Service

  Alright... so this week I have spent a lot of time raking leaves. Living in southern Utah most of my life, I've never really had to rake many leaves. Mostly you just look at palm trees and cactus' down there. So, my arms are sore. I'm a wimp... lets be honest. Yesterday, as I was raking the backyard of an older woman in our congregation I couldn't help but feel happy. Raking really isn't a big deal, and anyone can do it (even me) but as I was pulling that rake again and again, until my arms hurt, I couldn't help but think of the Savior. When He was on the earth He didn't walk around and rake leaves, but His life was all in the service of others. He sought out "the one" who needed help and then administered to them. He was a friend to those who had no one, he healed in every way He knew how. And although he's not physically here anymore, He is just as real, and still provides that ever-caring service.
  So although raking leaves isn't a huge grand amount of service, I felt close to my Savior as I did it. I know when we serve and and love others we are doing as Jesus Christ would have done. Not only that but we are showing Him and our Heavenly Father how much we love them. There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that states, "....When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17, pg. 148-9). I know our Savior loves us, and He just wants us to help each other out in this life. I know that through service we can find an amazing amount of joy.

Joseph's Smith First Vision

One of the unique things that I get to do as a missionary here in the New York Rochester mission is that I get to give tours to those visitors that come to Palmyra to visit the church sites. We call the sites here the "Cradle of the Restoration" because this is where the a latter-day prophet was called on the earth again.
 We believe that Jesus Christ established His church while He was living on the earth, and gave the power and authority, to act in His name, to His 12 apostles. Sadly, our Savior, and His apostles, were rejected. And with that rejection, doctrines were confused and God took His power and authority off the earth for a time. There was a time of "spiritual darkness", or what we call an apostasy.
  But, because God loves us, at the appropriate time, God again called a prophet on the earth. In the spring of 1820 there was a 14-year old boy, Joseph Smith, that lived in Palmyra, New York. He saw all of the religious revivalism that was going on around him and just wanted to know where truth was found. One day, as this young boy was reading in the King James Bible he came across a scriptural verse in James 1:5 that reads, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not and it shall be given him."  Joseph lacked wisdom... so he decided to do what James directed and ask God.
  So on a spring morning he went out into the woods behind his house and knelt down and began to offer up the desires of his heart to God. Then, in his own words, he said, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me... When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other- This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

 Our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, appeared to that young boy that spring morning to answer his prayers. They told Joseph that none of the churches, at that time, had the fullness of truth. They were drawing near with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. After that, at the appropriate time, Joseph Smith was called from God to be the prophet to lead and guide Jesus Christ's church today. Through him Jesus Christ's power and authority was restored again, and the fullness of truth is back.
 I know that that event took place. I know that we have a prophet who has that same power and authority on the earth today. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he did see all that he said he saw. I know that this is Jesus Christ's church and that has always brought me my greatest sense of joy and belonging.