LET THE WORK BEGIN!
My name is Elder Adam Moffitt from Tempe, Arizona and I have been called to serve in the Honduras San Pedro Sula Mission. I will be reporting to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah, in 5 days (WUT?!) on June 26th. Once there, I will spend 6 weeks learning the language (Spanish, not Ancient Maya unfortunately), and preparing and learning how to serve as a full time missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been looking forward to missionary service for as long as I can remember, and so I am incredibly excited (and a bit nervous) to go serve!
Interesting minor detail about where I will be spending the next two years of my life—San Pedro Sula is the world's most dangerous place/murder capitol of the world for the second year in the row, with an impressive 169 homicides per 100,000 residents last year.
Goal #1: Change that.
Goal #1.5: Don't get killed changing that.
This is my mission blog, where my family will be posting the letters that I write home each week as well as pictures, embarrassing stories from my youth, etc. All in all, it will be an awesome site to come visit (OFTEN!) and I fully expect it will go viral. In a good way. Not like Rebecca Black going viral.
Goal #2: Don't let this blog be like "Friday."
Right now I am packing my bags. Well, taking a break from packing, if you want to get technical. 1 suit, 12 white shirts, 8 pairs of slacks, enough bug repellant to drown a very large mammal in, and, of course my scriptures: Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine and Covenants, and Book of Mormon, the latter being one of the primary reasons for my mission and this entire church.
The prophet Joseph Smith said in November of 1841 that the Book of Mormon was the "keystone of our religion." I testify that it still is the keystone of our religion, that all questions posed by Broadway musicals and/or curious investigators regarding the validity of Jospeh Smith as a prophet or fraud, the authority of the living prophets and apostles leading our church today, and the correctness of the doctrine of this church, all depend on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. If it is a true book, a book written by divine command by an ancient people for the people of today, as it claims to be, then Mormonism is true. It is as simple as that. Which makes my job as a missionary quite easy.
My purpose as a missionary, as stated in the missionary handbook Preach My Gospel is "to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." The primary way in which us LDS missionaries do this is by inviting and encouraging people to read the Book of Mormon.
We do this because of the promise given near the end of the Book of Mormon, in the book of Moroni, "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. 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. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things (Moroni 10:3-5).
More than any convincing piece of evidence or proof, the most accurate way to know if the Book of Mormon is true is to read it, and to sincerely and faithfully pray to know if it is true. God is not the "author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33), and I promise that he will give you an answer. I know because I have tried it, and I have received an answer.
That spiritual witness that I have received, after reading the Book of Mormon and many times since, is the foundation for my strong personal testimony and my testimony of the truthfulness of this work is the reason that I am going to spend two years amongst cockroaches as big as my face.
I invite all who are reading this blog to read the Book of Mormon (it is super easy to get a copy either read it online or go to this website http://mormon.org/free-book-of-mormon or look for someone who looks suspiciously mormon and they would be more than happy to give you one. NO EXCUSES) and pray about its truthfulness. I invite you all to come back and read my blog often as I send back updates, stories, and lessons that I have learned while taking this leap of faith into the jungles of the Ancient Maya and the current home of the Honduran people, who I do not know and yet feel a strong love for already. I want them to know of the love that our Heavenly Father has for them, that they are his children. I want them to know that he rejoices when they are righteous and weeps when they are not. I want them to know of the peace and assurance and joy that comes from following the commandments. This gospel changes lives for the much better. I know that it has sure changed mine.
And so, in the words of the language that I will (hopefully) be speaking fluently soon,
Para siempre Dios esté con vos,
Elder Adam Moffitt
Elder Moffitt at the Mesa Arizona Temple
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