give up coffee. But because he believed this church to be true he slowly drank less and less until he stopped completely. He was baptized and we continued to teach him. We found out that his family living in Venezuela was being taught by missionaries and wanted to be baptized as well! He brought his mother in law and a friend to church and they started to be taught. Sadly, I was moved to another area. But I found out recently that Richard's family has moved here and 2 of his children have been baptized and they are continuing to progress in the gospel! So great was my joy.

In a general conference session in 1972 President Hunter said:

This extensive missionary work is carried forward because those people who serve as missionaries…have strong testimonies in their hearts that they belong to Christ’s true church, which he restored on earth in 1830. They are positive that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church in the world which possesses God’s holy priesthood, his true doctrines and ordinances, and the power to bring people into celestial glory to dwell with their Creator. And so they go on missions in order that other people may receive the gospel and share the same joy and blessings that they have.

We are to help them especially become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But before we help others we need to turn inward and look at our own conversion. What do you know to be true? But more importantly, what are you doing because of what you know to be true?

President Holland gave a talk that has touched me to my very soul, President Holland is telling what the disciples did after the death of their beloved leader Jesus Christ. They went back to work, fishing. When they were on the boat they caught no fish, a stranger told them to lower their net on the other side of the boat. Quote:

These “children,” as they were rightly called, eagerly lowered their net, and “they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.” John said the obvious: “It is the Lord.” And over the edge of the boat, the irrepressible Peter leaped. After a joyful reunion with the resurrected Jesus, Peter had an exchange with the Savior that I consider the crucial turning point of the apostolic ministry generally and certainly for Peter personally, moving this great rock of a man to a majestic life of devoted service and leadership. Looking at their battered little boats, their frayed nets, and a stunning pile of 153 fish, Jesus said to His senior Apostle, “Peter, do you love me more than you love all this?” Peter said, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.” The Savior responds to that reply but continues to look into the eyes of His disciple and says again, “Peter, do you love me?” Undoubtedly confused a bit by the repetition of the question, the great fisherman answers a second time, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.” The Savior again gives a brief response, but with relentless scrutiny He asks for the third time, “Peter, do you love me?” By now surely Peter is feeling truly uncomfortable. Perhaps there is in his heart the memory of only a few days earlier when he had been asked another question three times and he had answered equally emphatically—but in the negative. Or perhaps he began to wonder if he misunderstood the Master Teacher’s question. Or perhaps he was searching his heart, seeking honest confirmation of the answer he had given so readily, almost automatically. Whatever his feelings, Peter said for the third time, “Lord, … thou knowest that I love thee.” To which Jesus responded (and here again I acknowledge my nonscriptural elaboration), perhaps saying something like:

Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do.

We are to put our blood, sweat and tears into every aspect of this gospel. We need to show Heavenly Father that we truly do love him. What are you doing because you love Jesus Christ?

I want to leave you with a testimony given by Elder Hugh B Brown that as I read I felt I was reading my own,

My brethren and sisters, I want to bear witness to you as to the divinity of this work. From the center of my heart to the ends of my fingers and toes, I know that this is the work of God. I know that the gospel has been restored. I know that the men who are leading the Church are inspired and directed by him who appointed them. I know the gospel will roll forth until it fills the whole earth, and I am looking forward to the time when all of us will be united on the other side and carry on the great work that we have so falteringly tried to do here on earth. I leave this testimony with you, and my blessing. I pray God to bless all who are here, and all who are listening; in fact, all men everywhere. O Father, bless these people that they may catch the spirit of this work and devote themselves assiduously to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world.

I hope that each of you will leave today with the desire to bring others unto Christ to His restored gospel that they might feel this joy. 

I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen.