May 24, 2010

24 May 2010
I loved seeing the snow today! It'll be two more years before I see snow again. I also had a real good temple trip this morning! :)

Well, things are about exactly the same, but way different, because now it seems like almost a reality that I'll be leaving. I got my flight plans, I'll be leaving Tuesday June 1st. at about eight in the morning. Elder Herlin from my district already left this morning. So, one more e-mail after this one from the MTC, and then I'll be gone to Taaaaaiiiiiiiwan. So, how is everybody? Y'all doin okay without Willi? I heard Logee turned one, and that Julia made Jason go to the party rather than go golfing with Scott. hahaha. It makes me laugh every time I hear the word golf in chinese. It's gouerfu. I think. I don't really know. Well, hopefully I can not get complacent, but strive and endure to the end and accomplish all my good goals. Missions are real fun. I think we should all be better missionaries. Don't all you out there get complacent either!

I'm going to be playing violin for a musical number in the devotional this Tuesday. Hopefully another general authority comes, that would be cool. It is my last devotional! Well, I don't really know what else to say. Thank you so much for your letters and packages. I plan on eating my tiny watermelon named Bob today. That should be fun. I don't look forward to packing all my stuff up, but I do look forward to my flight out to Taiwan. It'll be crazy. I'm excited to do missionary work on the way over. And also I'll be able to call from the Los Angeles airport. I have a big honk layover there.

So, since I have some time left, maybe I'll share something I've learned from the Book of Mormon lately. Me and my Companion gave the lesson to our district in District meeting yesterday. Our topic was prophets, and it was so much fun preparing for it. We had the idea of instead of just teaching about prophets, all we would do is share the testimonies of the prophets and see if that could bring the spirit. So I went through the scriptures and found as many testimonies as I could in an hour. It was amazing. Paul, Peter, Isaiah, but mostly from the Book of Mormon. Nephi, Lehi, Jacob, Enos I looove verse 26-27, Amaleki, King Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma, Alma, Amulek, and it goes on, Nephi and Lehi's shook the ground. Angels, Christ himself, Mormon, Moroni I loooove Ether 12:41, Samuel the Lamanite. It was so cool, and they became some of my favorite scriptures I have ever read. These testimonies of the prophets, saying that they knew Christ and his atonement were real caused me to feel the spirit so strongly, and feel once again a witness that the Book of Mormon was true and testified of Christ so powerfully that if any man truly searches it they cannot deny that "these are the words of Christ." Then after that we shared the testimonies of each of the modern Presidents of the Church. They are soooo powerful. I love it. Anyways, I encourage you to fall in love again with the Book of Mormon. Remember Ezra Taft Benson and his exhortations to read the Book of Mormon. Let's not fall under condemnation as an entire people for treating lightly the Book of Mormon. Neal A. Maxwell has told us that we have only scratched the surface of the power that is in it. It's unexplainable. But the Book of Mormon does not just give knowledge, or even just testify of Christ. When one reads the Book of Mormon a real power flows into your life. All I want to do sometimes is read the Book of Mormon. If I have a piece of paper out when I read, and plan on writing down insights for every single verse, then from every single verse something will come to you that you can apply to your life, or for your investigator, or help somebody else with. I think we need to remember to do all we can to move this work forward.

Elder Vernon

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