May 7, 2012

7 May 2012

I feel so good about the Florida Tampa Mission and the missionaries serving here. Almost all of you are serving with your might, mind and strength. We are doing well but we can become more powerful in blessing lives of our Heavenly Father’s sons and daughters, more powerful in serving others.

We can learn a great deal from the Book of Mormon missionaries. Many years ago they taught with great power and authority. One of them was so powerful that it was “Impossible not to believe his words.” 3 Nephi 7:18. We know that they gave themselves to much fasting and prayer. We know that they used the records from which the Book of Mormon was taken. When Alma the Younger gave the record that would eventually become the Book of Mormon to his son Helaman, he taught that without these plates, “Ammon and his brethren couldn’t have convinced so many thousands…; yea, these records and their words brought them unto repentance.”

God showed His power through the plates by fulfilling one purpose, “even…the restoration of many thousands…to the knowledge of the truth.” Alma then prophesied that God would “still show forth His power in them unto FUTURE generations. Therefore they shall be preserved.” Alma 37:19  Thus the records were preserved and you and I are part of those future generations  Just as in the days of old, we can be more powerful missionaries by using the Book of Mormon.

We have studied the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. We are reading the Book of Mormon in the same time period that Joseph Smith translated the sacred plates.  We could say that it is a book that was shepherded by the very finger of our God. We can teach the doctrine and principles found in the sacred pages of the Book of Mormon. We can teach anyone from this book.  We can quote, read, or repeat by heart the book’s very words as a “convincing power of God” to convince both Jew and Gentile about Jesus Christ and the Restored Gospel.

Please in your email this week, share with me a new insight gleaned from your latest Book of Mormon reading. And please, use and read the Book of Mormon with those you teach. You and I are part of those future generations  written about in the Book of Mormon. I know that as we incorporate the use of the Book of Mormon in our teaching and in our studies, we can become more powerful missionaries here and more powerful husbands, wives, Mothers and Fathers, and church members. We will be able to bless the lives of our Heavenl y Father’s sons and daughters. I testify of the power and truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and with the Book of Mormon, I testify of Jesus Christ. I love you and I truly do believe in you. You are the best of the rising generation. You are the hope of Israel.

President Summerhays