Nauvoo Temple

"And it came to pass that they did go forth, and began to preach the
word of God unto the people, entering into their synagogues, and into
their houses; yea, and even they did preach the word in their
streets." Alma 32:1
So I was on an exchange with elder Terry and we accomplished some
amazing things. I'll give a little background first. Elder Terry, in a
previous area, had been given a new world translation of the bible by
a Jehovah's Witness. If you haven't seen one of their bibles, they are
pretty cool! Pretty similar to ours, but they are gray leather with
silver pages. I've been talking to him about trying to get me one
since there is a Kingdom Hall in their area, Normal south. We found
out we were going on exchanges together in his area so we both made
plans to visit the Kingdom Hall. Well we went in and I totally played
the innocent card. Meaning I went up to the guy at the desk and I
said, "Ya know I've heard a lot about the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I
also hear a lot of rumors about our church. I wanted to just come
straight to the source. What is it that you guys believe?" He was
stunned. I could just imagine, a Mormon missionary coming onto their
turf, into their church, and asking about what they believe! He'd have
probably thought he died and went to heaven. Him and another guy came
out, they were both "elders" in their church, and they explained all
about their core beliefs and gave us all kinds of pamphlets and junk.
I was trying every angle I could to get a bible. Finally one of them
said something along the lines of lds missionaries giving out copies
of the Book of Mormon like they give out bibles. YES! "So you guys
give out bibles? I would be interested in taking one of you are giving
them out." So they gave me and elder Terry both bibles. They invited
us to come to church with them and I was like unfortunately I live in
Morton so I probably won't be able to go.

Well in the process of all this, we spent about 45 minutes in there, I
taught them the restoration. We left our cards and left. The spirit
was actually pretty strong in there!
We were pretty fired up about that so as we were walking down the
street there was a Lutheran church so did the same thing there. Ended
up walking out with another bible and one of their hymnals! BUT even
better! The Lutheran pastor we talked to committed to come to our
church!
It was an amazing day! Plus it was a bus area so I got to ride around
on buses all day, even got lost a couple times. I hope I serve there
sometime.
That was really the most excitement of the week.
We taught Paul and Elise Grimm last night. We were trying to get them
baptized on December 30. They are really heavily involved in their
church so it is difficult to get them to come to church. If they don't
come to church for the next three weeks they will not make that date.
But we told the Lord that was our goal and we felt good about it so I
am not going to doubt!

I cut my own hair with some clippers I found in the apartment. Looks
okay I guess.
I gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament. I'll include
that at the bottom. Well I guess this is the bottom.
Love you all! I'll be sending a lot of pictures of last week and the temple!


The Gift of the Holy Ghost
November 29, 2015

I was asked to speak on the Holy Ghost today. As I pondered on what
I should say, I felt like I should talk about how we are given the
gift of the Holy Ghost.

Story: Holy Ghost warning me of coyotes
When I was about ten years old I had some friends over and we wanted
to go play with my rabbits. It was getting dark outside, but we wanted
to go out anyway. The rabbit pen was on the north side of my house. As
we were walking out to where the rabbits were, I felt a prompting that
we should not go out there. I told my friends that I didn't want to go
see the rabbits anymore, so we did something else.

The next morning I was going out to feed the rabbits. I opened the
garage door and my rabbit came running in under the door and went
behind the garbage can. I wondered how he got out. I carried him back
to his pen and when I got there I saw the doors all mangled and little
tufts of fur floating around. Something had attacked my rabbits.
I found out later that day that some of the neighbors had heard some
coyotes that night. If it had not been for the Holy Ghost warning me
not to go out there, who knows what could have happened to me or my
friends.

Fourth Article of Faith
Our fourth Article of Faith states: "We believe that the first
principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the
remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy
Ghost."

The laying on of hands, and the authority to do so, was one of the
"plain and precious truths" that was lost during the great apostasy as
spoken of by Nephi. (1 Nephi 13:26)

Book of Mormon references
I would like to illustrate how the Book of Mormon brings these truths to light:

In 3 Nephi 26:17 it says that the disciples began "to baptize and to
teach as many as did come unto them; and as many as were baptized in
the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost."

If we turn back a few chapters we find out where they got their
authority to perform these ordinances.

In 3 Nephi 18:36-37 it says that Jesus "touched with his hand the
disciples whom he had chosen" and spoke unto them. And "the disciples
bare record that he gave them power to give the Holy Ghost."

I looked at the footnotes to see what else I could learn about Jesus
"touching" the disciples. Moroni tells us more about that in Moroni
2:2. He tells us:

"And he called them by name, saying: Ye shall call on the Father in my
name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have
power that to him upon whom ye shall lay your hands, ye shall give the
Holy Ghost; and in my name shall ye give it, for thus do mine
apostles."

We learn that it is by the laying on of hands by someone who has the
authority given to them that the gift of the Holy Ghost is given.

Testimony
I know that the Book of Mormon and what we learn from it is true. I
know that Jesus Christ has restored his church and his authority back
to the earth through his chosen servant, Joseph Smith. I know that the
Holy Ghost is there to keep us safe and warn us of danger as he did
the story I shared. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Scherer

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