a while back one of my young men’s leaders told me that “light always shines through darkness”. well I’ve seen that a few times in the last week. it wasn’t an easy week, i feel like I’m in the middle of the refiners fire, but this week did include some miracles and many tender mercies. today also marks 20 months since leaving home. wow the time has been flying by. im excited to see each of you in a couple of months tho!
last week President Nelson and Elder Holland started their ministry tour around the world and the first stop was the United Kingdom. so last Thursday we had two broadcasts from them, one just for missionaries and one for all of Britain. ill share some of my notes at the end of this email but we decided that we’d try to invite people to the general broadcast. one man named Syyyyamuel from Africa, who was just on our phone as a potential, texted back saying he’d want to come, and he did! at the beginning as I explained prophets, he was hesitant, but by the end of the broadcast this man’s countenance changed. he looked at me after and expressed the joy and comfort he felt that God would speak to a prophet today on the earth. we met with him the next morning and taught him the restoration. we challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and to ask god if it is true. he said if he gets an answer to his prayer he wants to be baptised, so we set a goal date with him for may 26th!
while teaching the great apostasy I decided to spice things up and try an analogy. I asked him what was his favourite food and he answered “rice!”. alright so picture this, imagine if I explained to you the correct and best way to make rice. you love it, so you explain it to a friend, cuz why not share something you love? anyways, your friend loves it, so he tries to explain it to a friend but as he is doing so he forgets one of the instructions. it doesn’t change things too much still, but as one person tells another, eventually you get a completely different end result, which Is completely different from the original, correct rice recipe. now compare it to Jesus Christ’s gospel. He taught his apostles and others, and they went out to teach the world, when the apostles were gone many shared their teachings but left out, or changed a bit of Christ’s original teachings. These small differences made a massive difference over time, leading to the formation of thousands of churches, which all claim to be formed from the teachings of the same book, the Bible. I testify that God has restored His church through a modern prophet. A young boy, confused by the different churches, prayed and asked God which church was true. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really did appear to him, and through this young called prophet, God brought back his gospel, his teachings, his priesthood authority. The Book of Mormon clarifies and sets straight the teachings of the bible. This all clicked with Syyyyamuel and has led him to a desire to pray and ask god for himself.
we met a few really cool people, including a super cool young couple named Syyyyhane and Syyyyytephanie, they talked to us for like 30 minutes at their door step, they’re super interested in the Book of Mormon and we had a really good chat about eternal families and random stuff, it was great! a few experiences of getting promptings to knock a specific door as well, and where we saw miracles following that.
rejection of the week:
Us: Hello how are you doing?
Random lady: nope nope nope, I’m a satanist
Good times, good times. Anyways the broadcast from President Nelson and Elder Holland was great! here are just a few of my notes from it:
- instead of praying to be led to the elect, pray to be led to those whose ancestors have accepted the gospel on the other side
- just as we would clean our rooms or houses in preparation for an inspection, we should clean our lives in preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ
- we, as members of the restored church, know more about Jesus Christ than any other group on earth. and why? because we learn about him from both the bible and the Book of Mormon
- our doctrine isn’t complex, just love god and love your neighbor
- seek tutoring from the Lord day after day
- “is our life a witness to the truth?”
- our unique message to all the earth: the heavens are open! our ultimate message: the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
- speaking of the restoration: “it’s so exciting that I bounce out of bed every morning!”
- Love others without limit, just as the lord would love them”
- some had gone to the solemn assembly with the intention of protesting, but the spirit silenced them
- the mission is a conversion experience: we are God’s investigators, and when we return home we are his recent converts
- our duty is to testify of the saviour Jesus Christ and of prophets
A big birthday shoutout to my brother Adam who is out in the Phillies right now! Also to my cousins Hannah and Emily! Sorry for the massive email, I’ll try to get some good stories to share with you all next time. If you made it this far, props to you, I love each of you. Have a lit week! I’ll try to do the same! Look unto Christ in every thought, doubt not, fear not 
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Elder Varner
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