Greetings!

Hello fellow human beings!  

It has been a pretty good week, and a very busy one, too!  We have been running all over the place.  It all started with an announcement that we would be heading on Sunday evening to Frankfurt for a conference with the entire mission.  We had the great opportunity to hear from an apostle of the Lord, Elder Ballard.  He came and spoke to us about finding people to teach, improving our ability to teach, and overall being better missionaries who will be more able to hear the voice of the spirit.  It was a great conference and I felt I was able to pull some important things out of it for my own life and performance out here in the field!

Afterwards, we went from the conference to a split with the assistants, for which we actually just remained in Frankfurt.  Actually, I got two splits, because the assistants didn't have time until the evening, so I also got to work with an Elder with whom I normally would have never had the opportunity to work, Elder Robinson, so that was neat-o!  I split with Elder Chamberlain afterwards, one of the assistants, which was a lot of fun.  However, I was exhausted about the entire time after the conference, and so it was a little difficult to stay on top of everything that day, but I survived, right?

We worked our best to invite people to church last week, and ended up with a few solid commitments and accepting of them.  However, no one came!  Shucks.  We will try giving it another swing.  I don't even play baseball though.  Where is my younger brother Caleb?  I can run a mean mile though.  Well, I could.  Now that it's harder to run I feel slower than molasses in January.

I have been writing all day and life no longer feels real anymore.  However, you better buckle your seatbelts because I am going to have a spiritual thought now.   

Can I just say how much I love the Book of Mormon?  I am started to get confused as to how many times I have actually read it on my mission, but I find it really great how I have been able to study it every single day and continue to be strengthened and nourished by it.  Sometimes I ask myself if I fully comprehend the importance of reading within those pages daily.  Elder Holland has counselled us, in the event that an investigator of the church has not read between appointments, to ''be devastated!''  Do we feel devastated for ourselves if we forget to read in it for a day or two, or a week, or a month, or ever in our lives?  God has truly provided us with this book as a physical means and support through which we can strengthen our own testimony and faith in Christ and His Gospel.  We were sitting in a lesson the other day when it was brought up that it is 'questionable' for many concerning the origin of the New Testament and existence of Christ.  I don't know if any of you have ever thought about that in your lives.  My response for that is a question: Isn't it just wonderful to know, at least of the possibility, that God has revealed multiple witnesses to the divine authenticity and son-ship of Jesus Christ?  The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and restores truths lost over time from the Bible.  When we read in the Book of Mormon, we see connections made with the Bible and our testimonies become strengthened of both simultaneously.  If you feel yourselves doubting about anything, whether it be the existence of God, the reality of Christ being the Son of God, the story of Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ, the acquisition and translation of the Book of Mormon, modern leadership in the Church, or the truthfulness of anything taught as part of the restored gospel, examine the evidence that God has given us!  You don't even have to believe or know that the Book of Mormon is true before you do it, although that is great and something we should strive for.  Simply have the desire to find the truth.  If you read the Book of Mormon to prove it wrong or with a deceiving heart, you will find it much harder to find an answer.  However, God has promised that he will give us truth if we seek it with ''real intent'', as stated in Moroni 10:3-5.  I love the prophecies of Nephi concerning the Book of Mormon, as we read them in 2 Nephi 26:

16 For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto him power, that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the ground; and their speech shall whisper out of the dust.
17 For thus saith the Lord God: They shall write the things which shall be done among them, and they shall be written and sealed up in a book, and those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not have them, for they seek to destroy the things of God. 

(...)
23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.
24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.
25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.
26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they shoulddepart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.
27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hathgiven it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.
28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I continually strive for a renewed answer to this question, because I want it to become ever more clear to me, and the rest of the world, that God truly does dwell in light, and work through it, and create it.  I know it to be true, and I know the sweetness that such an answer brings to the soul!  

Thanks for reading, folks!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Wallentine