Fé

Oi gente, 

I promised you guys a spiritual thought this week, so if you're just here for pictures, come back next week. 

I wear a name tag everyday that says the name Elder Keeler. ELDER. I'm 19 years old. In what way am I an Elder? Because apparently I bring knowledge and wisdom to the people I teach. I hardly speak Portuguese so there's not a whole ton of knowledge that I can drop on people. And also I don't share any of the experiences and temporal problems that the people here in Brazil have. At times I don't feel like I'm qualified to have this title and especially wear the name directly underneath it, Jesus Christ, but that's a whole different story. 

But there's one thing I do have and that's faith. Faith that despite not having all the answers to my own, let alone other people’s, questions, we have a loving Heavenly Father who does. The most important thing that missionaries have to teach someone in order to convert them to the restored gospel is that they can receive answers to their questions through the Holy Ghost. And one of the most important questions is whether the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. 

It's actually really funny, it's happened a couple times that after we bear testimony of the Book of Mormon to someone, they immediately say "Eu acredito" (I believe) Then we have to explain that they can't trust us because we can lie but that they need to ask God cause he won't lie. 

We then share this scripture (Moroni 10:4) with them:

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost

I think this promise is particularly interesting because it says you need to ask if it is NOT true. Asking if something isn't true means that you have to accept that it's true first. You have to have faith on faith on faith for this promise to work. Faith in God, faith in Christ, faith that God will answer through the Holy Ghost, and faith that these things are true.

Faith works miracles and it has been so cool to help people demonstrate their faith and recognize promptings from the Holy Ghost in their lives here in Brazil.

Love you guys and I'll be back at you with more pictures next week. Tchau.