Moto-taxi to Salvacion!

This week was super awesome. For a while now we have been working with a sister who has lived, well, a super wayward life. We started teaching her and really struggled to help her because she wanted to change but didn't believe that she could. It was hard for her to read the pamphlets and scriptures we left her. She didn't have much hope. It came to the point that she told us that she didn't want us to come back because we were wasting our time and she couldn't change. I tried to listen really hard to the spirit because it was a critical moment. I asked her to hold on for just a little longer. To just go to church once more ... before she made that decision. I also asked if we could give her a priesthood blessing the next day of comfort and counsel. She agreed and after that blessing, literally everything changed. She found that part of faith that she lacked, HOPE. 

In Moroni 7 in the Book of Mormon it says:

"And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart." Moroni 7:40-43

She started to believe that she could change, and started to work to make it happen. She started to read, slowly and not understanding much at first, and writing notes in her journal to understand better. She went to church each Sunday. She prayed and bore her soul to God. She, who before almost didn't talk to us, went in a taxi and talked to the mission president to resolve a worthiness issue. She is now a completely different person. 180 degrees different. And on Saturday, she entered the waters of baptism and was born again. Cleansed of all her past mistakes. Afterward I asked her how she felt. Peace, she said. I feel peace. I didn't feel like this before, but now I am happy and I feel peace.

The doctrine of Christ is that we can lay off the natural man and become children of God. We can become new creatures in him. Anyone who says that is "just who I am" or declares that they cannot change denies the power and gospel and central message of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. 

We. Can. Change.

I hope you all see me as a changed person as well when I get back.

Elder Moffitt

The missionary moto-taxi to salvation (with my companion, Elder Lopez, from Guatemala)!

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, shares how hope encourages and inspires us 

to place our trust in the loving care of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.